The term “military intelligence” is often put forth as the epitome of an oxymoron, and while it is true that many military processes and approaches do not easily make the transition to the business world, there are several that should not be overlooked, intelligence being one of the most significant. When it comes to what the business world calls forecasting, the military is as intelligent, if not more so, than all but the savviest of consumer marketers. Making use of satellites, reconnaissance, weather reports and forward observers, military operations are a superb coordination between strategy and intelligence.

A second area where the military excels is in the training, authority and empowerment given to its middle management team, the lieutenants, captains and majors running operations, quite literally, on the ground. While this might seem counterintuitive for a highly command-and-control oriented culture, it is actually a purpose-built feature that incorporates this operational flexibility into the larger, strategic command system. An astute observation made by author and Eisenhower biographer Stephen Ambrose in his book, “D-Day”, was that the wide operational latitude given the junior officers who spearheaded the landings when compared to their Axis counterparts made all the difference in the many tactical battles it took to secure a beachhead. This empowerment was most noticeable during such actions as the Ranger’s assault of the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, and when the Utah beach landings turned out to be a mile off target.

What underlies this empowerment of the management team in the field is this: the military does not view strategy as having a single, fixed definition, as being a one-size-fits-all concept. Instead, they view strategy as a set of options, a set of options available to the line commanders depending upon the conditions and environment they encounter. This is not so much a Plan A followed by a back-up Plan B. Instead, the plans essentially carry equal weight depending on the conditions encountered. Plan A is based on one set of assumptions, the most likely conditions, with Plans B, C and D based on other, perhaps less likely but still reasonable assumptions, regarding how the situation may unfold.

Through this model of strategy as a set of assumptions, the military can bring together the benefits of both a coordinated, high level strategy under a strict command-and-control regimen, and the flexibility required to navigate the changing conditions encountered on the front lines. The field officers are not free to improvise anything, as such over-empowerment would severely diminish the effectiveness of the larger, coordinated organization, with its air-support, logistics, intelligence, and communications components. However, within these pre-approved and pre-rehearsed scenarios, they have considerable flexibility when it comes to execution, knowing all the while that whatever choice they make they will still be operating in support of the overall objective. Within the military, strategy is purposefully linked and communicated all the way down, from the Commander in Chief to each company and platoon; the military does very little that is not “strategic” in this sense.

Commercial businesses, too, would be wise to apply these principles to their operations. You should ask yourself three questions:

1) Is your corporate strategy adequately communicated throughout the organization,

2) Are your departmental level projects, programs, initiatives, campaigns and objectives linked to and driven by your corporate strategy, and

3) Do you have scenarios / options developed, tested and made available at the point where the rubber meets the road.

To the first point, if your strategic goal is quality, has this been clearly communicated throughout the business, not just to the QC function? Regarding integration, if your corporate strategy is innovation, is this strategy actually driving your development projects and your marketing campaigns, or are they perhaps cost and sales driven in spite of your high level innovation objective? Lastly, just as with the Ranger captain who led the team up the cliffs while under enemy fire, are your department managers empowered to take immediate action, and do they have a set of options available to them, based upon reasonably foreseeable environmental assumptions, that you can be certain are also aligned with the overall corporate strategy?

Alignment, communication and scenario planning – the three keys to applying the concept of “strategy as a set of options” in the commercial environment.