Successful campaigners understand their competition almost as well as they do their own organziations. Effective campaigning begins with the ability to gather and act upon competitive intelligence.

Maneuver theory allows a competitor to shape the conflict whether it is the battlefield or the marketplace to his advantage - and to the disadvantage of his opponent. The ability to shape is based upon knowledge of yourself and of your opponent. Sun Tzu again this time from Thomas Cleary’s translation(3):

“So it is said that if you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know yourself and do not know others, you will imperiled in every single battle”.

The technique we use to generate this understanding is called center of gravity analysis which will be introduced and applied shortly.

3.The Art of War. trans. Thomas Cleary. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1988.