Three Maneuver Strategies
January 15, 2016
© 2016 Phillips/Verjovsky. All Rights Reserved.
Maneuver Strategy
• Maneuver strategy is an alternative to attrition.
Both are well-understood in the military but only
attrition has been adopted in business contexts.
• Companies using attrition seek to match product
for product, feature for feature in a bloody
struggle over market share.
• With attrition, a competitor either quickly
eliminates a rival or two or more rivals settle in
for a long slog to win incremental market share
points no matter what the cost
• With Maneuver, competitors seek to win at the
lowest possible cost
1
Maneuver
As the name suggests, maneuver relies on speed and agility
far more than size and strength. Rather than simplify
identifying a competitor and matching offerings feature for
feature, maneuver relies on gathering insight, interpreting
information and making rapid, intelligent movements.
There are three maneuver strategies which we’ll define here:
1. Preemption
2. Dislocation
3. Disruption
2
Preemption
Preemption: Identifying and taking a valuable, unoccupied
position, and building defenses to block fast followers.
Preemption requires a close examination of a competitive
space, to identify valuable locations, positions, channels or
customers that are overlooked or ignored, and moving into
that position before competitors can react.
Any firm, of any size, can execute preemption. New
entrants or adjacent competitors are more likely to conduct
preemption than existing competitors.
3
Preemption Example
Airbnb vs major hotel chains
If we think about hotel chains (Marriott, Hilton, etc) as
primarily service organizations that provide reservations for
clean, safe and affordable rooms, then we can ask the next
question: does the room have to be owned or leased by
Marriott or Hilton? In other words, could Marriott or Hilton
have served the customers that Airbnb is serving? We
believe that the answer is YES, if the hotel chains had
thought about themselves as a reservation system rather
than thinking about themselves as a real estate company.
4
Preemption Example
Airbnb preempted the hotel chains
Airbnb moved into a valuable, unoccupied space that the hotel
chains overlooked or ignored. We know the space is valuable
because of the growth and profitability of Airbnb.
The hotel chains have two options – attempt to follow Airbnb and
compete for those customers (which may impact their branding
and image) or fight Airbnb. They are choosing to fight, on the
grounds that Airbnb is unconventional and perhaps not in
alignment with regulations
5
Did Airbnb enter a valuable space?
6
Airbnb competing on speed
7
Dislocation
In some cases preemption may not be possible. If you must
attack a competitor, it makes sense to avoid attacking them head
on, feature to feature, unless you are certain to overwhelm the
competitor and remove them from competition.
The second maneuver strategy, which is useful when you face
an incumbent competitor, is dislocation. Dislocation seeks to
identify important vulnerabilities. Once a competitor’s
vulnerabilities are identified, dislocation seeks to attack in such a
way that the competitor cannot bring its full strength against the
attacker.
8
Dislocation
To attack a competitor using
dislocation, you must first identify
vulnerabilities. These typically exist
in one of four areas:
1. Strategies
2. Tangible requirements
3. Intangibles
4. Offerings
Finding a weakness opens up
opportunities for dislocation
9
Dislocation example
Zara vs Fashion houses and retailers
A classic dislocation attack is occurring right now, in every
mall and shopping location. Zara, an upstart in the fashion
industry, is dislocating leading fashion houses and retailers
in two dimensions. First, it produces and turns its
collections far more quickly than haute couture designers,
forcing them into a rhythm the designers cannot sustain.
Second, Zara uses integrated store and sales data more
effectively than any other fashion retailer.
10
Is Zara successful?
Zara leading in the fast fashion industry
“The secret of fast fashion retailing is the ability to generate
quick turnover of merchandise in the stores. New fashion
designs are shipped at a rapid rate, there are few basics and
reorders are rare. The customer knows that she should buy an
item she likes when she sees it. The Inditex Group prides itself
to deliver quality merchandise in as little as three weeks from its
own factories. Designers develop new models daily – sometimes
three or four a day – which are then reviewed and are put into
production. It is no wonder that versions of new designs by
fashion designers in Paris are in Zara stores within a very short
time of appearing on the runway.” from Forbes, March 2015
11
Disruption
If preemption isn’t available, and you face a competitor with
few exposed vulnerabilities, maneuver still offers an option
to compete. Rather than attack a specific weakness, the
last strategy, disruption, seeks to attack in dozens of small
attacks, a “death of a thousand cuts” mentality, which
forces a competitor to delay plans, distracts the
management team and disrupts efficient operations.
12
Examples of Disruption
While disruption is probably the “weakest” attack, it has the
broadest application potential. We can disrupt any of the four
factors (strategies, requirements, intangibles and offerings) that
we choose.
For example, food trucks disrupt established restaurants. They
show up just when customers go to lunch, and leave when the
crowds die down. They are subject to the same requirements,
and have many of the same offerings.
As another example, consider Amazon Prime and its new
delivery features and potential offerings, like delivery by drone.
This distracts and disrupts plans by Fedex and UPS, which rely
on Amazon for a significant portion of their business.
13
Maneuver for every setting
The good news is that there is a maneuver strategy for every
setting. If you are fortunate enough to identify a valuable,
unoccupied position, preemption is the course to follow.
If you face an incumbent competitor, assess its strengths and
weaknesses. If one or more significant vulnerabilities exist,
attack those in a way that forces the competitor to respond from
a position of weakness (dislocation).
If neither of these are true, harass, annoy, distract and delay
your competitor with disruption techniques.
14