Apr 11, 2019
Amateurs Study Strategy; Experts Study Logistics
In the business world, the military analogy “Amateurs strategy; experts study logistics” emphasizes the importance beyond the initial success of a surge effort. Specifically, in relation to D-Day, the analogy shows the importance of establishing a port to provide fuel, reinforcements, ammunition, food, and supplies to the troops. The initial Normandy invasion of 135,000 troops required a daily landing of 15,000 tons of supplies a day and as the presence increased so did the supplies. Thus, the Allies were forced to secure a port.
The Allies chose to build two ports and bring them to the coast of Normandy. This allowed them the opportunity to establish a port at an area that was not heavily fortified (the Germans defended port locations closely). This out of the box thinking allowed the Allies to achieve the objective and support the ongoing mission on land.
Business Reflections…
The importance of innovation and ability to think beyond the traditional structures is sometimes the only pathway to success. Think about Uber, Amazon, and other disruptive methods of transacting business. Each approached the same objective (black cars, books for reading), but achieved the ‘big picture’ in a manner not conceived viable by the incumbents.
The key elements to achieve innovation from lessons at Arromanches:
- Focus on the objective and not the details on ‘how.’ This allows for iterations on methods while maintaining the continued support structure.
- Establish a team with a leader to drive the innovation. The team should be organized differently than the primary organization. This was done in Britain and allowed the the Skunkworks group to succeed. The Skunkworks failed the first time and were reorganized in a new team to finally reach success.
- Plan redundancy. Two Allied piers were built. One of the piers was destroyed by weather (an identified risk), but luckily there was still one standing and supported the logistics for many months.
- Demonstrate success capability through detailed analysis. To allay counter arguments, it is necessary to present a clear and evidence-supported case proving how the solution will be successful.
The Supply Chain
Here are a few generally obvious but necessary statements on the make-up of supply chain. The service of the business and the delivery of product depends upon the inputs. These inputs are as important as the final work product. Failure to receive any input or damage of an input will lead to failure in the market. Each input must meet the integrity, quality, and security standards of the product it seeks to become.
Suppliers need to posses integrity to ensure the inputs are not damaged, sabotaged, or fraudulent. The reliability and availability of the inputs need to be vetted with redundant providers and consideration of every part of the delivery channel is key. For instance, regarding a Cloud service provider hosting data: what are the ISPs, routers, equipment, regional laws, etc. that effect this delivery of such a service?
A business must be able to achieve entry into a market category and sustain it! It is not enough to put a toe in the water, but rather sustain the patience and capability to grow in the market. Success is achieved through building scales into the business architecture and forming teams that are innovative and strong enough to become the senior management and leads.
I love history and think these significant events are constantly worth revisiting for value and remembrance.
Apply Strategy
You need a strategy. If you are constantly fighting fires and micromanaging your teams and your businesses, you’ll never succeed. You’ll burn resources; exhaust team members; wipe out all good will between the business and the employees (no longer team members when micromanaged), and destroy culture. Frankly once you have wiped out the culture, the sticky power of human creativity and worth ethic, you have basically lost the business.
Strategy is needed in going to market. It is needed in how you govern and lead your products globally in a mixed service provider; supply chain, and massively sophisticated cloud services delivery model. As an example, I am working on a small project and we integrate with 2 cloud service providers, a RaspberryPi, terraform scripts, 2 different machine learning systems, and we integrate with voice commanded endpoints in the consumer. That is a small project — just imagine what you will see at scale. Every element here needs to be woven into a proper thought out, culturally mindful, and market driven strategy. There is just no other way.
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About Me
I am a father, study of human behavior, strategist, cybersecurity veteran, and a coach and mentor on a journey to give more than I receive everyday. I lead teams globally, build products, and daily an executive for a leading company where I serve the largest companies in the world using the largest cloud deployments in the world impacting the financial services, healthcare, and fintech industries. I provide these publications and content through my media agency to deliver insights and advantages. Mindset, mental strength, mentorship, personal improvement, health, fitness, and humanist ideas are drawn from personal research and practice. Everything read and heard is my original works and my own perspective. All rights reserved for noted authors and sources. I produce research and strategy, as well as provide advisory services that include inquiries, briefings, consulting projects, and presentations on published findings as well as bespoke speaking engagements where I often keynote at conferences, seminars, and roundtables annually.
