Business and war are both forms of conflict. Business is a battle for market share. Markets represent territory contended for by competitive enterprises. Markets are made up of customers who offer their own resistance setting up conflicts in multiple dimensions. Business is about winning and losing. The result of losing this conflict is a form of annihilation; net worth evaporates, industries are decimated, lively hoods gutted, reputations ruined, families destroyed, dreams shattered. There are millions of entrepreneurs and workers who understand the reality of losing this conflict.
I have long taken the position that while business is not war in the traditional sense of guns and bullets, business and war share many attributes that are important to understand and invaluable to exercise. Here are several examples:
a. Activity. Business and war are each a form of competition involving two or more adversaries striving to gain an advantage or achieve a victory.
b. Strategy. Strategy plays an important role in each activity and can determine the outcome of the conflict.
c. Resources. Both business and war face significant logistical issues that require the organization and projection of people and resources.
d. Competencies. Both the military and business must marshal and command a complex set of resources and competencies.
e. Leadership. Visionary leaders capable of driving sustainable results are critical to the success of each activity and can be a decisive factor in determining the success of the campaign.
f. Intelligence. The ability to collect, analyze and distribute competitive intelligence is paramount to both the military and business.
So is business war? Of course not. Does business share many attributes with war. Yes. But perhaps the closest association between business and war can be found in the definition of battle command as offered by the Army in FM 100-5:
The art of battle decision making, leading, and motivating soldiers in their organizations into action to accomplish missions. Includes visualizing current state and future state, then formulating concepts of operations to get from one to the other at least cost. Also includes assigning missions, prioritizing and allocating resources, selecting the critical time and place to act, and knowing how and when to make adjustments during the fight (FM 100-5)
We "tweaked" this definition by substituting "campaigning" for "battle" and "people" for "soldiers" and by doing so have found a definition for marketing campaigning and business leadership second to none. Read the definition with the substitutions:
Campaigning is the art of decision making, leading, and motivating people and their organizations into action to accomplish missions; visualizing current state and future state, then formulating concepts of operations to get from one place to another at least cost; assigning missions, prioritizing and allocating resources, selecting the critical time and place to act, and knowing how and when to make adjustments during the fight.
