Rouse the Enemy
You should rouse the enemy to figure out where they are weak and where they are strong. In other words, find ways to toy with the enemy. It will give you valuable information. In this way, you can see where the enemy is weak and where it is strong.
You should constantly compare your forces to those of the competition. You should match up strengths and weaknesses to gain a strategic advantage.
In business, you need to develop a similar mindset. You should seek out the competition and learn everything you can about them. Some companies do this by hiring past employees. They are mostly interested in their knowledge and contacts more than their work capacity.
Some companies will send fake signals to the competition. This is a form of rousing them. The goal is to see how the competition will compete and then you can choose a plan of attack that will defeat them.
In an example, suppose that IBM decided to make mp3 players that competed with Apple. IBM may hold a press conference to show their new product and how it will compete with Apple. Then, IBM will take watch and see how Apple responds. If IBM is really good, they will have spies at Apple reporting to them on the reaction of IBM.
Goldman Sachs is really good at this concept. They have people all over the highest parts of government all around the world. They use these people to get privileges of information that nobody else can get. They then use this information to make superior returns for their clients. Their superiority in returns attracts top clients from all over the world.
Goldman Sachs even used this concept in the bailout plan. After the bailout was voted down in the House of Representatives, they met with key democrats to force the proposal through. The reason it worked is because they had infiltrated the highest parts of government. Some people call the US government Government Goldman because they have been so good at using their people to control congress and everyone else. Money talks and Goldman uses every possible tactic they can to ensure they will win. Goldman is a true warrior with it comes to strategic plans.
In the case of the bailout, they tried one thing to see what would happen. Then, they used that information to masterfully change the outcome. After the first vote, they had an idea of who would vote for it and who wouldn't. They also had a pretty good idea of who could be bought off and who couldn't. The “original vote” was great way to gather information that could be used against the country whether it was intended that way or not.
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