From the Introduction to New Lanchester Strategy Volume 3 ©
1996 Lanchester Press Inc.
This volume discusses strategies for the strong, that is the market leader.
Companies that are in a strong positon should read it, of course, but so
should their weaker rivals, somthey'll know what sort of strategies the
strong might be using. You need to be able to "read" your rivals.
When the weak know how the strong are operating, they can develop powerful
strategies.
By the strong, I mean market leaders, but there is more than one type of
market leader. There are market leaders that are ahead of their nearest
competitors by a factor of 1.732 [square root of 3 - Ed], and then there
are companies without such a huge lead. Number-one companies tend to concentrate
on defense, but they may fail to sense an oncoming crisis. They may become
overconfident, and rest on their laurels. many of them want merely to stay
on the safe side.
Someone once said that defense is three times as much work as offense, he
was correct. When a top-ranking company lets its guard down, its market
share is bound to drop. Remember that defending your position is a matter
of winning a succesion of battles. You have to keep winning. Also, when
a strong company, regardless of its strength, has not yet become number
one, it must go on the offensive to capture that position.
This volume, like its predecessor, Volume 2, Strategy of the Weak,
consists of six chapters.
Chapter 1 discusses the matching operation. This means following,
or imitating your rival, and is the strategy to use to counteract the differentiation
strategy of the weak. The matching operation is an important strategy not
only for the strong, but also for the weak to use against their lower-ranking
rivals.
Chapter 2 discusses wide-area battles. When your company wages a
wide-area battle, you are competing in an area without oundaries. This strategy
is intended to offset the local-battle strategy of the weak.
Chapter 3 deals with stochastic battles. In a stochastic battle,
you force your enemies, or even your allies, to battle against each other.
This is a strategy to use to counteract the single-combat strategy used
by the weak.
Chapter 4 is concerned with remote battles. Remote battles are used
against close combat, a strategy of the weak. They involve the following
two strategies:
1. Using wholesalers to the best possible advantage, and
2. bolstering advertising and publicity campaigns.
Chapter 5 discusses comprehensive battles. These battles take advantage
of the comprehensive strength of the strong, and serve to counteract the
one-point concentration strategy used by the weak.
Chapter 6 deals with inducement operations. This strategy is used
against feint operations launched by the weak. It is a means of forestalling
weaker rivals by preventing them from using the differentiation or one-point
concentration strategies.
This volume completes the three-volume introduction to Lanchester Strategy.
It features Shinsaku Sakamoto of Company W. It is the story of the battle
between Company W and its rival, Company B. Manufacturers, retaileres, and
representatives of the service sector also appear in the drama.
I believe that in this volume, as in its predecessor, Volume 2, the expert
hand of our cartoonist, Kenichi Sato, is even more in evidence than in the
previous two volumes. We hope our readers will forgive any infelicities
that may have arisen due to time constraints.
Each story is based on events that have actually occurred, but because of
the format, we have had to show rises in market share and reversals in a
way that seem less complecated than they actually were.
Shinich Yano.
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