Attack Vulnerabilities
Sun Tzu said, “When an invading force crosses a river in its onward march, do not advance to meet it in mid-stream. It will be best to let half the army get across, and then deliver your attack.”
A business will set up barriers to entry. They may have better prices with suppliers. They may have a favorable brand image to consumers. They may produce something that is better and intellectually protected. These barriers are to keep out the enemy.
A river is the same idea. It is a barrier between you and the enemy. We learn from Sun Tzu, that we should attack a company as they are trying to overcome a barrier. The ideas is to wait until the competition is committed to overcoming the problem and to stop them when they are have halfway come through the barrier. This strategy makes sense. If you try to stop them before they come across, they may just run down the river or up the river and cross where you can't see. If they are all the way across, they will be harder to put back. If they are halfway, they have no real advantage and you are in the superior position to attack.
If you are the small guy crossing the river, you should cross quickly and secretly. Then, when you are across, get away from the river so that you aren't hewn in. In other words, a small business should cross barriers quickly and secretly and then keep moving onto other things.
Sun Tzu said this, “Moor your craft higher up than the enemy, and facing the sun. Do not move up-stream to meet the enemy. So much for river warfare.”
There are businesses that try and follow the competition around. They are essentially copycats. Sun Tzu says that it is not a good strategy. Should you follow the competitor upstream to fight them or should you moor your craft. In plain terms, you should work on your own technology and try to gain higher ground on your own intellect rather than follow someone else around. The reason is that the competitor will always have advantage at their own ideas they started on before you came along. They will gain patents and legal protection while you are trying to follow them around. You will be at a disadvantage. And once again, face the sun by treating employees well and having a nice place to work.
One example of facing the sun is to give a programmer a quiet high wall office. In today's world so many companies skimp on infrastructure. Many of the brightest people want a quiet place to work and they get stuck listening to gossip from a nearby cubicle. Microsoft has done an excellent job of providing their top scientists with quiet high wall offices that they can really think and get some work done.
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