Winning battles can be habit-forming

The good thing about war is when it ends,” said Abraham Lincoln, the American president under whose watch a bloody civil war drove a wedge between the northern and southern states of the then fragile United States.

So what’s good about war? For one thing, war has given us valuable strategies that are now used in business in general, and in expanding your market share in profit companies or in winning a bigger share of mind among non-profits.

Wisely so, Brian Tracy has written a book titled “Victory,” whose subtitle is “Applying the Proven Principles of Military Strategy to Achieve Greater Success in Your Business & Personal Life.”

This is not the first time war has become an extended metaphor in running a business or waging a campaign to decimate the competitor or to outsmart armies of salesmen in the fields.

Sun Tzu, author of the “Art of War,” has been quoted many times to illustrate one particular strategy.

If you know the terrain, the battle is half-won, he said many centuries ago, and we 21st century creatures believe him.

“The best general is one who wins the war without firing a single shot,” Sun Tzu said, and we extracted meaning from such an adage, by concentrating on breaking the will of the adversary, who would then be stopped from continuing a battle which, in the adversary’s mind, is already a lost cause.

Graduate business schools give their students bits of history on major battles and wars, and from their victories and defeats, important lessons are extracted.

“Never mind if you lose the battle, so long as you win the war,” is one saying that enables business strategists to keep their optimism high—as they prepare for the “mother of all battles,” which intriguingly is a direct quote from fallen and unlamented leader Saddam Hussein.

Choice narratives

And yet, Tracy’s “Victory” is a tightly knit combination of choice narratives of defining battles and strategic principles to be learned from victory. He introduces a major war victory of famous generals like Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte, then draws a lesson from two battles retold so well.

Alexander fought the Battle of Arbela in 331 BC. He sent a misleading news that he was attacking the forces of Persian King Darius III. So, his well rested forces routed the Persian army who “never had a wink” because they waited all night. When Alexander’s army attacked, the ill-motivated Persian army was no match for Alexander’s attackers.

Taking the point of view of an overconfident British force in Tunisia, the author describes the fatal mistake of the British of not preparing soon enough, while on the other side of the battle, famous Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, master of offensive war, launched his German forces straight into battle from the shore to the ground.

Modern, ancient battles

Rommel’s inexorable movement forward defeated the British. As history would tell us, the Nazis won this battle, but the British and the Allied Powers won the war.

The book architecture—for all 12 chapters—begins each chapter with a story of modern and ancient battles, and concludes such chapter with a treasure of tips on strategy in business or in management of non-profit organizations.

Chapters 1 to 6 have titles that are explanatory: 1. Principle of the Objective (Clarity is Essential), 2. Principle of the Offensive (Dare to Go Forward), 3. Principle of the Mass ( Concentrate Your Powers), 4. Principle of Maneuver (Remain Flexible at All Times), 5. Principle of Intelligence (Get the Facts!), and 6. Principle of Concerted Action (Coordinate Your Activities).

Chapters 7 to 12 also immediately give us an idea of what lessons can be learned: 7. Principle of the Unity of Command (One Person In Charge), 8. Principle of Simplicity (Take the Direct Approach), 9. Principle of Security (Cover All Your Bases), 10. Principle of Economy (Conserve Your Resources), 11. Principle of Surprise (Do the Unexpected), and 12. Principle of Exploitation (Follow Up and Follow Through).

On the advice, “Remain flexible at all times,” Tracy says: “Almost all great military victories are battles of movement, maneuver, and unexpected swift action by one side to gain the advantage.” He cites General George Patton’s “single and double envelopment principle of maneuver.” His attack strategy was to launch his infantry forward in a frontal assault on the German positions. When the German forces moved their reserves forward to meet the attack, Patton shifted his armored columns around the enemy’s right or left flank and cut them off from behind.

Pyrrhic victory

Tracy recalled that Bill Gates shifted where Steve Jobs stuck to his guns.

Jobs kept the Mac operating system closed to other software designers, while Gates made his Microsoft operating system available to all. Gates’ flexibility paid off.

In the chapter titled “Cover All Your Bases,” Tracy highlights a quote which runs: “Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage.”

Some of you must have heard of the phrase “Pyrrhic victory,” which means that you may win the war and yet would lose a sizeable number of your forces. This happened in the battle of Asculum in 279 BC when Greek King Pyrrhus defeated a Roman army in a pitched battle at a cost of more than one third of his army.

Thus the lament of the King: “Alas, one more such victory and we are lost!”

The book is titled “Victory,” and the author’s objective is for readers to achieve a “winning streak” in business and politics. This book is a treasure trove of war stories that whet your appetite for more narratives— and, yes, this “Victory” has one side effect: Winning can be habit-forming. —CONTRIBUTED