By Mike Cline, VP Operations, Venturist, Inc.
Understanding and applying the fundamental rules or Cardinal Rules of strategy as John likes to call them is essential for success as a Strategic Thinker, Strategic Planner or Strategic Organization. One of those Cardinal Rules is Go To Rome.
Is your organization “Going to Rome”? I went to Rome several times in the 1980’s and found it to be quite an interesting city. Lots of history in and about Rome. You may not have plans to Go to Rome but you should-strategic plans.
A long, long time ago in a land faraway, there was a great General-Hannibal. A Carthaginian who had successfully fought the Romans in southern Europe for many years, Hannibal fought what he thought to be the decisive battle of the Second Punic War (218-203 BC) at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC) some 200 miles southeast of Rome. In a remarkable tactical achievement, Hannibal used double envelopment tactics to defeat a superior Roman force. To this day, the battle of Cannae is studied as one of the most important tactical battles in military history. Outnumbered at least 2 to 1, the Carthaginians inflicted devastating casualties on the Romans and their allies with an estimated 50-70,000 killed or captured-probably at least 90% of the Roman force. Hannibal’s casualties were extremely low by comparison. Rome was undefended.
At the conclusion of the battle, Maharbal, one of Hannibal’s senior commanders, implored Hannibal to begin the march to seize Rome. Hannibal resisted, citing the great victory they had just achieved. “We’ve just defeated the Roman Army in a great battle, there is nothing to be gained by going to Rome.” Maharbal famously replied: “No one man has been blessed with all God’s gifts. Hannibal you know how to gain a victory; you do not know how to use it.”
Years later in 202 BC, a Roman Army, under the generalship of Scipio Africanus, a survivor of the Battle of Cannae, defeated a Carthaginian army at the Battle of Zama in the Third Punic War in North Africa. Eventually Carthage was sacked, completely destroyed and its citizens placed into slavery forever. In 196 BC, merely 20 years after the Battle of Cannae, Carthage was gone forever.
Twentieth Century examples of not knowing “Where is our Rome?” are many, but sometimes a bit harder to see.
One example might be the U.S. Auto Industry in the in later half of the 20th Century. Ford, Chrysler and General Motors battled it out amongst themselves trying to out market share each other and lost sight of the true Rome for the American Auto Industry-the American consumer. By contrast, Japanese automakers, although initially not tactically superior to Detroit knew where Rome was-the American consumer. One example of this is this objective statement from a Nissan-USA strategic goals document in 1971:
NMC-USA distributes high quality vehicles tailored to the American consumer’s needs at a competitive price.
Nowhere in that document did Nissan talk about the competitors, market share or tactics. They knew where Rome was-the American consumer. Toyota and other Japanese automakers were equally aware of their Rome in the US. Alex Taylor III, Fortune Magazine Senior Editor captures this idea very well in: America’s best car company! (Fortune Magazine, March 2007). A once powerful Detroit auto industry may have won many tactical battles in the 20th Century, but today they are a bit like Carthage, suffering because they failed to “Go To Rome.”
Are your business and organizational strategies taking you to Rome or are you merely finding ways to win those tactical battles in front of you. Are you caught up in winning market share and price battles while the market, your Rome, eludes you? Where is your “Rome?” Are you headed there? Do you understand the difference between battles and wars? Focus on your strategy, not your tactics.
“All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.” – Sun Tzu