Transforming defeat to victory

In business warfare even large companies occasionally face a probable defeat of sort, where it has to snatch some form of victory from the jaws of defeat. Seasoned business strategist can easily spot “the about to fall operations” as he has business strategy in the palm of his hand. Here are three takeaways on the subject of transforming defeat to victory:

1. Before venturing into intense business competition targeting a strong competitor a company must have full spectrum of defensive and offensive capabilities. It is hard to predict the outcome of business warfare involving two equally powerful contenders. Neither of the competitors could easily defeat the other convincingly in the short term. Put it simply it is drawn out hostilities as we witness in the Cola Wars between Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

2. At this point what would be at core is how to structure the front line offence and backend defensive measures. Front line marketers must be geared to learn the possible counter moves of the opponent well before the latter operationalize it. Estimating capability of the opponent along with guestimating his business manoeuvres is the key to unravel the possible outcome. Supermarket bosses have this knack in identifying purchase and stocking patterns of opponents and are ready to face any eventuality. Walmart does this deliciously.

3. Avoiding mismatch is the third and significant countermove to turn possible defeat to victory. The big question here is where to find mismatch taking place and how to prioritize it. Unsurprisingly, board of directors of companies on the verge of defeat take marketers to task for their failures. But the real cause lies elsewhere. In essence the mismatch takes place at the back end where capabilities are screwed up. A noted failure is Dell Computer which won several sales contract but was unable to execute these as stocks and spares were not readily available to meet the demand!

 

Cheers!           

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist