Posts Tagged ‘relevance of military strategy to business’

Richard Martin’s Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres — 17 June 2013

Posted: June 17, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Business, Marketing and Business Development, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Strategy
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
Boots on the ground always beats fighting from a distance.

Discussion
A fundamental principle of counterinsurgency strategy is that you need ‘boots on the ground.’ You can’t influence a population and secure ground and terrain, especially populated areas, without having troops constantly on the lookout, patrolling, encountering the population, collecting information, and providing a sense of security. It’s the same in business, especially sales. Bombardier Aerospace is going into full sales mode to acquire customers for its new C Series jetliner. In order to be successful, the company has created a number of sales offices around the world, breaking with its traditional approach of selling from its main headquarters in Canada. There are now offices in Shanghai, Europe, Sydney, etc. There will also be offices in Johannesberg, South Africa and the US. The company has realized that nothing beats a physical presence when attempting to make large sales. As we say in French, “loin des yeux, loin du coeur.” You can’t expect to influence buyers from a distance. You have to be like counterinsurgency soldiers, and get boots on the ground.

Tip
Visit your customers and prospects on a regular basis. Ask them what they want and need, what their objectives are, what their concerns and limitations are. Find a way to stay connected with them on a continual basis.

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Richard Martin’s Morning Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres — 10 June 2013

Posted: June 10, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Business, Enterprise Robustness, Exploiting Change, Geopolitics, Leadership, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Never Fight Fair, Opportunity, Innovation and Adaptation, Personal Development, Strategy
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
Disable your opponent’s centre of gravity–his unique source of balance and strength–and do so quickly and with resolve when you have a window of opportunity.

Discussion
Whatever you make think of the overall political and strategic rationale, the US-led invasion of Iraq in early 2003 is a textbook case of attacking when the time is right even though you aren’t fully ‘ready.’ Coalition forces invaded Iraq with lightning speed and continually kept the Iraqi forces reeling. The offensive had so much momentum that there was barely time to assemble and process prisoners. American forces headed almost straight for Baghdad–the strategic objective–and didn’t waste time with sidefights and securing flanks. This is also exactly how the German invasion of France in 1940 played out. The Germans headed straight for the Channel coast in order to cut off the bulk of French mobile forces that had moved forward into Belgium where they expected the bulk of the German army to attack.

Tip
These historical military examples show that there are occasions when boldness and speed can more than make up for uncertainty, relative weakness, and lack of resources. They also demonstrate that you have to aim for the centre of gravity to disable it as quickly as possible. Whether you’re in sales, product development, procurement, etc., the best objective is to attack your opponent’s or your problem’s centre of gravity quickly and directly.

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Richard Martin’s Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres — 3 June 2013

Posted: June 2, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Leadership, Leadership Principles, Management, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Personal Development
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
Don’t leave your people guessing. If you want them to do something or to attain a certain outcome, tell them and give them a milestone to achieve it.

Discussion
I was in a discussion with a manager earlier this week. I asked if he had debriefed one of his sales people after the latter’s return from a trade show. The manager said yes, but that he was waiting to see what he would do with a key piece of information. He wanted to see what would happen and if he would deal with it on his own. While this might be a good idea in some circumstances, I advised him to tell him what wants and when he wants it. In other words, “say what you mean, and mean what you say.” There is already too much ambiguity and uncertainty to leave our people hanging without definite direction and expectations. We owe our people as much clarity as is reasonable in the circumstances.

Tip
What are your objectives for your team/organization? Have you communicated these clearly? Could your team and subordinates repeat them in their own words to demonstrate comprehension? Would they be able to continue with the mission if something went wrong in the original plan? Would they have the confidence and the means to do so?

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Executives Must Monitor the Progress of Strategy Implementation

Posted: June 2, 2013 in Leadership, Leadership Catalyst Newsletter, Leadership Principles, Management, Military Lessons, Personal Development, Strategy
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

One of the biggest problems I’ve noted in strategy is not formulation, but implementation. Companies develop a great strategy and then fail to communicate it or aren’t sufficiently aggressive in pursuing it. Here is a checklist to assess the implementation of your strategy:

1.    Have the intent, mission, vision and strategy been communicated throughout the company?
2.    Have clear objectives and responsibilities been assigned all up and down the organization so everyone knows what their tasks are within the new strategy?
3.    Have leaders and managers with key responsibilities conducted their mission analysis to properly determine their distinctive roles and missions within the company? For more information about mission analysis, see the following article or pages 91 to 101 of my book, Brilliant Manoeuvres: How to Use Military Wisdom to Win Business Battles.
4.    Has a full implementation plan with milestones and metrics been created at all levels of the organization? Have key executives and managers’ terms of reference and the performance review process been suitably modified to incorporate these?
5.    Is there a communication plan in place to inform all employees, suppliers, distributors, clients, and investors, and have you assessed the initial impacts on them?
6.    Are your organizational structure, processes, and systems well aligned with the new strategy and goals? What measures and plans do you have to assess and modify these as you implement the strategy?
7.    Do all of your people, especially executives and managers, have the requisite skills to do the planning and operations to execute on this strategy? Do you have the intention to provide this?
8.    Do you have a regular review process in place with weekly/bi-weekly (if needed), monthly, quarterly meetings?
9.    Have you conducted a quarterly after action review to assess progress and, more important, to identify lessons learned as you make the planned changes?
10.    What are you and your leadership team doing to adjust the strategic execution as you implement the strategy?
11.    How are your customers reacting to the changes? Are they enthusiastic, blasé, engaged and willing to help, hindering?
12.    How is your entire company and management team reacting? Are they fully engaged and onside, or are there areas where they don’t want to cooperate or get on board?
13.    Are there key executives or managers who need specific coaching to help them raise their performance in line with their goals and missions?
14.    Have you estimated and assessed your competitors’ reactions? Have you considered how you can shape the competitive landscape to your advantage?
15.    What plans do you have in place to look at the next 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months and beyond?

© Alcera Consulting Inc. 2013. We encourage the sharing of this information and forwarding of this email with attribution. All other rights reserved.

Richard Martin’s Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres — 27 May 2013

Posted: May 27, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Business, Leadership, Leadership Principles, Management, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Personal Development, Small Business, Strategy
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
Act on what you can influence and control at this time.

Discussion
“If only I had complete control of the situation I could do something to improve it.” Unfortunately no one, not even the most powerful CEO, can ever have complete control of a business situation. It’s critical that managers and executives at all levels of a company identify what they control and what they don’t. They must resolve to act on those things they control while influencing those they don’t. I’m working with a company and this is exactly what I’ve told one of the managers who is responsible for one of its divisions. He’s been recommending a de facto merger with another division for over a year, in the interests of increasing efficiency and effectiveness and improving performance. However, it’s taking too long in his eyes. I asked him to take a serious look at what can be done to integrate operations and sales with the other division without changing the legal or organizational structure of either. In other words, what positive actions can he take now to improve the situation based on what he and his colleague in the other division can control? They’ve decided on a common plan and will start implementing it as soon as possible. They don’t have to wait for permission; they are fully capable of making these improvements now. It may not be the ultimate solution, but it’s the best one at this time.

Tip
Time is the ultimate resource. Brute speed can compensate for time and resource limitations. It can also provide a surprise factor that’s crucial to business success.

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Richard Martin’s Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres — 20 May 2013

Posted: May 20, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Business, Leadership, Leadership Principles, Management, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Personal Development
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
A key role for every leader is mentoring and coaching his or her subordinates so they develop to their full potential.

Discussion
One of my clients is a long-time entrepreneur. He knows how to sell and promote his business; he’s not afraid to experiment and try new things; he’s approachable and helpful; and he provides inspiration and leadership to everyone in his company. However, I’ve been getting him to develop his own leadership capabilities so he recognizes that he has a major role in developing the leadership and managerial capabilities of his direct reports. For instance, we recently discussed how to work on developing better industry understanding in a relatively new executive. My client brought in this individual because of his extensive management experience in larger companies. However, he needs to develop certain other skills and knowledge so that he can be the most effective leader possible within the organization. It’s not enough to assume that newly hired employees already know everything they need to function within the company. They too must be developed through coaching and mentoring. This can be done with outside coaches, but executives, managers, and supervisors must also play a critical part in this process.

Tip
Do you know every one of your team members by name? Do you know their backgrounds? Where they are from, their goals and aspirations, their particular strengths and limitations? If you can’t answer these most basic questions about your people then you don’t really know them well enough to develop them to their full potential.

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Strategy Implementation Checklist

Posted: May 17, 2013 in Business, Leadership, Leadership Principles, Management, Military Lessons, Personal Development, Strategy
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

The biggest problem I’ve noted with strategy is not formulation, but implementation. Companies develop a great strategy and then fail to communicate it or aren’t sufficiently aggressive in pursuing it. Here is a checklist of questions you can ask to assess the implementation aspect of your strategy.

  1. Have the intent, mission, vision and strategy been communicated throughout the company?
  2. Have clear objectives and responsibilities been assigned all up and down the organization so everyone knows what their tasks are within the new strategy?
  3. Have leaders and managers with key responsibilities conducted their mission analysis to properly determine their distinctive roles and missions within the company?
  4. Has a full implementation plan with milestones and metrics been created at all levels of the organization? Have key execs and managers’ terms of reference or performance review process been suitably modified to incorporate these?
  5. Is there a customer communication plan in place and have you assessed the initial impacts on them?
  6. Are your organizational structure, processes, and systems well aligned with the new strategy and goals? What measures and plans do you have to assess and modify these as you implement the strategy?
  7. Do all of your people, especially execs and managers, have the requisite skills to do the planning and operations to execute on this strategy? Do you have plans to provide this?
  8. Do you have a regular review process in place with weekly/bi-weekly (if needed), monthly, quarterly meetings?
  9. Have you conducted a quarterly after action review to assess progress and, more important, to identify lessons learned as you make the planned changes?
  10. Is your initial assessment that the strategic changes you’ve undertaken are working? What are you and your senior leadership team doing to adjust and assess as you implement?
  11. How are your customers reacting to the changes? Are they enthusiastic, blasé, engaged and willing to help, hindering?
  12. How is your entire company and management team reacting? Are they fully engaged and onside, or are there areas where they don’t want to cooperate or get on board?
  13. Are there key execs or managers who need specific coaching to help them raise their performance in line with their goals and missions?
  14. Have you looked at your competitors’ reactions? Have you considered how you can shape the competitive landscape to your advantage?
  15. What plans do you have in place to look at the next 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and beyond?

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes permitted with full and proper attribution.

Richard Martin’s Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres – 13 May 2013

Posted: May 13, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Business, Management, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Opportunity, Innovation and Adaptation, Small Business, Strategy
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
Intelligence is everyone’s business.

Discussion
Often, the best intelligence comes from ‘troops in contact’ with the enemy. They can see what’s happening and can provide ‘ground truth’ to corroborate or validate the opinions and assessments made through the intelligence estimation process. The same applies in business. All companies, even small ones, have sales people, customer service agents, and field service reps out in the marketplace. They can see things and hear things that might be highly significant from a competitive standpoint. They need to know and understand the company’s basic strategy, vision, mission and goals, as well as those of their own unit or division. Managers and supervisors must also brief them and debrief them on a regular basis to ensure that they are aware of the latest developments and goals, and so they can bring back critical competitive intelligence.

Tip
Managers and employees have to be on the lookout for opportunities and threats. They are the eyes and ears of the entire company, not just their own little part of it.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Richard Martin’s Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres — 6 May 2013

Posted: May 6, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Business, Contingency Planning, Enterprise Robustness, Leadership, Management, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Personal Development
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
Never assume you’re completely right about your enemy (or competitors)… nor completely wrong either.

Discussion
Warren Buffett, CEO and principal shareowner of Berkshire Hathaway just presided over his company’s annual meeting of shareholders. According to this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Buffett took the outstanding step of inviting a well-known investor who’s selling Berkshire’s stock short. Buffett’s point from this, apart from the obvious newsworthiness, is that he likes to seek contrary opinions. His main message according to the WSJ? Doubt yourself. Of course he doesn’t mean to lack faith in one’s means. Rather, he says to question your own certainties. This is a highly developed approach to management and leadership. Whether in war or business, the biggest mistakes come from irrational belief in the correctness of one’s progostications. It takes a big person to consider contrary opinions and views. Buffett’s success as an investor shows that this is a very prudent and wise thing to do.

Questions
What competitive threats are you facing? What capabilities do your competitors have? Can you estimate their intentions? Do you have advisors who systematically question your assumptions and provide a contrary point of view?

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Richard Martin’s Morning Brilliant Manoeuvre — 29 April 2013

Posted: April 29, 2013 in Brilliant Manoeuvres, Business, Enterprise Robustness, Leadership, Leadership Principles, Management, Military Lessons, Monday Morning Brilliant Manoeuvres, Personal Development
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Brilliant Manoeuvre
Morale is critical, but we must also acknowledge and understand all of the components that go into forging an effective organization.

Discussion
The subject of morale often comes up in my work with clients. Unfortunately, there is a very superficial understanding of the concept. As I’ve said before, morale is the willingness to fight and persevere, to make sacrifices to achieve victory or one’s corporate aims. People often confuse morale with other the other main components of organizational dynamics, such as mood, cohesion, and unity of purpose. They all go together, but are all different in focus and purpose. When we add the effects of leadership, we can get a much fuller picture of how to build an effective organization that can perform beyond expectations.

Questions
You can assess the morale in your organization through the following questions:

  • Do people have hope of better days or constant improvement? Are they optimistic or pessimistic?
  • Are your people making plans with themselves in the picture, or are they trying to abandon ship?
  • Do they waste a lot of time or do they focus on ways to continually improve the organization and its performance?

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Older Entries