0:15 hello and welcome to business lessons from the military I'm your host Kevin bemel and we are here every Tuesday morning at 11 A.M Pacific time uh 2 p.m eastern time had to think about that you know you think I would already have it memorized by now but how to make adjust the time zone and we our purpose in in these Tuesday meetings is to spend 30 minutes talking about how military Doctrine military history and Leadership by great military people can be applied
0:51 to our businesses so that we can make them run better be more prosperous and most importantly serve more people so from my perspective anyway that's what business is about today although reasonably you could say that that's what business has always been about certainly the most successful businesses that is what they they've done they've served their customers and clients and and that's why they they made a lot of money so we've been spending um the last several weeks examining
1:26 different aspects of Marine Corps War fighting Doctrine and we're going to continue with that today and like a good military guy I have my PowerPoint here we are business lessons from the military and here we go lay it from the start okay so uh and it's not going forward there we go so I I I'd like to just mention briefly all of my shows are based on this um
2:02 concept called the three pillars of attainment it's it's a way of organizing our lives and figuring out who we are what we want and that's that's where way to wow comes from way who are you wow what you want and we're dealing primarily in the Pursuits pillar in the finances realm although much of what we talk about as I uh note it will apply to other um other areas other Realms as well so last week we talked about the the in the
2:39 conduct of War applied to business we talked about maneuver Warfare if you missed that episode I invite you to go to our YouTube channel just youtube.com forward slash at the way to wow and you'll find all of our past shows like close to 150 of them now um on different topics um but you'll find the the playlist for business lessons from the military and you can go through this because these while we I deal with them as discrete topics they will be even more meaningful
3:16 for you if if you work with them kind of collectively on within the whole topic so okay so today we're going to talk about orienting on the enemy and for those of you who watch the show frequently so you may be a little bit mystified by this orienting on the enemy the enemy in business well yes and no so I I don't think I've mentioned this uh in in a few weeks but I do not look at business as War
3:52 um war is an existential uh human endeavor um it it often means that we are purposely taking the lives of human beings certainly minimally trying to disable them so they can't fight anymore and I I don't think that business should be pursued on that level God forbid however when we this concept of operating on the enemy or I'm sorry orienting on the enemy does translate into how we should
4:27 look at our businesses so from uh from a military standpoint when we talk about orienting on the enemy whatever we're doing within the military uh so for example let's say um we're an Electronics Warfare officer okay this is someone who might fly um in a command and control aircraft I'm talking from the Navy standpoint I should mention they may fly in an E2 that's a command and control uh aircraft
5:02 platform and before the other planes launch generally the E2 will launch and it will uh it will sort of circle above the aircraft carrier and what it does is it allows the aircraft carrier to communicate with the other planes in the Air Wing much farther away than they could if they're if they were communicating directly from the carrier okay so if you can picture here's the deck of the carrier if the planes fly off as they get farther away
5:37 at the curve of the globe starts getting in the way of being able to communicate so if you have a command and control aircraft up here it allows for direct communication with those aircraft it also gives a wider view of potential threats to the aircraft carrier right so if you're if you're up in that plane and you're one of the electronic warfare officers so you're in the back of the plane sitting in front of a computer screen right what you you're gonna have a very
6:13 specific function in terms of what you're doing up there you're not going to be doing everything that the air crew does so your function may be to watch out in a particular sector for potential threats to the carrier or it may be to relay messages to a particular Squadron or a two squadrons or to The Fighter Squadron something like that okay so and and and you're going to be doing that with the specific intent of figuring out
6:49 where is of Potential Threat coming from how is that threat being made and how can it be countered Okay so let's say for example your your you know response you're one of the electronic warfare officers responsible for um surveilling a particular sector for enemy threats okay so that may there may be an air threat okay and it could be a manned aircraft it could be a drone okay it could be a surface threat okay it
7:25 could be a ship again manned or drones um they they have they have both these days it could be an underwater threat it could be a a submarine okay and and then depending on what the threat is so how will that plane or how will that threat attack if it's an aircraft uh is it going to attack with missiles um is it you know gonna attack with missiles and then after that strafe the deck with you know machine gun fire or something like that I mean you see that in older movies uh these days who knows exactly you know how an aircraft stuff
8:01 would be armed if it's a surface threat again is it attacking with missiles if it's a underwater threat a submarine is it presumably it's attacking with Torpedoes but submarines can launch missiles as well okay so all of that has to be in and and you need to orient on the enemy to figure out what is their threat and then and then how can that how does that threat a Potential Threat need to be addressed okay that's from a military standpoint and what you're looking for is where is that enemy vulnerable
8:37 so that you can counter the threat okay where the enemy is vulnerable so you can counter the threat and you're going to do that by identifying systems and then getting inside the head of the enemy it may be this a specific pilot by how he's flying it may be on a more operational or strategic level what's really going on here is this being designed to actually take out the carrier sink it or is this
9:12 really designed to harass the carrier so you you you may know that American and other Allied ships will Transit the Taiwan Strait periodically because the United States and its allies view that as being international waters the uh Chinese however Mainland Chinese view it as being their territorial Waters so if a U.S or allied ship were were confronted in the Taiwan Strait the
9:48 question is why are they confronting it it just to sort of push back on the this show of free you know free navigation of the Seas or are they a real threat seeking to uh sink that ship okay that would that would have to be uh assessed and uh and and by the way the the the electronic warfare officer they wouldn't necessarily make the final assessment but they may gather data they'll send it back to the ship for the intelligence people and the leadership on the ship to
10:23 assess and then send back okay here's here's what we want to do do here's what we think the enemy is thinking Okay so um this this is a a more a little bit more difficult for us to to translate or apply to business but in thinking about this over the last um a week or so here's here's how I think we should address this so in in this in business while we could Orient it to the enemy in the sense of the
10:58 competition okay this is one way that we can use this concept we want to orient on the con on on the competition identify their systems and get inside their head if we can do that we could potentially leap over the competition and gain an edge in our business okay so let's let's look at a couple of examples so let's say that you're a toy manufacturer okay I think I've used this example before of
11:33 a toy manufacturer anyway so they're going to have various systems that they employ in order to manufacture the toys distribute them to the retailers and and thereby make their money okay so let's say that uh the particular toy manufacturer uh actually manufactures many of its toys outside of the United States okay maybe they manufacture them in Taiwan maybe they manufacture them in
12:09 mainland China maybe Vietnam maybe India okay Malaysia okay where wherever they're doing it okay so part of their system is Offshore Manufacturing now that means several things number one they have to get any raw materials that aren't available at that location to that location okay and and uh for example they may have they may be using Plastics so let's just use an example uh let's just use
12:45 Vietnam okay Vietnam is is becoming an increasingly uh larger trading partner with the United States Okay so I I don't know whether you know plastic is actually manufactured in Vietnam maybe it is but let's just say for the sake of this example it's not so in order to manufacture those toys the raw material of plastics typically these pellets have to be shipped to to Vietnam so that that material is there for them to manufacture into toys and their injection molds or whatever they're doing okay they're probably going to be
13:22 shipped there okay so there's a critical uh there's there's a critical vulnerability there what happens if they can't get enough shipping to get enough Plastics there to be able to manufacture enough of the toys for them to meet the demand in their Marketplace that's a critical vulnerability for them okay and it may be that you can take advantage of that for example let's say that um there's plastic being
13:58 manufactured in Bangladesh okay so you could say well okay so I'm going to tie up all the Plastics being manufactured in Bangladesh that might be one way of doing it could be difficult but what you might do is move your factory to Bangladesh close to this important raw material and in that way eliminate the RIS the transport risk of getting the plastic to you know Vietnam in this case right and in so doing you're taking advantage of a
14:36 critical enemy vulnerability our group I shouldn't call it enemy I don't I don't want to call you know business competitors enemies a critical competitor's vulnerability if something happens to disrupt international shipping or if the cost of of con of shipping a container spikes not going to bother you because all you need to do is is you know truck your your plastic from the supplier to the factory manufacturing it okay and in that so in that way you're identifying a
15:11 system that the enemy is Reliant upon and figuring out a way to take advantage take advantage of uh I'm sorry you're identifying a system that your competitor is relying on and you're taking advantage of the vulnerability to things that are to a large extent outside your competitors control and you're bringing something it may not be purely in your control right there could still be a trucking strike for example but a lot easier to deal with materials that are within the same country than you
15:46 know getting them from one country to another where it has to go by ship it it really can't go over land or going over land is is extremely complex because you're going through multiple uh National jurisdictions right it becomes a whole different thing you don't have to deal with tariffs any of that stuff if your critical suppliers and your manufacturer are located in the in the same country okay now another aspect of this is getting inside the head of your competitor okay the the Temptation for us is to
16:23 think everybody thinks the same way we do that's rarely the case so if we can figure out what is the what is what is our competitor planning how are they viewing the market how are they viewing the challenges in this line of business that can help us out compete that competitor okay so again let's let's take our toy example and let's say we've got that competitor who's Manufacturing in Vietnam okay and maybe
17:00 they're the Plastics that they're using is coming from China which is you know relatively close by right it's across the border right and so their attitude they may be thinking hey uh you know I don't have to worry about any problems I you know even if it's coming by ship normally you know if I have to I can send a truck from Vietnam I can send trucks from Vietnam into China and and and bring them back okay getting inside there they hey I don't this is one thing I don't have to worry
17:36 about okay and maybe you're you know following the news and you see that that there's you know conflict coming up between um you know or well let me let me change that maybe you get word let's say let's say you were in the Navy like me you get word that you know hey you know open intelligence sources that haven't hit the news are saying that there's there's a uh a heightening of tensions between Vietnam and China right well so so
18:12 you you're now inside your competitor's head they're thinking they've got no problem you know they are okay and you can potentially take advantage of the fact that their thinking is going to lead them into problems so for example you might have planned on a certain volume of production based on what your competitors what your competitors typically can produce and you may you may conclude based on the information you have that because there's they they believe so deeply that they're they're
18:48 not going to have this supply problem and it's going to Blindside them their production is going to decline and so you can increase your production and grab a bigger share of the market taking advantage of this vulnerability they've created by getting inside their head and realizing that they're thinking one way when really they should be looking over here okay it all sounds very it may sound a little Machiavellian but it's it's really just using information and by the way I I am
19:23 not in endorsing you know corporate spying I'm not I don't mean that at all but there's there's lots of information available in in the sort of open information Market if you will and we Overlook a lot of it we tend to overlook a lot of it because you know we're focused on whatever we're focused on right we have our vulnerabilities too so we want to be looking past our vulnerabilities what have we not considered that could potentially cause us a problem that our competitors can
20:00 take advantage of okay so it it it you know we need to get out of our sort of uh tunnel thinking okay and and broaden out and we need to take advantage of our competitors tunnel thinking if it appears they're thinking in a tunnel you know with tunnel vision or they're looking with tunnel vision I guess would be a better metaphor okay so that's that's one way to apply this now another way to apply it is not orienting on the competition but orienting on the
20:37 customer or orienting on the client in that respect we're not looking to take advantage of their vulnerabilities we're looking to protect them from their vulnerabilities okay and you see this quite often among uh Financial uh planning professionals so especially uh people in the insurance business they are trained to look at where are my clients potentially
21:14 vulnerable and how can I help them protect against those vulnerabilities and a large part of that is getting to know the client well enough to understand what their mindset is what their perspective is getting inside their head so we may think that hey you know they they need life insurance they need long-term care insurance they need uh um health insurance or whatever and and and and and and we're you because
21:50 because everybody needs that or whatever okay but there that may not be their concern in their head they may be thinking gosh you know my biggest concern right now is how am I going to afford to send my children to college okay which isn't to say that you want to overlook a need for insurance but you you we need to get inside their heads to understand where do they think they're vulnerable is that really their biggest vulnerability or are they overlooking other vulnerabilities that actually
22:27 could be much more devastating for them and then educate them to help them see to help them expand their View and see where they're truly vulnerable and where they need our help Okay so it may be all good and well um that they're concerned about sending their kids to college okay if their children are very very young right let's say they're in you know grade school college is a long way off and and and it still may be a vulnerability um however
23:03 you know if someone is in a job that uh you know very high stress or um a very um uh High turnover something like that so then their real vulnerability may be that you know it shouldn't happen but that there there's a risk that they will die when their children are still young and and then how was the family going to replace that lost income and that may be a bigger vulnerability and they're just not seeing that because who wants to
23:38 think about their own death right that's the hardest part about talking to people about life insurance is people I mean ew it's like now and let's talk about saving for my children's college education or you know things like they're saving for retirement okay so in in this second example when we talk about orienting on the we're talking about orienting on the clients on your customers where are there where where are they vulnerable where within the systems of their life are they vulnerable okay they may be vulnerable
24:15 in terms of where they live there's been a a a a big spike in crime right you look at some of the major cities across the country these days there's been big spike in crime in in New York in Los Angeles in Chicago and and they may be vulnerable there and not realize it and and they may not have a system there that that will help them in terms of making sure that their home is safe so they may need uh something as simple as a as an electric garage door opener so
24:51 if they come home late at night right they don't have to get out of their car to open the garage they can open it uh automatically and the lights will come on big so anyone you know hiding can't sneak into the garage without them knowing it and then you know again they can close the door behind them and then get out of their car and they'll know that they're safe okay so you know it you know again that if you're in the security business right you do that's what you do all the time you're actually fulfilling this aspect of the conduct of War applied to business because you're
25:26 looking for the critical vulnerabilities of your client okay and then you're you're addressing them all right but we we may be a professional handling some other or serving a client in some other way and and and we may get to know them and realize they have another critical vulnerability that they haven't addressed and it's not within our scope of what we do but we can refer them to someone who can address that and that gives us an opportunity to refer business which is another good way of
26:01 building our own businesses right because when you refer business help help other people out so then the the um uh likelihood is they'll they'll want to help you back okay so that is uh that is orienting on the enemy applied to the business world so I'm gonna I'm gonna uh actually here let's set up that uh uh you know okay so if you um have any questions or you want some help here's where you can contact me this will also be in the show notes
26:38 after the show posts on YouTube um and and and it's typically in the show notes I post on on the various social media Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Etc okay feel free to contact me with uh with any questions or suggestions or criticisms too if you think something I've said uh doesn't make sense or it's stupid Hey I want to hear why uh you know I I I I'd love to hear why you think something I said is stupid maybe it is and I just I just don't realize it um and here's you know the the legal steps let's go ahead and quit out of our
27:13 share here that is my show for today I do want to remind you that tomorrow is my regular Wednesday show people making money and I will be talking about uh financial literacy what is it how do we get it uh those those issues that starts at 12 30 p.m Pacific Time One not 1 30. 12 30 p.m Pacific Time 3 30 p.m Eastern Time an hour in for mountain and Central so I invite you to join me tomorrow you can always go to my Eventbrite page a link for that is also in the show notes and
27:49 get a free ticket to join me live or watch again on social media as you may be doing now and then next week full array of shows Monday at 10 A.M uh Pacific 1 8 1 p.m Eastern is trust in Estates weekly and uh and then the other the the next version of this show and people making money on uh next Wednesday as well so I I thank you very much for joining me look forward to seeing you hopefully tomorrow as well as next week and that is all so have a wonderful rest of the
28:26 day signing off Marie darling you are my bell and I hope I'm still your bow all the best folks