From Certain to Win by Chet Richards

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Nice review of some of the concepts described by John Boyd in the context of business.

Agility

The essence of agility and applying Boyd’s ideas to any form of competition is to keep one’s orientation well matched to the real world during times of ambiguity, confusion, and rapid change, when the natural tendency is to become disoriented.

What wins

All warfare is based upon deception (Sun Tzu), John Boyd did this table about “what wins”:

Blitzkrieg

Guerrilla warfare.

Key attributes:

  • Mutual trust, unity and cohesion.
  • Intuitive feel, specially for complex and chaotic situations.
  • Mission, generally considered as a contract between superior and subordinate.
  • Any concept that provides focus and direction to the operation. Implicit communication.

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