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Even at the best
companies things occasionally go wrong. You've messed
up. Taken your eyes off the ball. And of course the
competition is right there to exploit your faltering.
That's the other CEO/General's job. Exploit your weakness.
If he or she's really good or has good spies (the legal
kind--we'll cover them briefly below and in detail some
other time) they may know you're in trouble even before
you do. That's a tough opponent for sure. The clock's
ticking even louder than normal. |
So you're losing customers, maybe not many yet, but there's talk of a better way than yours out there. You don't have much time and you are behind the development curve. Things are grim. What do you do? After kicking Development's rear you can do what IBM did when computer architect Gene Amdahl jumped ship in September of 1970 to start Amdahl. You generate "FUD". In fact victim Gene came up with the term. It stands for the "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" IBM salespeople would plant in the minds of prospective Amdahl customers. IBM knew Amdahl was brilliant and his starting another mainframe company could easily cause IBM serious problems. So they let the word out, via back-channel, that Amdahl's computers were somehow risky. It worked. Once again IBM made IBM the "safe" choice. "Why take a chance? Why change? Stick with us, we'll take care of you. " The fact was Gene's computers were cheaper and faster but IBM successfully created a dark, foreboding cloud over them. This slowed Amdahl down and provided protection to IBM. Microsoft has made an art form out of FUD (the term is frequently used in the tech arena) in their battles to fight the very real threats of Linux and Open Source. In fact Microsoft even discusses its value in leaked internal memos as a tool in the Linux and Open Source wars. Finally, in the beginning many people believed, and some still do, that Larry Ellison's move to buy PeopleSoft was just elaborate FUD. The idea was that if PeopleSoft became a part of Oracle, PeopleSoft software would wither. The object, of course, was to inhibit the purchase of PeopleSoft products (another moral is to 'never mess with Larry', but that's another story). And it worked. The point is it doesn't take much 'Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt' to freeze the use of a corporate checkbook, especially for a "risky" resource. And that's the object here. FUD is particularly useful for the large company battling a smaller one, because to established customers the "new small guy" generally feels a bit risky anyway. The majority of the readers of this newsletter are in positions of importance in large companies, many of them multinationals. As we all know big companies are seldom as nimble as small ones. This can give the small company a tactical advantage. They can occasionally get a technically superior product or service out quicker than you can. Plus, as we've detailed previously, a smart small company can show up where you don't expect them--where you are somehow weak--and have no, or insufficient, in-place defenses against them. This allows the small guy to gain a foothold in your territory (what Sun Tzu called "Ground"). It's David taking a swipe at Goliath. Again. So, what do you do? Your product (software, drug, widget) is late. The 'why' is secondary even though you can dial that into more FUD ("Our new drug is still 6 months out but it'll be a revolution. Why start your patients on something new only to have to change them later?"). What you really need to do, RIGHT NOW, is slow down the competition before they get share because it's too expensive getting it back, and sometimes you can't. Especially if what they are selling really is better--hey, it happens. Now is a time that FUD can be very useful. And yes, we could discuss the ethicalness of FUD till the next shareholder's meeting but if we ask them don't we know what the answer is going to be? And they are the owners. They want the maximum return possible and it's our job to provide them with it to the maximum degree that is legal. Just don't go over the edge. Happily you don't really have to. You don't even need to lie here to win, folks. All you have to do is create any or all of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. And there are lots of ways to do that. One of the simplest is by asking the right question. Find out what the David company fears most. To find out, cruise the online chat areas (It's u-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e what you can turn up via loquacious employees hiding behind Yahoo alias' at 3 AM. We frequently monitor this for clients and it's scary what employees freely divulge). Read a couple of levels below the line in their press releases. Talk with their suppliers, new customers, old employees. And finally just put yourself in their shoes--what would you be afraid of? You're in the same business. You probably know what he or she sweats the target customers might find out. That's what you toss into the spin machine, plant the
seeds to slightly disorient and leave the rest to the
imagination of the David's potential new customers (your
existing and target ones).
Never forget that refuting takes a lot more
resources than asserting . Ask any
recent Presidential campaigner. --CorpWar: Compete like you mean it!-- To nominate someone to the readership, go here. Send general comments or questions
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