Maneuver strategy has been used by the military since King Leonidas and Genghis Khan, yet businesses all too often neglect it.
In their new book, “OUTMANEUVER: OutThink, Don’t OutSpend” strategy and innovation consulting experts Jeffrey Phillips and Alex Verjovsky examine how maneuver strategies, based on speed, agility, insight and innovation win the most in any market at the least possible cost, for companies of any size, in any industry.
Unlike attrition, maneuver never seeks to attack an incumbent in head-to-head competition. Instead maneuver uses reconnaissance and insights to identify weaknesses and uses three strategies to attack those vulnerabilities:
- Preemption: taking a valuable, unoccupied space before competitors are aware the space exists.
- Dislocation: attacking an incumbent in a way that forces the opponent to fight with less than its full capabilities and on the attacker’s terms, causing the opponent to vacate part or all of a valuable position.
- Disruption: upsetting an opponent’s detailed scheduling or planning, distraction an opponent from efficient execution, delaying a timely launch, creating confusion or havoc in an opponent’s capabilities.
OUTMANEUVER details this overlooked methodology; its focus on speed, agility, and innovation is the right strategy for the new emerging markets and companies of any size.
To identify gaps or weaknesses in intangible factors, evaluate four categories:
- Brand
- Human capital
- Intellectual property
- Culture
Once you’ve completed your analysis across the four factors, you must also ask several important questions before proceeding. These questions ensure that you rank and prioritize the competitor’s vulnerabilities effectively, ensuring you highlight the weaknesses where you have the best opportunity to win.
Once the selection of a maneuver strategy is complete, you can move on to the selection of appropriate tactics, choosing from positional, temporal, functional, psychological and informational tactics.
Source: OutManeuver: OutThink-Don't OutSpend
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