Eight Strategic Principles In Commercial War

The general's way is the first thing we learned from militarist.

The second category we need to learn is the strategic principles of some houses concluded by military scientists.

These principles come from military practice and are used to guide practice.

We can not demand the fact that the victorious generals are few.

We need to familiarise ourselves with all aspects of the enemy and ourselves during the war, find out the rules of their actions, and apply these laws to our own actions.

Principle of concentrated forces

Among all the military works and the most famous war cases in China and the world, the concentrated force principle is the first strategic principle most respected by the military.

Mao Zedong called this principle "standing side by side", that is, concentrating superior forces in one direction: "our experience is that there is almost no failure in the separation of troops, and the concentration of forces to strike less or equal to me or slightly larger than my enemy is often successful."

In the early days of the Red Army, Mao Zedong clearly pointed out: "concentrating forces on the main direction, strategically hitting a fist."

Against two fists.

Under the conditions of strong enemy forces, no matter how many armies they have, in one time, the main use direction should be only one, and there should be no two. "

The scholars who studied Napoleon generally believed that Napoleon's invincibility in Europe in 20 years is that Napoleon is good at mobilizing the most powerful forces in the strategy and concentrating on fundamental goals. Decisive battle is the key to winning.

In Clausewitz's eyes, the concentrated force is mainly reflected in the quantity principle he said. After reviewing the Napoleon war, he said: "the biased review of modern military history has led to the following conclusion: quantitative superiority is becoming more decisive day by day, so the principle of concentrating the maximum quantity as much as possible is also considered to be more important than any other time in the past."

Quantitative advantage: "this is the most common principle of victory in strategy and tactics."

Napoleon himself has the motto of "more soldiers to win the journey".

Of course, Clausewitz also knows that the principle of concentrated forces is not the only principle of victory. "Only when the strength of quantity is large enough to offset all other factors, it is the most important factor determining the success of a battle."

But what if we can't get the advantage of quantity?

Clausewitz also clearly answered: "whenever we can not get absolute advantage, the only way is to make use of the existing forces in our hands to make skillful use in order to produce a relative advantage at the decisive point."

The so-called relative advantage is to skillfully concentrate superior forces at the decisive point.

It is usually based on the following factors: the correct judgment of those points, the right direction to begin with, and the determination to sacrifice important interests for important interests. "

Mao Zedong's summary is a simple four words: "destroy one by one."

"To win by defeating the masses and inferiority to advantage is to win the first battle with their local advantages and initiative, to the partial disadvantages and passivity of the enemy, and then break the situation with the rest and turn the whole situation into an advantage and turn into an initiative."

On the Korean battlefield, Mao Zedong proposed to destroy the US Army with the strength of 9 times.

In the first battle of the first anti encirclement and suppression campaign in December 30, 1930, 40 thousand people were struck against 9000 of Zhang Huizan.

In the later war of liberation, it was also pointed out that "concentrating the superior forces and annihilating the enemy are the only correct methods of operation used to destroy the enemy's 25 brigades in the past 3 months.

Our concentration must be 6 times, 5 times, 3 times, at least 3 times the enemy, so that we can effectively annihilate the enemy.

In 1947, Mao Zedong put this item into ten major military principles.

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In addition to Zhang Ruimin, everyone seems to attach great importance to the principle of centralized forces.

In Wang Shi's performance, it is "only subtraction, not additions," which is manifested in HUAWEI's "never enter" principle written into the HUAWEI Basic Law: "in order to make HUAWEI a world-class supplier of equipment, we will never enter the information service industry."

Guanghui's Sun Guangxin seems to have the same creed.

For entrepreneurs who truly understand military strategy,

But in management and military affairs, it is often difficult to concentrate.

This is what Mao Zedong once sighed: "concentration of troops seems easy, and implementation is rather difficult. As everyone knows, the best way to win is to win more and win less. However, many people can not do it. On the contrary, it is often because of the lack of strategic thinking of the instructors and the confusion of the complex environment that they are dominated by the environment, lose their independence and adopt the doctrine of coping.

Goal specific principle

The goal principle is actually a logical consequence of the principle of concentration.

The purpose of concentration is to achieve goals.

If the target is unclear or incorrect, a force, even a highly concentrated force, can not win.

In fact, many defeats are caused by unclear or incorrect goals.

In the early days of the Korean War, the aim of the volunteers was to fight a great war of annihilation and to destroy the US Army as a whole.

But when Mao Zedong discovered that this goal was unrealistic, he immediately reduced the target to "Zero sugar," only asked to eat one enemy regiment, one battalion, even one platoon and one class at a time, winning a small victory, and finally achieving the goal of returning the US troops to the negotiating table.

The accuracy of goals should not be overlooked.

In fact, in any war, there is a core problem that must be solved. This problem is to recognize the enemy's "center of gravity".

If the other side is defeated, then the whole battle will take place against the enemy's disadvantage.

Mao Zedong called it a hub.

The key to deciding what is the hub and what is the need for talent and talent.

The battle of Liao Shen campaign of the PLA first hit Jinzhou and then hit Changchun. In fact, this is a correct choice, which will eventually enable the PLA to "shut the door and beat dogs" on the Northeast battlefield.

In the latter part, I will also discuss the question of a confused soldier Entrepreneur: what happens after victory? In fact, this is a common problem, and this is the reason why this problem arises because usually a soldier's goal is very clear in the first stage of entrepreneurship, which may be a simple survival goal, but after winning the victory, especially after the big win, he doesn't know what to do.

Although some people have some empty goals, such as entering the world's top 500, he actually does not know where to fight and what to achieve.

Therefore, a natural consequence of Sheng Jun is that the force can no longer be concentrated, so we will never see the original "victorious generals" continue to win.

Surprise principle

The principle of surprise, or the principle of surprise attack, is considered by Clausewitz to be the third of military strategy.

It requires the troops to win quickly by taking action and choosing surprise points.

Sun Ziyan: "soldiers, the way of deception."

He added: "the war is not singular, but to coincides with Clipsal."

In fact, they all illustrate the role of surprise attacks.

Clausewitz said: "surprise attack is not only a tool for gaining quantity advantage, but also is regarded as a substantive principle based on its spiritual potency.

When a surprise attack is highly successful, the consequence is chaos and loss of courage within the enemy. "

"Advantages can be generated in sports, especially in surprise attacks."

In terms of method, "secrets and speed are two factors in this product."

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Pursuit principle

Clausewitz thought that the fourth principle that could be called the principle was pursuing, "pursuing the defeated enemy is the only way to win the fruit."

When I first saw this formulation, I thought it might be a storm in a teacup.

Do people who fight do not know the truth of winning the battle? But when I see the practices of some enterprises that I am familiar with, I can not help thinking: This is also a very important principle for entrepreneurs.

For example, one of my clients opened up sales in one industry because of the principle of centralization.

Everyone is happy, but few people think: what should I do next? If I become a supplier of an insurance company, how can I become a second member and how to become a supplier of all insurance companies?

Most people are not complacent, but feel complacent. I think I have increased by 60% this year. Why do I need more effort?

Let's see how Clausewitz said, "when the number of defeated troops increases, the scale of victory is not proportional to the size of the defeated forces, but rather an increase in series.

The mental effects of victory in a war are far greater than those in the losers, so we must pay special attention to this mental effect.

In addition to the four principles of Clausewitz strategy mentioned above, four new strategic principles are put forward here.

Initiative principle

Or the principle of initiative.

Good generals attach great importance to this. He can make many sacrifices, but he can not lose the initiative of war.

In the book "six towers" in history, the principle was put forward: "Tai Gong said," every soldier's way is better than one.

One can go all alone. "

According to our understanding today, this is initiative.

Sun Tzu emphasised that "to be human rather than to be human".

Initiative means choosing the right time, place and way to fight with the enemy rather than letting the enemy decide.

According to Clausewitz, the initiative is embodied in a force that forces the enemy to make decisive battle in their chosen place, and the final aim of the decisive battle is to destroy the enemy.

That is to say: Clausewitz's initiative is reflected in attack.

In fact, Clausewitz believes that attack is a more active form of combat.

Mao Zedong also fully understood the significance of initiative in strategic decision making.

At different times, he led the army to win and exercise the initiative in different ways: movement, diversion, guerrilla warfare, mobile warfare, defensive warfare until attack.

In all the forms of war, Mao Zedong has grasped the highest point of initiative principle.

A famous saying of Mao Zedong is: "war is nothing, just win, fight and win."

When you are strong enough, you will attack the enemy: when you are weak, you will drag down the enemy.

But at any time, the enemy can not command their own actions.

In the 20 years of fighting, almost all the methods Mao Zedong created were centered around such a core.

Unified command principle

One army can not have two leaders at the same time.

This seems to be an obvious principle, so I don't have to explain too much.

What is interesting is that the famous generals in history are almost all political and military leaders. Napoleon and Alexander in history are almost all alike.

For several decades, the chief of the general staff, and three wars and three victories, helped William I establish the German Empire's old Mao Qi. He had a deep understanding of this principle.

1, war can not be led by meetings. People must speak to make decisions; {page_break}

2, the chief of staff and commanders are only advisors to the commanders.

3, even bad plans can be better executed than comprehensive and uncertain products.

4, we must encourage commanders to play an active role under the unified operational principles.

5, the fewer orders the superiors have to the subordinates, the simpler the better.

Old Mao Qi even said: "as long as tactics can win, the strategy can give in."

Under such a tolerant subordinate commander, how to ensure that the overall strategic intent can be implemented?

The headquarters and the staff who follow the commanders of various fields have the responsibility to lead and carry out the overall intention. This is achieved by not relying on the power of the commanders to command, but because they have better reasons, beliefs and common military beliefs.

As an entrepreneur, HUAWEI's Ren Zhengfei seems to have a similar view: "the top decisions are not from the public.

Truth is often held in the hands of a few. "

Principles of planning and calculation

Mao Zedong said, "do not fight the war without preparation, and do not fight the battle of no certainty."

To prepare well, we must plan and calculate.

Sun Tzu said, "the art of War: two degrees, three times, four times, five wins.

It is called Sheng Sheng.

Therefore, if a soldier wins the battle, he will be defeated. "

Sun Tzu said, "know that we can strike, but we know that the enemy can not be defeated, but half the battle is won. We know that the enemy can strike, but we do not know that we can not strike the enemy and win the battle. We know that the enemy can attack, we know that we can fight, but we do not know that the terrain can not fight, and win half the battle.

The old saying is: knowing the other and knowing the victory is not perilous.

Knowing heaven knows the ground, victory is not poverty. "

Old Mao Qi once made an opposite analogy. He thought that war is like commerce: military strength is investment, victory is profit, everything has a precise and reasonable calculation.

In fact, he spent many years planning and preparing for every battle he fought, and his opponents did not have (nor had time) to make enough preparations.

A logical consequence of the principles of planning and calculation is that the allocation of resources in the army is consistent with its strategic objectives.

If we want to fight a war of annihilation, we must concentrate several times the superior strength of the enemy; we must provide enough weapons for these forces; we must prepare adequate logistic support for their operations.

All these are unfamiliar to soldiers.

However, we can observe that many entrepreneurs have a big objective on the one hand, but on the other hand they do not want to take the minimum resources to achieve their goals.

We must clearly figure out that such an enterprise is bound to fail.

Planning and calculation are as important as enterprise strategy.

Similarly, we know that not everything is computable in reality. Perhaps the initial mobilization and concentration of forces can be calculated, and the changes in war after the war are unpredictable.

In spite of this, rolling and updating according to the latest situation are the only way to allocate limited resources reasonably.

Principles of innovation and contingency

The last principle in war science seems to be the principle of innovation and strain.

Mao Zedong said, "scholar soldiers will lose their soldiers."

The reason is that he only knows the truth of the book, but he doesn't know that the reality is not identical with the book. If you want to win the battle, there is no other way. You can only innovate according to your circumstances and act according to circumstances.

The only thing that remains unchanged in this world is change, especially in war. I believe there are many tactics in the war of resistance against Japan, such as mine warfare, underground warfare, water network warfare, mountain guerrilla warfare and so on.

Although the principles of guerrilla warfare remain the same (as I mentioned in these strategic principles), how to apply them in a certain time must be decided according to the specific circumstances.