The Art of Corporate Warfare

What useful business lesson can we learn from the disastrous, and preventable, failure of the Charge of the Light Brigade? Or, what's a practical business take away from Napoléon's poor decisions at Waterloo? And how did Alexander The Great instantly solve what was thought to be an unsolvable problem? The Art of Corporate Warfare is a collection of blog posts that has spanned 13 years. They adapt the sometimes brutal tactics of history's shrewdest, most successful generals such as Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Sun Tzu and Alexander the Great, to the modern business arena. The author's belief is that traditional war (e.g. a blood war) and corporate competition, large and small, are ultimately about the same thing: winning. Only the stakes are different. But when you get right down to it both environments are largely the same. Your competition has something you want, but they don't want you to have it. So you have to take it. Or vice versa, they want something of yours, but you say "No way!" because, just like them, you have to take care of your stakeholders and freely giving ground to your competition isn't generally useful for your bottom line (not to mention provoking a contentious earnings call...). So, you enter into a corporate battle; a corporate war. And, because losing is very costly in so many ways, you have to win. And you should do so as quickly, and cheaply, as possible since that's how you take care of your stakeholders which is what you are paid to do. This book is about helping you achieve that victory. It does this not just by detailing the application of actual tactics, but also by helping you ask yourself and your team the right questions, some of which are philosophical. For example, is it ever OK to lie? If so, when? And why? Or when should we appear far, when we are actually quite close, and appear close, when we are far away and the tactical importance, and timing, of both strategies. Much of any sort of battle is psychological in that you should endeavor to favorably modify your enemy's perception of what you are up to and this collection goes into how to do that in usefully close, practical detail. The book also includes many conversations and adventures the author, a specialized high-end corporate recruiter and strategy advisor, had with his clients and candidates over many years across the global landscape. The underlying theme was always how did they maximize their odds of success, knowing full well battles of all types are typically won or lost before they are fought. This book provides a variety of tools and techniques for success whether you run a sprawling Fortune 100 enterprise or are struggling to get your department or small business over the next competitive hurdle. It's all about the same thing. Winning. And, of course, Kicking Ass Every Day!