0:16 hello and welcome to business lessons from the military I'm your host Kevin bemel and we are here every Tuesday in fact but right before I started talking I was thinking myself it's it's what it's today it's Tuesday it's business lessons from the military right as opposed to mundies which is trust in Estates weekly so we're here every Tuesday at 11 p.m I'm sorry 11 A.M uh Pacific time and 2 p.m eastern time with an hour in for Central and mountain time and we discuss
0:51 military Doctrine military history and Military leadership um all in a way that we apply it to business to improve how our own businesses operate how the businesses or organizations we work for operate all toward making them more successful so I I just I want to mention something really quickly um before I forget because I think this is the case yes so next week we're going to take a
1:27 break from talking about Marine Corps warfighting Doctrine I'm going to have a guest um a friend of mine just a terrific uh Man by the name of of Mark Brooker Mark is a retired Navy Captain that's an 06 for uh you know those of you uh who you know like military lingo stuff um Mark uh um is is a doctor as well a physician uh no I'm sorry Mark is a pharmacist pardon me and um he progressed all the way to the point where he was running
2:02 um one of one of the Navy's hospitals um and since uh he retired from the Navy Mark has been uh teaching and lecturing on leadership it is a deep deep passion of his um he wrote he wrote a book on it that um he'll he'll talk about a little bit he's also writing a other book now that I'll I'll get him to tease us about a little bit but I I just wanted to mention that Mark is going to be on uh next week of really looking forward to that and I think you will get a tremendous amount out of um watch watching Mark so for today we
2:39 are going to continue our discussion of Marine Corps warfighting Doctrine so let's go ahead and bring up our PowerPoint here it is and there we go so I just you know it just it just looks military doesn't it with the the sort of uh you know dotted uh Black Background all right so uh uh I think there we go so um you know I always like to mention the three pillars of entertainment because everything we do here on the way to wow show Mutual Network
3:16 um relates to um the three pillars of attainment um and uh we deal primarily in the Pursuits pillar in the finances realm today and again um many many times other other uh uh pillars and Realms will come into play as we're dealing with various issues so in previous um episodes of the show we talked about um the conduct of War applied to business in terms of applying maneuver Warfare uh orienting on the enemy and philosophy of command so I invite you to
3:52 go to our YouTube channel and and view those those past episodes if you want to catch up on where we're at if you're just tuning in for the first time today we're going to talk about shaping the action so when you're thinking in a combat context there's basically two ways to approach it one is to let the enemy come at you and respond to the enemy and the other is to take the initiative
4:27 to shape the action and force the enemy to respond okay now I want to be clear about this just because we take the initiative doesn't mean that a we're going to surprise surprise the enemy number two we're gonna necessarily have an advantage over the enemy what it means is whatever we're doing the enemy is going to have to respond to us now if we're a platoon which is
5:04 comprised of uh what about uh 10 to 15 you know uh people and we're going up against a regiment we can we can initiate the action but the regiment is still probably going to wipe us out right so when we talk about shaping the action what we also want to do is we want to shape the action within the context of what it is we face okay so shaping the action on the part of a platoon against a regiment may be
5:40 not attacking right it may be setting up a very difficult of defensive perimeter that's very difficult for the enemy to pierce and in so doing you've shaped the action by forcing this vastly Superior enemy to attack in a way that is going to diminish their attacking ability okay so shaping the action doesn't necessarily mean being aggressive it means looking
6:18 at the battlefield situation and saying how can I best use my resources in order to gain my objectives okay and it may be taking the initiative or it may be setting that defensive perimeter that defensive posture in a way that forces the enemy to fight on your turns okay so the same is true in business okay rather than
6:53 let events just kind of come at us and overtake us we want to as much as possible shape the actions surrounding our business or our organization if it's a non-profit so the first thing we want to do is conceive what winning looks like right I'm going to go back to the military example you've got a platoon against a regimen winning probably doesn't look like the platoon wiping out the regimen it probably just doesn't what winning looks like probably is not
7:31 getting wiped the platoon not getting wiped out okay and by the way that can be the same thing in business you can be a small competitor up against a big giant so for example you could be um a little Neighborhood Market up against you know Krogers right you're not gonna wipe out Kroger's you're just not right on the other hand can your conception of winning and B having such a loyal customer base
8:09 that they're going to come to you before they go to Kroger's okay and I'll give you a real world example of how this works so there's a a Kosher grocery store uh about six seven blocks from where I live um and the people there one woman in particular is always so nice she greets me by name and the store is clean it's brightly lit and it's just every the produce is
8:45 displayed nicely the shelves are always nicely arranged the fellows who handle the parking they're they're always on their toes helping you get in and out without any trouble it's it's just it's it's it's a pleasure to shop there and so if I need to buy some kind of food I would rather go there than go to Kroger's okay now they're never going to make as much money as Kroger's because they're just a small Neighborhood Market but their concept of winning I think and I
9:21 don't know the owners but I think it's to create loyal customers like me who when they want to go buy food will think first do I want to go to you know Livonia Market can I get what I want there if I can get what I want there I'm gonna go there okay even though it may be a few pennies less if I go to Kroger's well it's not Kroger's it's uh it's in here in here in L.A Ralph's is the Kroger's brand that we have so I can go to Ralph's and maybe a few pennies cheaper but I'd rather go to Livonia Mart because it's such a it's such a a much better
9:57 shopping experience Okay so you need to conceive how what winning looks like the what why and how okay what does winning look like why does it look that way how are you going to win okay so there's a there's a couple of things we want to do as we shape up how we conceive winning our what why and how and one is we want to be able to see our our businesses or or our organizations
10:33 Through The Eyes of our customers and clients if they're coming to us what are what are they what do they want why would they be coming to us okay and that can help shape our concept of winning okay there's no one at the Ralphs I go to who knows my name even though I'm there you know I don't know if I'm there once a week but certainly at least once every other week um and I I may see some of the same
11:09 people working there every time I work there they don't know my name nothing against them I'm just one of who knows how many hundreds or thousands of Shoppers right so there's no personal connection there right at Livonia Mart there's a personal connection right so and I think they know this is one of the things that people I live in Los Angeles it's a big city it's like it's so anonymous so it's nice to go to a place I feel like I can hear the music from the TV show Cheers like where everybody knows
11:45 my name right not literally not not everybody knows my name literally okay but where where if I can go to a place where they know me as an individual that's a pleasant experience right and there there's for me and and they I think they know that right I used to go to a different kosher market that's a little farther away and I remember this is now going back uh um a a couple of years I think and I I got injured and I used to shop there literally every week and I got injured
12:20 and I I did I wasn't there for about two or three weeks and um um and one of the um ladies who works there when I finally showed up again she said oh it's good to see you I I was a little bit worried I hadn't seen you for several weeks and we see every week are you okay right what a nice thing again nobody in Ralphs would do that they've just got too many customers they're too big right and so that kind of personal attention that's that's part of seeing your that's part of them seeing their
12:55 business through my eyes okay and and and so to the extent you can why do people patronize your business why do they do that okay what what what what what how can you serve them how can your products affect their lives okay those are the kind of things you want to look at because that'll help you determine your your what why and how okay now the other side of the coin is we want to be able to see ourselves the
13:32 way our competitors see us okay so if I'm the the people who own Livonia Mart right how does Ralph's see me okay now um one of the things that's happened at the Ralphs that I go to it's the nearest one to where I live is um when I first started so there used to be a rouse that was closer that they closed okay and so I started going to the next closest one and it had virtually no Kosher food
14:09 products at all right and so I would go there and I wouldn't buy very much and I think a lot of people like me same thing you know we were going because we were used to going to the Ralphs that had closed down so they had to look at their competitor and say how does our competitor see us so the kosher markets look at Ralphs and go hey you don't sell any kosher stuff or very little kosher stuff right that's our advantage over our competitor And Ralph's if if Ralphs was
14:45 smart and I think they were they said hey we're losing business because we have no kosher products here or very few kosher products here okay and our competitors they see that we don't so we got to get some so over the last uh whatever it's been two three years the the number of kosher products there has increased quite a bit okay it's still not at the level of a kosher market okay but it's enough that sometimes you know if I need things like toothpaste or whatever it will it will make more sense for me to go to Ralph's
15:20 because I can get the the kosher Staples that I need okay um along with the other stuff that I need that I can't get at the kosher market right so that's part of how does your how does your competitors look at you where are they seeing vulnerabilities in your business because in the end that's what you're looking for because if if if a competitor sees a vulnerability in your business or your organization they're gonna seek to exploit that okay so you want to
15:57 I'm like come around the other side of the table and look at your business and say where are my competitors seeing vulnerabilities in my business and then you can go back to your business in fix those vulnerabilities okay so I'll go back to Livonia Mart when they first um opened the parking was just horrible it was a small parking lot it was people would just pull in and block other cars it was it was crazy making
16:33 right they had a big vulnerability in their parking and they realize I think people must have complained and they realized very quickly they needed to have parking guys there they're not valets because they don't you know get in your car and park your car for you but they manage the parking lot okay and the first ones they had were frankly not particularly good the the the guys they have now are really good okay and they they manage things and they get cars in and out of their lickety-split right so they that Livonia Mart fixed
17:11 that vulnerability okay and I I can't say you know did they you know try to see how their competitors saw them I I don't know what I will say is the next nearest kosher market their parking is is is they got this great big parking lot and it's really easy to get in and out nobody blocks you they just have one guy there to make sure that people the people who are parking there are going to the market but that's it right so they they have a much better parking situation okay but so Livonia Mark had to figure out a way to compete with that so you say
17:48 I mean it's just a store you know and it's a it's a store in urban Los Angeles right but we have to look at what vulnerabilities do we have and the best way of doing that is to say how are my competitors looking at me looking at my business okay so the next thing we want to we want to consider as in terms of shaping the action is we want to look as far ahead as we can okay now here's here's the thing there's there's
18:23 a I I hesitate to use this word balance because it's not really a balance but there's there's a a reality that we have to deal with and that is we can plan and make goals that are long term but business like war is an inherently chaotic human endeavor and it's never going to go the way we think it will go so you might say Well then why bother
18:58 planning right and and the answer is because if we have no sense of where we're trying to get to we're not going to get anywhere so we want to plan objectives that we can Target even as we look for options on how to get to those objectives so that's what thinking far ahead allows us to do it says okay where do I want to be in five years ten years
19:35 one year one year five year ten year at least okay and then what are my options for getting there okay so let's say let's let's take a The Five-Year Plan okay let's say you want your business to be a certain size after five years okay so how are you going to get there what are your options for getting there if you only have one option for getting there you may have a problem in your business because what if something happens that blocks off that option now you have nothing
20:10 right so you may need to rework your business so you have more than one marketing Avenue more than one Revenue stream okay so that you know if you hit a a sort of a big blockage here so okay it's okay I can go over here and I can still reach my goal okay and as you shape up those options for reaching your goal okay so maybe let's say you have options a b c and d and maybe in fact C looks like the best way to get there so you'll pursue option C first
20:48 okay and if it gets you there great okay but you're probably gonna hit some bumps on the road to exercising option C and you may need to jump over into you know option A okay and you've got to be prepared to make those changes as the territory ahead changes and you respond you respond to the chaos of Business by being agile we've talked about that in in previous shows okay so here's the thing about thinking far ahead the higher up you are in the in the
21:25 running of the organization the farther out your outlook has to be okay so if you're a front line person okay you probably don't need to think any farther ahead than how am I going to help customers today or how am I going to help clients today okay but if you're a supervisor okay you may need to be thinking out more like a month or a quarter or a year how am I going to motivate my people how am I going to help my staff reach the
22:02 objectives how do I need to support them what tools do they need okay what kind of encouragement do they need okay so you need to be thinking out farther now if you're the person who let's say you own the business right you need to be thinking out as far as long term as you possibly can what is the end result of this business is it to build it up and and transfer it to the next Generation in your family is it to build it up and sell it and sell it to uh another company and get Acquired and and you know be bought out is it to
22:39 become the biggest um company in the marketplace by buying out competitors okay what is What is your plan your long-term plan 10 20 30 years out what are you looking to do okay and it's your job then okay now so to achieve this 30-year objective what do I need to be doing at the 20-year point at the 10-year point at the five-year point okay so you you want to be thinking ahead and again you want to be looking
23:15 at options different paths to get there okay and and and that goes so just as as I was saying a minute ago the the higher up you are in the in the hierarchy of the organization the farther out you have to look the same thing is even if you're uh well not even if if you're a front line worker and your concerns are really today and maybe tomorrow okay still what are my options in order you know do I just have you know you're a car salesman do I just
23:51 have waiting for people to come into the showroom to try and sell them a car or are there other ways I can sell cars can I be reaching out to local businesses ask you know encouraging them to come in and and take a look at what we've got and establishing those relationships okay even though they don't need a vehicle today right why don't you come down down let me let me let me buy you a cup of coffee and just show us our models no no need to buy just so you can see what we've got and see you know do you is this is this something that maybe at some point in the future might be of interest to you we'll take you out for
24:26 test rides you can see you know have you never been let's say you're a Jeep salesman have you ever been in a jeep no oh well come on it'll be fun we'll take the top down you know or something like that right so how far ahead you think will in part be um determined by where you're at in the organization but you still know whether you're whether your horizon is only a few days or it's 30 years you still need to be looking at what are those options for getting to my goal
25:01 okay all right so that's how you shape the action okay you conceive what winning is figure out the what why and how of it you do your best to see your organization your business Through The Eyes of your customers and clients but also Through The Eyes of your competitors so you can identify vulnerabilities and and um uh fix those vulnerabilities okay and then you want to look far ahead think far ahead
25:36 in terms of your organization to keep it vital to keep it moving toward its objectives and always be planning multiple options for getting there okay and in so doing you're going to shape the action rather than let just the flood of what happens day to day hit you and then you're you're just reacting to that flood of activity all right so that is our show for today um shaping the action and let's go ahead and oops I'm clicking the wrong thing okay stop sharing so
26:12 um as I mentioned um at the beginning of the show next week I have my guest Mark Brooker coming on to talk about leadership and then the week after that we'll pick up again on the rest of uh this section of Marine Corps War fighting Doctrine applied to business so I want to thank you very much for joining me um a reminder that tomorrow is my show uh people making money and my guest is Jeff Brown he's going to be talking about his practice of helping people live holistic healthy lives and he's going to talk about how he got into that
26:47 business and how he helps people so I invite you to join me you can join us live go to our Eventbrite page and get a free ticket or you know tune in to our live stream and that is at 12 30 p.m Wednesday uh tomorrow sorry 12 30 p.m Pacific Time 3 30 p.m eastern time and then uh of course uh 12 30 Mountain um I'm sorry 130 Mountain 2 30 central time so I invite you to join me tomorrow and then next week we have our complete lineup again uh trust in Estates weekly
27:22 Monday 10 a.m Pacific time and then the next edition of business lessons from the military on Tuesday at 11 A.M Pacific time with my guest Mark and then the next edition of uh people making money and that is with I have a guest there as well uh Lori Israel I think you will find uh a fascinating topic so Lori is a lawyer she's worked in family and estate law her entire career and we're going to be talking about um prenuptial agreements so you're
27:58 thinking well I have to worry about that I'm already married or I don't have the assets to be concerned about prenuptial agreements or whatever I encourage you to tune in nonetheless because there's she's really she's going to be talking about money and marriage which is a broader topic and so whether you are married now and dealing with financial issues or whether you're planning to get married and will need to be dealing with them or whether you are no longer married and maybe because of financial issues I think you will enjoy and profit
28:34 and well benefit from um listening to to to Lori next week I'm really looking forward to that we had a wonderful conversation about it last week and I I I can't wait for that particular show as well so thank you very much for joining me this morning or this afternoon if you're on the east coast and I appreciate it very much if you um if you like the show please do consider subscribing to our YouTube channel it's really easy to do just go on there click subscribe and then you'll always be informed when there is a new episode posting
29:09 that being said just have to give my sign off and that is Marie darling you are my bell thanks again for watching and hope to see you tomorrow