Chapter 12: An Integrated Attack - Examples from Business

Overview

We will deliver the right product to the right customer at the right time and at the right price.

”Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris, founders, Capital One ^[1]

In Chapter 2, we featured the Israelis resounding victory in the 1967 War to illustrate how the maneuver warfare philosophy has been employed in full force to achieve a maximum impact with a minimum expenditure of resources in combat. In Chapters 1 and 3, we defined maneuver warfare and broke it down into seven guiding principles. In Chapters 4 through 10 we analyzed each principle in detail and provided numerous supporting examples from warfare and business. And in Chapter 11 we showed how the principles could be employed together in a subset.

In Chapter 12 we come full circle ”to the employment of all seven guiding principles as an integrated whole in business. Two examples distinguish themselves among the many we have reviewed in our research efforts. Prominent New York arbitrageur and former U.S. Marine Corps captain Guy Wyser-Pratte has employed all seven principles as an active investor in underperforming companies to deliver, year-in and year-out, annual returns far in excess of the S&P 500. And Capital One Financial s emergence in the 1990s as a leading credit card issuer exemplifies how a corporation can apply all seven principles in an integrated manner to achieve explosive growth and superior profit margins.

^[1] www.capitalone.com.