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While strategies remain constant, tactics must be adapted to each new situation. |
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Mervyn's department store chain uses a SWAT team of organizational commandos to manage unpredictable staffing needs, meet the needs of erratic market swings, and seize unanticipated opportunities. The SWAT team members must have expertise in buying, merchandising, or advertising. They go where needed on assignments ranging from one week to six months. Exhibiting a bias for action, they ask questions, assess situations, and solve problems.
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When P&G spent too long in test markets, competitors watched its structured testing process and moved rapidly to beat it to the market rollout with copycat products. |
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The opposite side of the coin of flexibility is rigidity. When we are rigid, we are predictable. In competitive battles, predictability can be a weakness. Being predictable can signal your intended actions to your opponent, and the odds of failure increase. |
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Winning isn't easy; it requires simultaneous planning and action. While preliminary planning is important, too much planning can be deadly. All plans are merely the basis for change. Revise plans in relation to what is happening and make adjustments as you go. |
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The blitzkrieg (lightening war) used so successfully by the German army in World War II is an adaptation of Sun Tzu's comments about the flow of water around obstacles. The blitz is launched along a wide front with the objective of rapid penetration. When resistance is met, the forces go around until they can get through. |
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The blitz in any business operation works the same way. It is a concentrated effort in a short period of time with the objective of going around resistance and focusing resources where results can be attained. The blitz requires a high degree of decentralization. Forget remote approvals; the successful blitz is an empowered front line offensive with results that can far exceed any ordinary effort. You can find the "lightening war" concept applied throughout organizations in everything from a productivity-oriented kaizen blitz to a volume-oriented sales blitz.5 |
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