Mark Chussil is the founder of Advanced Competitive Strategies, Inc. He is an expert in qualitative and quantitative business war games, custom strategy simulators, executive education and management development programs. Highly rated speaker, published books and dozens of articles on business and competitive strategy.

In this episode, Mark shares how simulating pricing strategies before actually implementing them can do away with costly outcomes thereby improving one's bottom line. 

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Discover the essence of the Top Pricer Tournament
• Enhance your pricing strategy by utilizing simulation techniques to mitigate potential risks and minimize losses
• Find out fascinating insights and findings from the 'Top Pricer Tournament' and learn what to expect when participating in this exciting event

"If we choose a good strategy that turns out to be bad, what we have actually encountered is a false positive. And what we need to do a whole lot better in business is to be able to distinguish the false positives from the true positives. And that's what these simulations are about."

- Mark Chussil

Topics Covered:

02:59 - Differentiating decision rules versus decisions

05:31 - Mark Chussil agreeing to what Mark Stiving says in reference to Axelrod's 'tit for tat' and 'tit for tat with forgiveness'

07:16 - Drawing inspiration from Axelrod's work, Mark describes his own contribution

09:51 - Mark Chussil's perspective on Mark Stiving's assertion that companies prioritizing profit outperform those aiming for market share

11:15 - Findings about 'tit for tat' on why it doesn't work

12:17 - What is 'Top Pricer Tournament' and how it relates to or differ from 'Prisoner's Dilemma'

16:07 - Surprising findings from his own 'Top Pricer Tournament'

21:37 - Things to expect when you join Top Pricer Tournament

24:58 - Mark's best pricing advice

27:12 - Relating strategy to a decision

Key Takeaways:

"Strategy is a bet." - Mark Chussil

"In the Top Pricer Tournaments, and in life in general, we have situations where we can make great decisions, but somebody else has made a better decision or somebody else has come up with something that we didn't think about." - Mark Chussil

"I have seen people come up with strategies that I know I never would have thought of. And there's also a few that are in the Top Pricer Tournament that no human has selected yet, and that would outperform any of the ones that humans have selected so far." - Mark Chussil

People /Resources Mentioned:

• The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod: https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Robert-Axelrod/dp/0465005640

Connect with Mark Chussil:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markchussil/
• Email: mchussil@competing.com

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com