Contain and confront business manoeuvre, how long it can last?

In geopolitics powerful nations play the well-tested manoeuvre known as contain & confront. Although it is widely used against weaklings once in a way we notice it being played between equals. Here is the rub: when elephants confront one another it cannot last forever without hurting both. In business warfare, this is a proven theorem.

Today America and China are locked in a power struggle of who is number one. Gone are the days when USA used its gunboat diplomacy to cow down militarily weak nations like Panama. China is different kettle of fish because it has multi- dimensional strength in terms of politics, economics, military, technology and social progress. Its geography makes her both land power and ocean power.

In business warfare containment works well only when exit routes are limited. China business has grown beyond the reach of any adversary due to her multi-faceted strength that has grown in stellar proportions. Investment guru Charlie Munger after analysing Chinese growth patterns in economic development has this to say: “China was succeeding for a long time means she will succeed again. China is getting ahead not going back”. 

Search engines found this basic truth after adopting contain and confront for quite some time. A good example is the business warfare between Google and Microsoft. Ultimately it dawned on both of them that it is better to cooperate rather than contest lest other search engines such as Kiddle and Ecosia gulp the niche market. Hence the joint effort by Google and Begin to have similar platform for analytics.

China is in full swing when it comes to leveraging its trade surplus to bring in prosperity to her partners via BRI initiative which affords them a type of Silk Road in trade, information technology, silicon road, 5G technology, Baidu search engine, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages), satellite communication and many more.

Lesson: Contain and control is only a short term business manoeuvre!

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist