Chapter 4

Building and Improving the Capacity to Target Critical Vulnerabilities

• Targeting critical vulnerabilities is a top-down, bottom-up process.

• Gaps in opponents defenses often lead to critical vulnerabilities.

• Remember the powerful psychological impact of exploiting a competitor s Achilles heel.

• Top down identification:

  • Lead from the front: position yourself as close to the point of decision as possible without crowding your people.

• Bottom-up identification: Rely on your people to lead you to critical vulnerabilities

  • Lead by walking around: regularly ask your people to identify critical vulnerabilities in their respective spheres of influence. Compile and synthesize this information. Recognize and reward their efforts.

• Top-down identification:

  • Formulate your own hypotheses about where the market is going at your level and anticipate critical vulnerabilities before they appear.

  • Reconnaissance, intelligence, and war gaming have their equivalents in business; they are known as market study, environmental scan, and scenario analysis.

• Top-down exploitation:

  • When you identify critical vulnerabilities within your sphere of influence, relentlessly push your people to exploit them as rapidly as possible.

• Bottom-up exploitation:

  • When the critical vulnerability identified exceeds your sphere of influence, gather the information necessary to make a convincing case, formulate a plan of action, and challenge your superiors to act.

• Minimize the lag time between identification and exploitation.

  • Critical vulnerabilities are fleeting opportunities.

• Continually scrutinize your own organization to identify its critical vulnerabilities and prevent rivals from targeting them.