The Principles of War underpin military doctrine and conduct, they have been determined as a result of experience in conflict by examining the key components present in all successful military operations. As such, these principles can be applied to the conduct of more general, commercial and business activities to enhance the likelihood of success. Ergo, they can be considered as the Principles of Winning. Application of the principles alone does not guarantee success; however, failure to adhere to any of them will almost certainly guarantee failure in battle.

Selection and maintenance of the aim is making absolutely clear, precisely what is to be achieved (by whom, when and why) to ensure all concerned remain focused and all associated actions are co-ordinated. The aim must be understood and fully accepted by all involved. All activity must be aimed at achieving and contribute towards achieving the aim and it is important to understand in reality the aim may (will) change as the battle progresses.

Maintenance of morale will be crucial in determining the outcome of combat in the event of all things being equal, ie. when no side has a clear advantage. Irrespective of context and situation – well motivated people with high morale perform better than those without. Good morale can be the difference between success and failure; morale and motivation are the responsibility of leaders.

Security within any military context is generally obvious; in the business context the principle of security is concerned with managing all the essential risks necessarily taken to achieve an outcome. This includes (say) confidentiality, copyright, financial constraints, succession planning, etc. as much as the more obvious health and safety in operations. Security is as much about facilitating and safeguarding the bold moves which gain competitive advantage as it is about looking after routine business.

Surprise is about gaining advantage by doing the unexpected; it is the deliberate ‘wrong footing’ of the enemy (competition) to bring about his/her demise. Creativity, courage and speed are the key ingredients to surprise and as such need to be nurtured and developed as an organisational attitude. In a business context the ‘enemy’ may be a competitor, a specific situation or set of circumstances.

Offensive action is about proactive, deliberate action aimed at winning through in order to achieve the stated aim – exploiting advantage, opportunity and strength to accomplish the task. Again, this is as much an organisational attitude as anything else. To understand the nature of this principle as a ‘mind set’ consider polar views of defining business success in the current ‘economic climate’ presented in this question. Is success about avoiding failure or achieving stated objectives irrespective of prevailing circumstances? Offensive action is proactively doing what is required to succeed; it is not about accepting mediocrity or avoiding failure.

Concentration of force is about applying decisive force and effort at the most decisive place and time to secure victory in battle as no army can be the best at everything all the time. In the business world this principle is about achieving the right effect in the right location to ensure the desired outcome; for example (say) timing and targeting of investment to yield the best possible return. Rarely, if ever, will the opportunity of the right force being present at the right time in the right place present itself; concentration of force is a managed deliberate act of choice.

Economy of effort is self evident; it is about efficiency in all you undertake. Essentially, it is concerned with understanding the nature and effect of attrition on the conduct of enduring campaigns. It is about shrewd decision making, careful preparation and squeezing all you can from your resources and assets in order to retain sufficient reserves to deal with contingencies and exploit opportunities as they arise. In business this is about (say) spending as little as possible on those items which do not contribute directly to the main aim in order to direct revenue where it will be more effective in achieving the aim. This is not to be confused with ‘cost cutting’.

Flexibility, attitudinal and organisational flexibility, is required to be able to recognise when change is necessary and to change when needed. This requires strength of character and moral courage to change or modify a plan or course of action when the existing one is doomed to failure. The military maxim ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy unchanged’ is borne from hard earned experience, and understanding where the fine line lies between dogged determination to succeed and sheer ‘bloody minded’ dogma leading to failure.

Co-operation is about ensuring unity of effort to achieve a shared outcome and accessing the combined attributes of diversity. The challenge is to overcome inherent disposition to favour a single perspective or approach and inevitably necessitates compromise between those involved. In an organisation, co-operation is concerned with both interpersonal actions and interdepartmental activities. There is very little to no room for significant individual, personal gain in an organisation if achieving organisational aims has primacy.

Sustainability is about ensuring longevity of both operations and effect and, as such, is primarily to do with long term logistical support to the enduring operation in a military context. For example, having the resources and support mechanism in place to ensure the commander can deliver (say) a defined number of missiles at a given rate throughout the expected duration of the battle and beyond. The business parallels are relatively easy to draw; for example, the supply chain is in place and has sufficient funding allocated to ensure enough pressings of the right type arrive at the factory every day for the expected duration of a production run. Sustainability requires dedicated and often ‘inglorious’ work, detailed analysis and application to task which require attributes and skills difficult to find and attract in business.

There is no order of precedence in applying the above principles after the first, selection and maintenance of the aim. The key is all are applied in order to avoid otherwise inevitable failure. Success also involves and requires the presence of other factors and circumstances – not least of which is an element of good fortune (or luck).

One of the key requisites of a modern day leader is fairness. However as humans we all have our favourites and generally they look, behave and think like us!  All very well until you remember that diversity is a great asset to any modern team. So leaders how do we get the best out of a diverse teams if diversity is such a strength in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world?

As Coach Boone said in that film Remember the Titans:  ”If we don’t come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don’t care if you like each other of not, but you will respect each other. And maybe… I don’t know, maybe we’ll learn to play this game like men.”  Respect is the key catalyst that brings with it a fairness that glues individuals and teams together.

Respect is key in any cohesive group for without it trust will dissipate and teams will become a collection of individuals who function only for self gratification. Without respect the intrinsic bond that is so key to super success will never be found as team leaders and members focus on extrinsic reward. Look at those organisations that have tried to buy their way to success and failed.

Power used to be a key tenet to successful leadership but I am now of the opinion that today’s world is more about win win collaboration rather than the zero sum conclusion. Collaboration and mutual benefit are symptoms of maturing societies rather than the historical imposition of power and authority. As leaders become more ethical in their words and deeds societies judge them on their ability to balance profit for their shareholders, value for their customers with their brand’s expectations from society.

Ethical leadership is not about power and authority it is more about influence and motivation hence it is about fairness and diversity, compromise rather than power and destruction.

Not very long ago, only the good guys did ethical leadership. All very well but it didn’t make much difference to the bottom line apparently.  Well life and times in the UK are proving otherwise -  get the culture wrong and you could be facing the wall.

How the BBC, NHS, most high street banks and now some food producers must rue the day they decided it was all about profit, targets and bonuses.  Ignore the culture in your organization and you ignore it at your peril.

And all the retail brands who ignored their customer needs must regret doing some simple market research.

Lack of checks or possibly blatant disregard will be bringing down a number of food producers in the next couple of weeks.  The culture of not checking deliveries properly came from a culture of tacit acceptance, lack of communication and probably management bullying.  The culprits will undoubtedly be facing irreparable damage to their reputation and possibly a date in court.

Barclays announced today it’s closing its tax avoidance unit ‘in a bid to repair its battered reputation’.    How life could have been so different if they had thought about their brand and their customer first, rather than focus solely on profit.

Everyone knows that the Mid Staffs hospital scandal is merely the tip of the iceberg.  Stories such as we heard last week can be replicated in many other hospitals around the country.  We’ve all heard or experienced shocking levels of care – or rather lack of it.

The common denominator here is poor leadership.  Of course, business leaders have to make a profit.  But they need to value and give value to their customers  – and that includes listening to them.  And finally they need to think about their brand and their culture.  Get it right within the organization and you are someway down the road to getting it right for your customers.

So Sampson Hall say you should answer four simple questions about every business decision any leader makes.

Is it honest?

Is it fair?

Is it right for our brand?

Does it provide value for all involved?

If some of the above had addressed these issues, the current headlines would be very different

The Evidence

You only have to open a newspaper or switch your television on these days to see another example of a failure in leadership, banks are repeatedly the culprits with LIBOR and IRSAs, newspapers with phone tapping were and now its supermarkets and horsemeat. Even leaders of large retail outlets such as Jessops, Blockbuster and Comet have been susceptible. So why do I blame it all on leadership? Surely some of it is down to the environmental and societal changes?

Absolutely right to a degree, but it is the leader’s duty to ensure that the organisation at least keeps up with the environment that sustains it. Leaders must always be in touch with what is going on around them.

The Problem

The modern business leader has to balance three conflicting issues: the first is the requirement to generate profit for the organisation and its stakeholders; the next is the requirement to give value to customers so that they become advocates of and indeed return to the organisation whenever possible; the third aspect is what I call brand and culture this concerns the public and indeed self image of the organisation. It is how we do things round here when no one is looking. It involves values and ethics that need to be maintained and sustained. I am not advocating rigid traditions here but a set of clearly understood values and standards that are regularly reviewed for their relevance.

The Need

Modern Business Leadership is a difficult balance between organisational needs- profit, customers’ needs- value and societal needs- trust if we look at all the recent issues in business they have arisen where one of these issues has dominated the leaders thinking too much and the balance has been lost. Mostly its profit with the banks and the Horse meat, sometimes its value with Jessops and Comet and then its trust which is the one that is most difficult to rectify for before trust must come the truth! As society moves on our values have changed and matured. No more is it a zero sum game, today’s world is about win win for it is only then that an organisation has true longevity. A modern organisation has to balance its brand with its profit and its customer value.

Here are some questions a modern leader should always challenge a decision with prior to promulgating it.

Is it honest? Is it fair? Is it right for our brand? Does it provide value for all involved?

Recently as high street names fall the short term focus on profitability has been brought sharply into the fore ground. How do stores like Jessops and HMV survive in the modern world when price is king and overheads are seen as an albatross to retail survival? However how often does cheap last?

Commercial history tells us that the most successful organisations, over the long term, consistently focus on “enabling” people things (leadership, purpose, employee motivation) whose immediate benefits aren’t always clear in the short term. These robust organisations are internally aligned around a clear and cohesive vision and strategy; can execute to a high quality thanks to strong capabilities, management processes, and employee motivation; and renew themselves in an ever more demanding environment more effectively than their rivals do. In short, healthy processes today drive improved performance tomorrow.

The issue in the majority of the larger organisations is the short term requirements placed upon them by their shareholders. Many Chief Executives and Senior Vice Presidents instinctively understand the paradox of performance and health, though few have expressed or acted upon it better than John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods. “We have not achieved our tremendous increase in shareholder value,” he once observed, “by making shareholder value the only purpose of our business.” No most certainly not and yet the increase in value has been long term it has been as a result of healthy strategic processes and disciplines. Outstanding strategy, effective communication and the evolution of people processes to free up mangers and leaders to focus on the future rather than immerse themselves in the problems of today. Don’t forget that people run businesses and people are the interface between a business and its customer base if they feel empowered, understand what they have to do and the route they have to take to get there, then they can create extraordinary value and longevity!

TURBULENT TIMES

I always say that you have two options at the bottom of a well drown or start climbing. Well many businesses currently sit at the bottom of that well. The events that have transpired over the last four years since the onset of the current recessionary cycle, evidence the turbulent times all organisations face. While uncertainty is troubling, it is also the time of greatest opportunity when business is most turbulent.

Humans are happiest in static times and yet if one looks at when the greatest organisations started, it was during times of upheaval and turbulence. Greats like Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie and J.P. Morgan emerged out of the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society. Companies like Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer and Microsoft emerged from the shift to an electronic society. This leap to greatness is made possible by the state of turbulence where the traditional paradigms and norms that govern business are shattered. Companies and whole markets are driven to seek out new solutions to their problems as they strive for competitive advantage brought about by the forces of change.

We are well beyond the realms of management and informed creative thinking and decision-making can greatly enhance leaders’ ability to lead. Positivity is key and rather than mourn the loss of business or bemoan internal changes brought about by recessionary pressures or from intensified market competition, leaders need to exploit the new opportunities that present themselves in the prevailing market conditions. One thing is certain: organizations are not going back to the business models that governed them prior to 2007. They are seeking new ways to enhance productivity and profitability, and therein lies the opportunity for any leader who wishes to seek it out. However, each should acknowledge that in times of turbulence, the ability to anticipate problems, situations and opportunities dramatically increases their chances of success. The Sampson Hall Gordian model allows leaders to make informed decisions about their future and the Sampson Hall strategy model enables them to plan in a world of uncertainty. Both are key to an organisations survival in these modern economic times.

If leaders wish to take advantage of the turbulence in their markets they must apply informed creative thinking skills based on reality and yet forward looking to the future. They must step ‘outside the box’ and think imaginatively and yet not naively. Positivity is key and yet credibility is essential. Rigor needs to be applied from a futuristic perspective. The Sampson Hall tools stimulate a shift in thinking that allows leaders to design and develop new solutions to address their workplace and organisational problems. Not only do the tools help with the current position but they enable organisations to understand where they are and how much further they have to go. They identify potential by pinpointing available but oftentimes hidden opportunities. These tools will help the creative thinking process in an organisation, they will allow leaders to take informed decisions whilst understanding and mapping the possible consequences of their decision s and the future problems that they may come across along their path to success. However these tools will only suit organisations that have genuine ambition and the desire to remain competitive amongst their peers. Organisations that have used them do not look back.

As large organisations drive to centralise their logistics and bureaucratic processes they are pushing against an increasingly evident ecologically focused drive to reduce environmental footprints as the public becomes more aware of the issue.

Not only is the general public becoming greener in it’s conscience but decisions in personal procurement are starting to be influenced by this phenomenon. So what is the value of local?

Community and a sense of it is becoming more valued particularly in the more rural areas and also in townships. Empty shops, the demise of a post office, school, local shop, and youth club all directly affect an individual’s life. How good does a retail street look with lots of “To Let” signs on the windows of empty shops? Communities revolve around areas where the locals collect. Communities come to the fore in times of hardship and do not prosper in times of plenty or large urban communities. A lack of a sense of community instils the sort of values that led to the wanton destruction witnessed during August this summer in the London Riots. Local is about community!

Environmental issues are affected in terms of a farming economy, a local wholesaler to a local retailer, if the complete production and retail process is controlled in a purely capitalist way. Locals go out of business, money is removed from the area and jobs are lost. Local facilities that drive local economies are vital to maintaining smaller communities.

Purely in terms of carbon footprint local involves less fuel, less machinery and therefore less carbon, less carbon means less carbon tax and less pollution. Local production is generally far less industrial and returns income to the local community. It helps our precious environment and maintains communities. Local prevents large retail organisations from killing the farming industry as they control prices in their focus on profit.

Next time you venture to a retail outlet just think of the damage you are doing to yourself and your community as you purchase a product that can be but has not been resourced from your local area.