There are many uses or applications of the word attack. Attacking the Normandy beach had one meaning to Eisenhower. Attacking the Green Bay line had another meaning for Walter Payton, Mike Ditka and the Chicago Bears. Attacking a messy disorganized garage has a third meaning for a weekend warrior tired of losing his tools. Can a business enterprise attack a competitor? Of course! Although it may not always be advisable.
In his seminal work titled Competitive Advantage, Michael Porterdedicated a chapter to Attacking an Industry Leader. In this chapter, he outlines the Conditions for Attacking a Leader along with Avenues for Attacking Leaders. Channeling classic maneuver theory Porter states that the Cardinal Rule in Offensive Strategy is not to attack head-on with an imitative strategy. For some reason many of Porter’s Harvard MBA alum’s did not read this chapter – because if they did they wouldn’t have unleashed the torrent of price cutting competitive strategies that have gutted so many industries.
A vigorous debate has erupted over the past several years regarding customer strategy. Past communiques have addressed my take on customer delight and customer-centricity. I have advocated the need to calibrate the profit trinity – customers, competency and competitors in order to optimize any customer strategy. Some have advocated a focus or priority on the customer and others either minimize or ignore competitive input. The approach is verbalized by comments like – focus on the customer – not your competition.
Market share battles are almost always between two or more competitors fighting for a customer. In Boydian terms, this conflict can be described by the need to increase my interaction with this customer while isolating my competition. There are many ways one can isolate a competitor via well timed and well placed attacks. Generically speaking we can attack price, quality and the positioning of a competitor. And as long as the attacks are credible I can begin isolating my competitors while simultaneously increasing my interaction with the customer. It is the interplay of interaction and isolation that allows me to shape the market to my advantage and the disadvantage of my competition.
My customer intimacy brethren will tell you that rather than attackingthe competition you should be embracing your customers. They would be right if it was a binary choice – meaning you could either delight your customer or attack a competitor. When executing acampaign we work off a campaign palette that incorporates actions designed to increase our interaction while decreasingour competition’s. There are times when attacking the competition is necessary. There are other times went it is opportunistic.
Enterprises profoundly underestimate the concept of attack. Both from the standpoint of how to attack and how to respond to an attack. The key ingredient necessary for formulating an attackis intelligence. Which takes us back to Sun Tzu the father of maneuver theory and his insistence on knowing yourself and your enemy. Our 2-day Mobilizations are designed for enterprises who would like to attack and dislodge a larger better provisioned competitor.
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