“Know the Enemy, Know Yourself; Your Victory Will Never Be Endangered” – Sun Tzu

As a career US Army officer, it has been intriguing to learn about strategy development and its historical ties to military operations. This week, our Strategy Development course touched on the importance of understanding competitors. In Competitor Analysis: Understand Your Opponents, the author expresses the need to identify and investigate an organization’s competitors to best adopt a winning strategy (Harvard Business School, 2006). It is my belief that a correlation exists on this topic between the civilian and military sectors, but the terminology may differ. Competitor analysis would translate to intelligence gathering operations. It is the mission of the United States military to fight and win wars. Although the wording may sound harsh in the civilian sector, a company’s strategy would share similar characteristics -- to not only survive, but to win in their industry.

One of the guiding bodies of thought for military strategy is doctrine. The Modern War Institute at West Point defines doctrine as “the fundamental principles by which the military forces or elements thereof guide their actions in support of national objectives” (Spencer, 2016). In The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy, Michael Porter outlines five forces that help companies understand and respond to competition. Porter identifies the five forces as: threats of new entrants, threats of substitute products or services, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, and the rivalry among existing competitors (Porter, 2008). Porter’s framework in a sense is doctrine as his model provides strategists a way to obtain “an analytical grasp on the state of competition and underlying economics within an industry” (Harvard Business School, 2006). Porter provides a prescriptive approach for “anticipating and influencing competition…over time” (Porter, 2008). It is a basis for developing business strategy tailored to identifying, adapting, and overcoming the obstacles imposed by competitors.

Intelligence operations can be defined as a “process by which governments…[or] military groups systematically collect and evaluate information for the purpose of discovering the capabilities and intentions of their rivals” (Gabel, 2019). The term “competitor” would associate with the military use of “threat” or “adversary.” Harvard Business School suggests it is important to collect as much information about competitors as possible, including their strategies and objectives (Harvard Business School, 2006). Similarly, in the military it is important to understand the abilities of adversaries, how they employ their capabilities, and the expected result from their corresponding strategy. Both civilian and military sectors consider their opponents’ technologies, distribution (logistics), capital (money), and workforce (size) abilities to help contribute to defining effective strategies. With a thorough understanding of competitors, organizations ensure their long-term success by developing well-conceived strategies founded on intelligence collection that reduces the unknown and accounts for current and future threats.  

References

Gabel, C. F. (2019). Intelligence Operations. Retrieved from Scholastic: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/intelligence-operations/

Harvard Business School. (2006). Competitor Analysis: Understand Your Opponents. In H. B. School, Marketer's Toolkit: The 10 Strategies You Need to Succeed (p. Chapter 5). Boston: Harvarad Business School Press.

Porter, M. E. (2008, January). The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review.

Spencer, J. (2016, March 21). What is Army Doctrine? Retrieved from Modern War Institute: https://mwi.usma.edu/what-is-army-doctrine/

Tzu, S. (1963). The Art of War. New York: Oxford University Press.