According to James P. Carse, you have 2 kind of games. Finite Games and Infinite Games. In Finite Games you know your opponent, you have fixed set of rule, and you have an agreed upon objective. Examples are football and tennis. In Infinite Games you don't know all the opponents, the rules can change over time and the objective is to stay in the game. Examples are not so easy to find, but ... can you win at friendship or marrage? No. Can you win at Business?

Do you know all the players at business? Can you give me ruleset on how to play the game? And what is the objective? In other words, when or how do we declare a winner at business? We can't. So that makes business an Infinite Game.

Unfortunately, many companies play the game as if it is a Finite Game. They want to beat their competition, be number one, ... And even if they succeed, the game is still on. It never stops. So why bother being the best or beating your competition? Why not try to stay in the game longer than your competition?

And the only way to do that is to invest in the future by putting people first, setting long term goals. For this you need good leadership, because people are more valuable than profits, and clients are more valuable than stakeholders.