Red Team

National-security expert Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, explains that many executives can’t evaluate their own strategies and often remain blind to their competitors’ perspectives. To solve this problem, he advocates using – in military parlance – a “red team.” This panel of “devil’s advocates” tries to “think like the enemy” as it probes for weaknesses in strategy, performance and defenses. Zenko shows red teams in action during the hunt for Osama bin Laden, provides a tour of the US Army’s University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies – nicknamed “Red Team University” – and offers advice on adapting the red-team approach to evaluating your business strategies. Even though the writing is sometimes dry, Zenko’s tales of computer hacking, counterterrorism operations and “war games” are compelling. getAbstract recommends his clear descriptions and wise suggestions to senior executives, strategists, marketing managers, information-technology specialists and security professionals.