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ABSTRACT
Effective and sustainable strategy for success in the marketplace continuously engages the principal stakeholders in business, who are always searching for ways and means for a greater share of the customer’s mind space and wallet. In military warfare, defined Principles of War help maintain focus and improve chances of a favourable outcome. Similarly, as maritime and corporate strategies share a boundary-less nature of operations in both spheres, “Principles of Corporate Warfare” could be defined to increase uniformity of response and enhance aggressive spirit, so as to ensure a favourable outcome. This paper attempts to define ten “Principles of Corporate Warfare”.
Notes on contributor
Commodore Rajinder Bhandari, YSM, VSM is a retired Indian Naval officer and is presently Professor at the Amity Institute of Competitive Intelligence and Strategic Management, AUUP, NOIDA. He has over 30 years of experience in planning and executing naval operations and teaching strategy in the Indian Navy, and has spent 12 years in front line international business, followed by eight years of teaching business strategy.
Notes
1 Recommended reading in this regard includes: Some Principles of Maritime Strategy by Corbett; The Influence of Sea Power upon History by Mahan; The Art of War by Jomini, and a thesis, Building Corbett’s Navy: The Principles of Maritime Strategy and the Functions of the Navy in Naval Policy, available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/6856463/Building_Corbetts_Navy_The_Principles_of_Maritime_Strategy_and_the_Functions_of_the_Navy_in_Naval_Policy.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId= (accessed October 7, 2018).
2 See Richard L. Daft and Dorothy Marcic, Understanding Management, 8th ed. (Mason, OH: South Western, Cengage Learning, 2013).
3 Margin is the difference between revenue earned and costs incurred in delivering a product or service to the consumer.
4 “First-mover advantage” is a business initiative that creates a unique identity for itself, e.g. the Apple iPod, or Windows OS with its unique GUI. Imitators often find it hard to follow or overtake such an initiative.
5 This argument can be seen in the views of many authors who have written on business strategies. One example is: Lampel, Mintzberg, Quinn and Ghoshal; Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases. 5th ed.
6 Jack Ries and Al Trout, Marketing Warfare, 20th Anniversary Edition, McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited, June 2012.
7 An example in the Indian context is the planning and ensuing actions by the Indian Armed Forces during the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the Liberation of Bangladesh.
8 Some examples that can be examined for a better understanding of this aspect are the CocaCola and Beer Wars of 1960’s–1970’s, and film v/s digital photography (Kodak v/s Sony).
9 Nature of Forces covers the ambit from single role to multi capability through in-built force multipliers or networked resources.
10 Armed forces are presently being trained and equipped more for deterrence and maintaining peace rather than winning battles as the cost of armed conflict is undeterminable and could reach unacceptable levels. Also see10 US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Publication 3-0, Joint Operations, 17 January 2017.
11 Other than in proxy wars, military forces are generally deployed to attain a favourable situation before negotiations for ceasefire and a peace settlement commence. Examples are Iraq and Libya. However, this approach has not succeeded in Afghanistan or Yemen, due to the divergent goals of local and external stakeholders.
12 US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Publication 3-0, Joint Operations, 17 January 2017, Appendix A, A-1 to A-4, available at http://data.cape.army.mil/web/character-development-project/repository/jp3-0-2017.pdf (accessed October 5, 2018).
13 Blitzscaling, adapted from the German term Blitzkrieg of World War II, is the current practice of companies rapidly scaling up growth within short time frame and achieving market dominance. In this context, Google, WhatsApp and Amazon are the best examples.
14 Secondary efforts are additional tasks intended to close out the primary objective(s) after initial success. These often require a lot of detailed planning and may therefore divert attention from the primary effort(s).
15 Primary efforts are the main tasks and allocation of forces to achieve them. The efforts require high flexibility and maintenance of adequate reserves to sustain achievement of the objective.
16 “Shock-and-Awe” is the attainment of victory through overwhelming surprise and total superiority of the attacking forces. The First Chechen war (1994–1996) and the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US-led coalition, are historical examples of the use of overwhelming superiority of artillery, rapid advance by armour, and pinpoint accuracy of PGMs.
17 Derived from the writings of Mahan and Corbett.
18 Derived from the writings of Mahan and Corbett.
19 As one of the most important concepts of maritime power, sea control denotes a condition where one is able to use a defined sea area, for a defined period of time, for one’s own purposes, and at the same time deny its use to the adversary. See Indian Maritime Doctrine, Naval Strategic Publication 1.1, Updated online version 2015, p. 77, available at https://www.indiannavy.nic.in/sites/default/files/Indian-Maritime-Doctrine-2009-Updated-12Feb16.pdf (accessed December 29, 2018).
20 “Stretch” strategies’ are those that demand extra results from assigned resources and seek outcomes despite potential constraints that would otherwise expect a “fit” strategy that adjusts to the environment.
21 Created by the author based on literature on Strategic Positioning.
22 Created by the author.
23 Created by the author.
24 Created by the author.
25 Created by the author.
26 See http://www.incommand.co.uk/#!ten-principles-of-war/ceua for UK Principles (accessed December 29, 2018).