Month: May 2012

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Crossing the rubicon

“Crossing the Rubicon” is a metaphor for deliberately proceeding past a point of no return. The phrase originates with Julius Caesar’s seizure of power in the Roman Republic in 49 BC. Roman generals were strictly forbidden to bring their troops into the home territory of the Republic in Italy. On 10 January, Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River, crossing from the province of Gaul into Italy. After this, if he did not triumph, he would be executed. Therefore the term “the Rubicon” is used as a synonym to the “point of no return”.

Wikipedia
There are certain steps have to be taken at right time and right place. Julius Caesar took an initiative even if he had less forces and it did pay off. If you hesisate your position may become more risky. So crossing the Rubicon means that there is no turning back from your decision. But quick decisions saves time. Time is once again our most valuable element in decision making. As our heroic leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk suggests that confront the enemy as soon as possible and ahead without looking at the size of your force. By doing that marching enemy immediately be stopped because they will hesisate and try to understand your strenght. By doing that you save time for reinforcements to come to support you and aşso ypu gather information about the enemy marching on to you. You shall be death but the important thing is the time that you have gained for reinforcements. One brave step seemed small but great advantages gained by this act.
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no win situations

While few of us live lives as exciting or dangerous as that of Captain Kirk, in our business and personal lives we all face no-win situations. These could include bosses who are impossible to work for, companies that are in a hopeless downward spiral, or jobs that are a terrible fit. The question that confronts us then becomes, “what course to take?”
There are three broad options: Retreat, wait, or advance.
Retreat
Many of us in the business world, trained as we are to always be driving hard, are reluctant to withdraw from a fight. However, as wise general Sun Tzu once said, “Therefore, the art of employing troops is that when the enemy occupies high ground, do not confront him; with his back resting on hills, do not oppose him.” I was in a job once in which my boss and I didn’t see eye-to-eye. The situation got increasingly negative and it became clear that it would not improve. And since I could read an org chart, I knew if there would be a winner, it wouldn’t be me. So I chose to “retreat” by moving to a different position with a better management team, one that could see and use the value of my skills as well as being on the same page as me in terms of work style and beliefs. To successfully retreat, one must accept that some situations are irredeemable and it’s a better use of your time and energy to move on to bigger and better things.
Wait
Another option, again difficult for those of us who are used to always working hard to make progress, is to wait for conditions to change for the better. Take the situation above; another option I could have opted for was to wait and see if the boss would move on to other things. It can also work in other situations, such as a business experiencing tough times, by waiting to see if things turn around. This can often be a viable approach, but one must be careful. By not taking a active approach (retreat or advance), you are at the mercy of events. You must perform due diligence to test the chances of things working out for the better. It’s also critical that you have a backup plan in case your delaying strategy fails.
Attempt to Advance
If, like Captain Kirk, you refuse to accept losing a no-win situation, you can put it all on the line to try and achieve victory. But, by definition, a no-win situation will take a tremendous amount of blood, sweat, and tears to conquer. You really need to think through, even if you do win, will it be worth the cost? And don’t forget, there’s a high probability you may lose, which could be devastating. Although Kirk was able to reprogram the Kobayashi Maru scenario so he would win, as a result he was put on academic suspension and forced to face a trial for his actions. It was only by chance that he saved his career; his trial was put off by an attack on a Federation planet, which started a war in which Kirk redeemed himself. Fortune may not favor you so well.
So these are your options. Consider the odds, time, effort and potential payoff, then choose what you think will work best for you. By doing so intelligently, the better are the chances are you will “live long and prosper.”

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Friction in war -1

Everything is very simple in War, but the simplest thing is difficult.

These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen War, Suppose now a traveller, who towards evening expects to accomplish the two stages at the end of his day’s journey, four or five leagues, with post-horses, on the high road—it is nothing. He arrives now at the last station but one, finds no horses, or very bad ones; then a hilly country, bad roads; it is a dark night, and he is glad when, after a great deal of trouble, he reaches the next station, and finds there some miserable accommodation. So in War, through the influence of an infinity of petty circumstances, which cannot properly be described on paper, things disappoint us, and we fall short of the mark. A powerful iron will overcomes this friction; it crushes the obstacles, but certainly the machine along with them. We shall often meet with this result. Like an obelisk towards which the principal streets of a town converge, the strong will of a proud spirit stands prominent and commanding in the middle of the Art of War.

Friction is the only conception which in a general way corresponds to that which distinguishes real War from War on paper. The military machine, the Army and all belonging to it, is in fact simple, and appears on this account easy to manage. But let us reflect that no part of it is in one piece, that it is composed entirely of individuals, each of which keeps up its own friction in all directions. Theoretically all sounds very well: the commander of a battalion is responsible for the execution of the order given; and as the battalion by its discipline is glued together into one piece, and the chief must be a man of acknowledged zeal, the beam turns on an iron pin with little friction. But it is not so in reality, and all that is exaggerated and false in such a conception manifests itself at once in War. The battalion always remains composed of a number of men, of whom, if chance so wills, the most insignificant is able to occasion delay and even irregularity. The danger which War brings with it, the bodily exertions which it requires, augment this evil so much that they may be regarded as the greatest causes of it.

General Carl von Clausewitz; CHAPTER VII. FRICTION IN WAR

It is certain that calculating every possibility is impossible, we have to guess what might happen next because we are always lack of time. In this case we are looking to occasions from time perspective.Time can not be changed or stopped. We have no chance of travel back in time and fix our mistakes and continue. We must use our intelligence that consists of information, data, gossip even whispers. All that data must be gathered and processed in a way that real picture of the real occasion must be drawned. If we are able to process our data correctly, we will increase our possibilities of guessing right. This data gathered must be processed and filtered from our experiences. Experience is the most valuable asset that shortens our consuming time for solution. We have to think multi-dimensional, calculate all possible possibilities in a short period of time. Quick decisions might be given wrong but better than not act at all.
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creativity

Strategic Creativity
By Mark McNeilly

Creativity is not something that belongs only to a few people who are born with it. John Kao, a well-known author of books on creativity (such as “Jamming”) supports this view, stating, “Creativity must go beyond generation of new ideas; it must become an ongoing process.” 
 Sun Tzu’s Art of War states, “Therefore, when I have won a victory I do not repeat my tactics but respond to circumstances in an infinite variety of ways.” This quote aptly points out the need to be creative when developing strategies and tactics.
One example of creativity was that of Wheaties. During Superbowl XXXI in 1997 the Wheaties marketing team carried two boxes of Wheaties to the game; one representing the New England Patriots winning and the other the Green Bay Packers being victorious. As the game progressed, it became clear that the Green Bay Packers would beat the Patriots. With this in mind the Wheaties team went up to the broadcast booth, taking their box with Packer star quarterback Brett Favre’s picture on it. The announcers, thinking it would be a great prop, took the box and showed it to the huge worldwide audience. By doing so they gave Wheaties millions of dollars of free advertising.
The major pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson has also displayed great creativity in marketing. Knowing that most people would not be drawn to their web site to learn about their medicines on a regular basis, J&J decided that perhaps events could help them create awareness for their products. With this thinking J&J runs banner ads for their headache reliever on e-broker sites whenever the markets drop significantly. Thus they reach consumers when those people are most interested in their products.
Consultants often point to the Gillette razor business model as an example of creativity. What most people don’t know is how long ago that business model was developed and what the catalyst was behind it. All the way back in 1895 King Camp Gillette (yes, that was his real name) took his inspiration from a former employee who had made millions selling disposable bottle-tops. Using the idea that disposable razor heads, like disposable bottle-tops, were something that would need constant replacement, Gillette received a patent for his invention in 1901 and had sold 12 million blades by 1903. That same business model still works a century later.
Creativity is not something that belongs only to a few people who are born with it. John Kao, a well-known author of books on creativity (such as “Jamming”) supports this view, stating, “Creativity must go beyond generation of new ideas; it must become an ongoing process.” Roger von Oech, author of “A Whack on the Side of the Head” and many other books on creativity provides many exercises one can do foster it. Examples include being illogical, breaking the rules, and dealing with ambiguity. With these and other exercises one can be more creative and thus be more competitive.
As Sun Tzu said, “The flavors are only five in number but their blends are so various one cannot taste them all.”

http://www.salesvantage.com/article/157/Strategic-Creativity

Mark McNeilly brings Sun Tzu’s strategic principles to life as the author of  Sun Tzu and the Art of Business; with TV and radio interviews and with seminar presentations. For more information visit www.suntzu1.com
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business is war

As you may suggest that there is no relation with business and war because war is an act of violence or a way of over come your opponent by using strength and weapons. Business is skill and product based and value added relations with consumer whom demands service or value added products. Just deal with the necessities of customer and serve your product by using ads, promotions and so on.

But when you think that you are alone on the market, you are certainly be mistaken. You are not alone and certainly won’t be. Beginning from that point we have competitors. Competitors who are very willing to over come you by everything they have got. So the struggle begins. If there is a competition you must have a strategy to compete. Where there is strategy, the only place that you can learn the rules of engagement by understanding the way of how the wars are fought. Because the basics of competitons are depending on war tactics. War means ambiguity, choices, decisions and timing.

Business is a kind of a war that is fought without blood. The Strategy teaches you how to understand and solve a problem by using minumum amount of source and time. As Sun Tzu suggested,”war is a matter of life and death”. The best way of winning a war is not to fight at all. The numbers are nothing, the quality and the way of understanding the situation is all that matters.

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