Book Summary Preview : Strategy Moves

The Big Idea

This book lays down 14 strategies for competitive advantage - 6 attacks and 8 defenses, the success of which depends on mastering the rules of timing (when to perform each type of strategy); method (how to implement it); and alliances (whether to do it alone or in alliance).

Chapter 1 - You can win with ten or lose with a hundred: two examples from the field of war

On January 22, 1879, 5,000 British forces stationed at Isandlwana were massacred by 24,000 Zulu army warriors. In the afternoon of the same day in Rorke’s drift, 100 British army men had defeated 4,000 Zulu warriors.

The British forces were established at a camp at Natal, and an officer, Major Dartwell, left the camp and hunted Zulus. Along the way he encountered a Zulu army of 1,000.  The British army sent the company of Chelmsford to help the forces engaged in the on-going battle, but little did they know that the 1,000-man Zulu army was just a pawn of the Zulu to divert their attention away from their real target, Isandlwana.

While the concentration of the British was the on-going battle, The Zulu attacked the British camp and massacred everything in it.

 Chapter 2 - The reason for victory and defeat - and the lessons for business

What happened at Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift was to be expected.

The factors that led to the triumph of the Zulus over the British can be summarized in four variables:

• Knowledge of the enemy
• Focus
• Choice of terrain
• Surprise

Knowledge of the enemy’s characteristics and plans
War guru Zun Tsu, states: Know the enemy and know yourself and you do not have to fear a hundred battles.

 Focus
In every endeavor, whether in business and war, there must be focus. Without it, a company or army will be easily dissuaded and lose sight of their primary objective.

Take the case of IBM. Originally IBM manufactured typewriters and supercomputers. However, as time went by it expanded its business ventures and started producing mainframes and mini-computers, even providing information processing and ancillary business, losing its focus and wasting billions and billions of dollars for nothing.

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