Game Theory

Atanu Dey, my ex-boss, mentor and a dear friend introduced me to the concept of Game theory and its importance in everyday life and business. He once told me that "if you understand the concepts in Game Theory you will start seeing them everywhere in life".

I did try to understand Game Theory but it was of no success. (Many of you may have heard of John Nash, who received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his work on non-cooperative games and the Nash Equilibrium).

A good introduction to the subject is from Econ Lib by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff who define Game Theory "as the science of strategy".

A large part of the MBA courses talk about strategy. About how finance, marketing, technology, innovation and other aspects of business relate to strategy. Sadly my University and many others do not have a basic course on Game theory.

I have found a course in the Economics dept. of the University of Adelaide which has a course without the mathematics called "Strategic Thinking for Decision Making" which is an introduction to managers about the uses of game theory in business.

I will know more about this tool and field next year once I take the course however, I would suggest every student to do a basic course to better able to start using this tool in the future.

Incidently, this years Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to two people who spent their life understand co-operation and conflict from a game theoritic point of view.