How to compete and win is the perennial question posed in business annals. Every business seeks win and absolute one too. None is ready to lose. Yet win and lose is the order of life for men and the business that they mind. One way to learn how to win arises from what is happening around. Recent Taliban takeover gives lessons for business competition:
First and foremost, Taliban followed micro to macro. They started in the outlier regions far from Kabul. Since the Afghan terrain is rugged and most regions are almost self-sufficient winning the hearts and minds of the locals was priority number one for Taliban. Then comes encircling major cities besotted in wide area with integral network kept intact. The final push for Kabul was not premeditated at all. It is the success stories of Talban delivered the fatal blow. Kabul imploded within.
In business competition, never fight the centre but focus on the corners. Wei Chi game of China endorses this view too. For example, a powerful business would have built clientele in major cities or in the capital city in an unassailable manner. Taking aim at it there, is just amount to committing suicide. Go around the centre and compete in outlying areas somewhat far from the centre initially and spread the net wider.
Second lesson is to fragmentise the war effort by Taliban rather than centralize it. Taliban shrewdly negotiated with the regional satraps known euphemistically as war lords. Some were fronted with guns while others with wads of dollar notes. Once Talban quietly takes their fiefdom over the satraps were either stripped of their standing soldiers by being persuaded to co-opt with the mainstream Taliban army or be banished elsewhere.
In real business an aggressive firm must divide the market into manageable lots and either buy out existing competitors or build alliances with them plotting terms of deal that skew favourable towards the firm. Caveat here is that the other party should not feel that it is down on the deal.
Third but conceptually important lesson is to play the long game. Taliban was ousted from Kabul in 2001. It’s almost 20 years now. During this period Taliban kept on fighting in hit & run sorties or low-conflicts engaging both USA & Kabul administration. In the meantime, it neither controlled the entire country side nor has it abandoned it to the central government. When you are pitched on long term you are not swayed by sundry happenings here and there but concentrate on capacity building on one side and raising discontentment by the people towards America & Kabul cabal.
Similarly a new entrant to the market or a company that lost the market share in a previous bout must not take the battle with the opponent unto his power centre but continue to harass him so that he is put on constant fire-fighting mode leaving no time for him to plan for his future 3 years or 5 years or even up to 7 years’ hence. Time horizon of the opponent should be deliberately limited to just 3 moths span. When you attack at right time the opponent has already lost his spirit in business competition and would fall like house of cards in no time!
Cheers!
Muthu Ashraff Rajulu
Business Strategist
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Business Strategist
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