From Battlefield to Boardroom

The wars in business may be bloodless, but they are no less fierce than those actually fought on the battlefield. Whether a company is looking to expand or to maintain its place in the market, managers, like their military counterparts, must have a strategy.

Dennis Laurie identifies 10 winning military strategies that have been used successfully, from Ancient Greece to Desert Storm and beyond. Using events taken from business headlines, Laurie shows how these same strategies are enabling companies of all industries and sizes to succeed today.

For example, by exploring Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia, Laurie details the strategy of patience. As Russian forces let the harsh winter defeat Napoleon, companies like Yahoo and Boeing now let their competitors overextend themselves and then reap the benefits. Drawing on Scipio's defeat of Carthage by attacking the enemy in their stronghold, Laurie shows how contemporary companies can win with the same strategy. When threatened by the London-based Financial Times in the United States, the Wall Street Journal retaliated by launching its own London edition.

Offered here, in practical format, are business strategies that can help managers of all levels forge their own business paths to victory.

1. Reconnaissance
2. "Annihilate the Red Army of Coca-Cola"
3. Strategy
4. Tora! Tora! Tora!
5. Patton's Morocca Initiative
6. Moses' Hebrews in Sinai
7. Desert Storm
8. United States — England — Russia
9. Napoleon's Russian Invasion
10. Spartans at Thermopylae
11. Sherman's March through Georgia
12. Vietnam
13. Black Hawks Down!
14. Debriefing

This book draws parallels between military strategies and business strategies. It does it very well and is entertaining. What I fail to see is where this will help me? Maybe if I was an old officer and needed to understand business better, this would be good, but right now, it is pretty useless. Buy something else.