If these dimensions seem familiar to most business executives, so too will the four human and environmental factors that, according to Warfighting, shape military conflict. At the analytical level, it challenges the ability of commanders to assess complex battlefield situations, make effective decisions, and formulate tactically superior plans to carry out those decisions. At the psychological level, it involves intangibles such as morale, leadership, and courage. On the physical level, it is a test of firepower, weapons technology, troop strength, and logistics. Warfare, in general, takes place on multiple levels. This is of particular interest in today’s business environment, when many companies are hesitant to over-commit their resources. Furthermore, the approach-with its focus not on overpowering a rival but on outflanking him, targeting his weaknesses, and rendering him unable to analyze the situation-can help a company to achieve a decisive advantage with a minimal deployment of resources. That said, companies do compete aggressively even viciously-for strategic advantage in a chaotic arena that is increasingly similar to the modern theater of war.Ĭonsequently, while the battle metaphor in some settings may seem facile or ill considered, we believe concept of maneuver warfare is directly relevant to business strategy, precisely because it has been developed address conditions that in many ways mirror those faced by modern executives. The marketplace is not, after all, a battlefield, if only because lives aren’t at stake. Maneuver warfare doesn’t aim to avoid or resist the uncertainty and disorder that inevitably shape armed conflict it embraces them as keys to vanquishing the foe.ĭespite the oft-cited analogy between warfare and business, military principles clearly can’t be applied wholesale in a business environment. Moreover, maneuver warfare doesn’t aim to avoid or resist the uncertainty and disorder that inevitably shape armed conflict it embraces them as keys to vanquishing the foe. For example, instead of attacking enemy defense positions, maneuver warfare practitioners bypass those positions, capture the enemy’s command-and-control center in the rear, and cut off supply lines. Maneuver warfare represents-in the words of the United States Marine Corps doctrinal manual, Warfighting-“a state of mind bent on shattering the enemy morally and physically by paralyzing and confounding him, by avoiding his strength, by quickly and aggressively ploiting his vulnerabilities, and by striking him in a way that will hurt him most.” Its ultimate aim is not to destroy the adversary’s forces but to render them unable to fight as an effective, coordinated whole. Although designed for the battlefield, the approach offers a novel and useful way to think about business strategy, allowing executives to capitalize on-rather than succumb to-the formidable challenges they now face. Recognized as a viable combat philosophy for the past 65 years, maneuver warfare risen to prominence in the past decade because it is so well suited to today’s combat environment. This has led to the growing focus on an approach to armed conflict called maneuver warfare. Military strategy, like business strategy, has had to evolve in response to the changing environment. While military commanders have long faced such challenges on the battlefield, meeting them has be come even more difficult in today’s world of electronic weaponry, blurred battle lines, and amorphous enemies. So has warfare.Įvery executive knows firsthand the daunting challenges of the twenty-first-century business environment: rapid and disruptive change, fleeting opportunities, incomplete information, an overall sense of uncertainty and disorder. Business has gone through a dramatic transformation in recent years.
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