It has often been said that the principles of war share a common golden thread with the principles of business. Business Strategy is a term that is often wheeled out by various thought leaders to describe the latest trend or in vogue business idea. The truth is, these principles stand the test of time. There is a theory that a small proportion of businesses will be dominating your industry – why is that? They have just learned to use these principles to their best advantage. In military parlance they have won the initial firefight and are about to win the war. Well, everybody can do the same.
Carl von Clausewitz, the highly regarded strategist, believed that business and war shared these values, these principles were so intertwined they both enjoyed the same clash of interests. His insights are so applicable to business now, they are used as pillars for those wanting to dominate globally in the modern world. These principles, if understood and applied correctly, can help ANY business. Here are just a few to get you started:
THE PRINCIPLE OF OBJECTIVE
I cannot stress how important it is to clearly define and understand your objective. It sounds obvious, but it is so often overlooked by small business owners. Be certain on what you want to accomplish, and how you plan to achieve it. Study after study proves that when everybody in the business knows the objective, understands how its going to be achieved and knows their place within that, the business is more profitable by a significant margin and are actually more likely to achieve their goals. Be specific. The more you can nail this down, the easier it is to understand and communicate to the rest of the team.
THE PRINCIPLE OF MASS
In war, you always concentrate your power at the right place and at the right time. There are many ways you can interpret this in business. For me, its about knowing who your ideal customer is and concentrating your marketing on them. Knowing what you stand for and throwing all of your effort behind it. If you try the scatter gun approach, you’ll end up talking to just anybody. And who knows anybody? I don’t, do you? Concentrate your effort behind what is most profitable to you, understand who your most profitable customers are, what your most profitable products are and how you can identify those in desperate need of your product or service.
THE PRINCIPLE OF MANEUVER
A wise man once told me that you have to move forward just to stand still. And if you think about it, it’s true. Businesses need to innovate and continue to grow, just to remain in business. Stagnation is just not an option anymore. As Jeff Bezos puts it, ‘It’s always Day 1’. That means remaining agile enough to continually stay ahead of the competition. Can you do it faster, cheaper, better, simpler? How can you serve customers better? What are the competition doing and can we improve upon it? This principle allows speed, surprise and economy of effort. It is the very definition of initiative and results in long term sustainable growth.
These are just a few principles, but applied correctly will have a massive impact on your business. If you would like to learn about how more Principle of War could help your business, send me a message and we can organise a call.
