A  painting of the Battle of Borodino.

In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia. At Borodino at the gates of Moscow, Napoleon won a decisive victory against the Russian army.  This was the bloodiest battle in modern history.  There was appalling loss of life on both sides. Napoleon waited outside Moscow for the surrender party. No one arrived. He entered Moscow. It was deserted.

The Russians were playing a longer game. In the siege of Smolensk they had learned they were no match for the French war machine. Therefore they adopted a different ‘competitive strategy’. They chose what 19th century Prussian military strategist, Carl von Clausewitz, called a different ‘Centre of Gravity’. The Russians retreated, burning crops as they went. Cossacks harried the flanks of the army and the supply lines. The Russian army  under Kutuzov, swelled by volunteers and the financial contribution of concerned citizens, saved St. Petersburg from invasion as they defeated the northbound flank of Napoleon’s army at the battle of Potolsk and steered them to Moscow.

Napoleon was being ‘shaped’. He had crossed the river Neiman with 700 000 men, prepared for a swift victory in the heat and dust of summer. Now he was being drawn into a long war. And winter was coming. Napoleon was being set up for the end-game in a Centre of Gravity called ‘Scorched Earth’.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is possible to identify the point at which one side in a battle began to win. The essence of the design of an operation is to define the decisive action, and the shaping operations required to set the stage for this winning strategy. This thinking comes from Dr Joe Strange of the US Marine Corps War College who has written extensively on ‘Centre of Gravity’.

Competitive Strategy: ‘war’ is an apt for marketing

We ignore rivalry in our market place at our peril. The best way to generate sales is to take customers from our competition. These customers have resolved to pay for the products or services we offer. We know where to find them and can reduce our spend on branding and product launches. But competitors will resist our efforts. Competitors are even now trying to take your customers from you. Are you ready to resist? To compete you need to be smarter, work harder and with more intent than your competitors.

You need a competitive strategy. The intent of a competitive strategy is to shape the conflict to your advantage. Following the wisdom of Sun Tzu this means shaping the competition as you constantly change your shape to adapt to the situation. This requires you to understand your competitor. Then you can use expected and unexpected tactics to interact more with your target market and impede the access of your competitors to the same target market.

The Russian’s learned from bitter experience what Michael Porter was to say about a competitive strategy, “The cardinal rule in offensive strategy is not to attack head-on with an imitative strategy”.  After Borodino 100 000 men lay dead. Just when Napoleon thought the Russians were done for, the Russians played their hand. Count Rostopchin had ordered a total evacuation of the city. Numerous fires were started. Moscow, a city built of wood was consumed in a firestorm.

The strategy came at great cost. It does not seem to be clear whether the fire in Moscow was an overt strategy from the start.  But it was a devastatingly effective. The French army entered the horrific Russian winter with no food and no warm clothing. Napoleon wavered for five weeks, still expecting the Tsar and his generals to surrender. Finally he ordered a retreat.

Fewer than 100 000 recrossed the Neiman River.  Harried all the way home by the Russians the starving, demoralised, frostbitten army continued to shrink through disease, death and desertion.  When they got home, the harrying army invaded Paris.  Napoleon had been utterly vanquished.

The history is fascinating.   The theory is compelling.  It is easy to be caught up in the definition of ‘Center of Gravity’ and the debates about what could have made the difference in a battle or a war.  Was Borodino necessary in the Russian Campaign?  After Waterloo the Duke of Wellington was to quote: “It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”.  But for us, as we prepare our next step in business we can ask more focused questions:

How well do you know your competitors? Do you know their competitive strategy? Have you understood the critical capabilities and critical requirements for the success of your own competitive strategy? Do you know the critical vulnerabilities of your competitors as they play out their Centres of Gravity?

As Jack Welsh says “do you know what they eat for breakfast?” After all, this may be your breakfast they are eating.