IT LOOKS LIKE WAR

Well we’ve already declared war on sometimes and have declared our allegiance to alltimes… so while we’re pumped up with testosterone and adrenalin, let’s consider the nine principles of war from the American Army Field Manual.

Now I know that all good business books refer to Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’ - one of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. But I didn’t want to go for the obvious, even though ‘Art of War’ is a scientific approach and is one of the first and one of the most successful works on strategy (a huge influence on Eastern and Western military thinking as well as business tactics).

What Sun Tzu recognised was the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions (the physical environment) and the subjective opinions (people).

In the American Army Field Manual, we see that strategy is not planning in the sense of working through a to-do list; instead it requires quickly responding appropriately to changing conditions.

According to a search on Google, there are over 700,000 documents relating to ‘Oracle’, ‘Microsoft’ and ‘War’. It’s tricky finding articles or references where two companies do not see themselves battling over territory or sectors – and how many times are we told of a price war when it comes to retailers, petrol, consumer goods, etc?

In the book ‘Rising Sun’ by Michael Crichton, we are told that the Japanese feel that ‘business is war’.

So… get the camouflage jacket out, spit on those boots, and look at the nine principles for air-land battle.

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NINE PRINCIPLES

One: Objective – direct every military operation towards a clearly-defined, decisive and attainable objective.

Two: Offensive – seize, retain and exploit the initiative.

Three: Mass – concentrate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts.

Four: Economy of Force – allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts.

Five: Manoeuvre – place the enemy in a position of disadvantage through flexible application of combat power. Be dynamic, innovative and flexible (adapt, improvise and overcome).

Six: Unity of Command – for every objective, ensure unity of command under one responsible commander.

Seven: Security – never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage.

Eight: Surprise – strike at a time or place, or in a manner, for which the enemy is unprepared.

Nine: Simplicity – prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding.

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APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES

One: Objective – this easily applies to what we want to do. Know what you want – know where you’re going. Corporate Strategy feeds into Operational Strategy which helps determine goals. Goals can be measured and managed.

Two: Offensive – actively seek out opportunities – maintain a constant awareness of customer need and deliver (over-deliver and you block the competition).

Three: Mass – know your proper and relevant priorities; focus time and money on the primary objectives without neglecting the smaller details and lower priorities. How many times have you engaged in non-essential activity (usually to stall doing a difficult task)?

Four: Economy of Force – intelligent deployment – if you have a team / employees working with you, determine the most efficient way to use their skills – know who to assign to what.

Five: Manoeuvre – be dynamic, innovative and flexible (adapt, improvise and overcome). Take the time to communicate company objectives and to discover the strengths and goals of your team – and use the team to glean information from the market, suppliers, competition, and customers. And then use it. Whatever your enemy is weak at... exploit it

Six: Unity of Command – know exactly who should be in a position of leadership for each objective and communicate your collective goals throughout the company. The management consultancy word of the day for this is ‘alignment’. Basically, if management disagrees internally, don’t let it show.

Seven: Security – if you do not WOW your customer, someone else will. If you do not keep a close eye on the market, your customer’s wants / needs and dissatisfactions, then prepare to be surprised when a competitor takes the business.

Eight: Surprise – innovate, excel, amaze. Your competition may be complacent about their customers – so surprise them. Ambush them!

Nine: Simplicity – by aligning employee goals to company goals, they will be engaged and ready to act. You must communicate clearly and constantly the mission, values, and objectives of your company. Edward De Bono, in his book, “Simplicity” talks of making the back-end of your business as complex as is necessary to make the front-end (where the customer buys) as simple as possible. Going a stage further: don’t be frightened to have a simple back-end AND front-end.

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