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The Chinese say a great
General [CEO] is like water: adaptable and able to respond
rapidly to the evolving environment. |
Planning & Fluidity
Consistent readers of
this newsletter know that we are uncompromising when it comes to
achieving sustainable increases in shareholder value. That means
helping clients and readers come up with a good objective and
executing it without spending any more time or money than you have
to. Do your homework. Understand the field and the players. Then
get to work.
This is what we’re
seeing on television. Set the politics and motives aside (and for
some, including us, this is difficult). Iraq is an objective that
a leader has decided needs to be taken. It’s useful to think of
your own example here--e.g., what do you want, that your
competition doesn’t want you to have. Coke vs. Pepsi,
Nike vs. Reebok, Ford vs. GM. It’s all about real estate
in one form or another. If you read this newsletter
chances are somebody wants your ground, and you want
somebody else’s. Like it or not that's just the battlefield called
business.
About Iraq and the
news. Some very smart people in the DOD planned for a long time
exactly how to achieve the required “objective” (e.g. in your case
it might be market share, etc.). In doing so they thoroughly
studied the competition (Iraq and of course Freak Show himself) so
that every potential Iraqi (competitor) action was thought out in
advance and a viable reaction was planned and engineered for.
Never ever forget what great Generals have known for thousands of
years: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while
defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” This is
what we’re watching on television and this is what your employees
and shareholders should be saying about you as a business
leader—“The CEO has a plan, I don’t need to know the details, I
trust him with my job and my money.” And never let them be wrong.
So, as you watch the
coverage about Iraq think in terms of your own company, and what
it is you want to achieve relative to your competition. Think
about moving fast, but at the same time think about being like
water—be adaptable. If an opportunity presents itself earlier than
you expect. That’s ok because be you have already planned for that
to.
Think about it...
