vSente's Campaign Manual

The Campaign Engine orchestrates traditional sales and marketing functions - executive management, sales, marketing, and research. The engine uses a hybrid formation consisting of John Boyd's OODA Loop and military command and control theory to "wire" these functional areas together.

Using a military concept like a command and control formation in a business environment invites widely-held notions of top-down, tightly-controlled, rigid, hierarchical organizational dynamics. This perception is wrong. At least from the vantage point of how the Marines practice command and control.

Effective command and control systems (C2) are vital in military applications. As a result, the genesis and development of command and control systems has come primarily from the military. The critical importance of command and control for the military is expressed in a quote taken from the Marine Corps Fleet Force Manual 6, Command and Control:

“War is a process that pits the opposing wills of two commanders against each other. Great victories of military forces are often attributed to superior firepower, mobility, or logistics. In actuality, it often is the commander who makes good decisions and executes these decisions at a superior tempo who leads his forces to victory. Therefore, victory demands that commanders effectively link decision making to execution though the concept of command and control.”

What military organizations recognize is that the key to victory comes from the ability to make and execute superior decisions, then control the tempo of the resulting situations. This is made available to military commanders through the effective application of command and control.

In order for command and control systems to function effectively they require a constant stream of superior intelligence, including the ability to facilitate a broad range of communications consistently, securely, and accurately. The military in the 1980’s evolved C2 to integrate intelligence and communications competencies leading to C3i - command, control, communications and intelligence. C3i can be described in terms of inputs, processes, and outputs and provides a schematic for building the campaign engine.

A C3i structure presents a model for marketers to consider for the execution of marketing and advertising campaigns. Exhibit 12 illustrates the basic schematic.





			04.02.00 Command and control wires the campaign engine together.
				The Campaign Engine orchestrates traditional sales and marketing functions - executive management, sales, marketing, and research. The engine uses a hybrid formation consisting of John Boyd's OODA Loop and military command and control theory to "wire" these functional areas together. Using a military concept like a command and control formation in a business environment invites widely-held notions of top-down, tightly-controlled, rigid, hierarchical organizational dynamics. This perception is wrong. At least from the vantage point of how the Marines practice command and control. Effective command and control systems (C2) are vital in military applications. As a result, the genesis and development of command and control systems has come primarily from the military. The critical importance of command and control for the military is expressed in a quote taken from the Marine Corps Fleet Force Manual 6, Command and Control: “War is a process that pits the opposing wills of two commanders against each other. Great victories of military forces are often attributed to superior firepower, mobility, or logistics. In actuality, it often is the commander who makes good decisions and executes these decisions at a superior tempo who leads his forces to victory. Therefore, victory demands that commanders effectively link decision making to execution though the concept of command and control.” What military organizations recognize is that the key to victory comes from the ability to make and execute superior decisions, then control the tempo of the resulting situations. This is made available to military commanders through the effective application of command and control. In order for command and control systems to function effectively they require a constant stream of superior intelligence, including the ability to facilitate a broad range of communications consistently, securely, and accurately. The military in the 1980’s evolved C2 to integrate intelligence and communications competencies leading to C3i - command, control, communications and intelligence. C3i can be described in terms of inputs, processes, and outputs and provides a schematic for building the campaign engine. A C3i structure presents a model for marketers to consider for the execution of marketing and advertising campaigns. Exhibit 12 illustrates the basic schematic.