KEY CONCEPTS OF MANEUVER WARFARE THEORY APPLIED TO BUSINESS
TIME Time is a fundamental variable for MWT. It is used as a “weapon” or lever more than space or physical force. In business, many industries have seen upsets by competitors who used time as a competitive advantage. The Toyota Production System (TPS), which evolved into the Lean manufacturing movement, emphasized the time from customer order to delivery as a fundamental metric. The ability for Japanese automobile companies to continuously outpace (out-maneuver) American companies with their new model releases in the 1970’s and 1980’s remains one of the most famous case studies in business.
As customer needs and wants change, businesses that can respond to these changes the fastest will be at a great advantage. But MWT presents an even greater opportunity: when a business can create updates in synchronization with customer decision cycles, they can take an active role in shaping the market place.
For example, some companies enlist early-adopter customers to participate in beta testing for their products. Customer feedback becomes an integral part of the design process. If customer needs and desires happen to change during this process (which is very likely, whether through experience with the product itself or from other factors) the product team can adapt the solution to create something that the customer craves with anticipation before it is available.
MOTION AND MOVEMENT Businesses convert customer needs and wants into value using their unique collection of resources and processes. When processes or tools become idle or stuck, the value creation stream stops. So too has the feedback process for learning and improvement. The concepts of “flow” and “value streams” in Lean manufacturing emphasize the essential value of motion. In MWT, a moving target is much harder to hit than one that is fixed.
AGILITY Agility is the ability to work (or play) with time and motion together. Both time and motion are fundamental principles for MWT. But it is the interplay between the two that create many more opportunities for success (and avoiding defeat).
It is helpful to think of motion as a vector, with both a magnitude and direction. Agility is the ability to change your rate of speed (acceleration) as well as your direction.
The focus on agility is what first made John Boyd famous as a fighter pilot. “40-second Boyd” could beat anyone in a dogfight in 40 seconds or less. Later, as a retired Colonel, he extended this concept of agility to military strategy and decision making, which will be introduced shortly.
In business terms, agility means the ability to quickly react to threats or seize on opportunities as new information is learned. This agility can pertain to market conditions (including laws and regulations), your competitors, or customer knowledge.
“Agile development” is a project management approach that builds agility into its processes. A daily “scrum” meeting ensures that everyone on the team is unified and upholding their commitments. Fundamental assumptions, customer knowledge, and mission (project) objectives are re-assessed after every “sprint,” which typically lasts no longer than two to three weeks. For competing companies that operate on annual budget cycles with monthly program reviews, you can imagine how this mismatch in
"I don't want to get any messages saying, 'I am holding my position.' We are not holding a G_d___ thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's b____."