The WAY to WOW Shows
The 24-Episode Campaign: Strategy 2
February 10, 2026
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:04] Who [music] are you and where are you going? [music] What do you want? Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and I'm here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and leadership practices, and then translate those into lessons we can apply to our businesses and professional practices.

[0:40] So today um is the second uh episode of a 24 episode series that really is looking at military strategy across the various service branches. kind of pulling it together and then separating it into uh five parts that that really gets down to how does the military operate on a on a strategic level. The military ritole, right? Operate on a strategic basis, what are the components

[1:16] and how do we how do we then integrate those into our businesses to make them more successful. So, uh today um Could you repeat that?

[1:29] >> Siri is going off all of a sudden. Um, so today I'm going to be talking about uh choosing the battle um choosing the battlefield. I think that's what I'm going to be talking about [laughter] all of a sudden. Uh I just want to make sure I'm on the right episode for you. Wow. Yes. Choosing the battlefield. Okay, good. Sorry about that. Um so um this this is the the second episode in um this series and it's it's also the second episode of the the first sort of

[2:06] arc which is dealing um sort of purely with with strategy issues. So um the the the core idea um of this idea of choosing the battlefield really comes from Sun Sue who wrote the art of war. Um and I did a a whole episode on Sun Soo and and and the the philosophy that is embodied in the art of war. Um but it it essentially um it essentially deals with that um

[2:42] victory oftentimes is determined before the first clash before the first battle. So in both war and businesses so leaders do not um they don't merely fight well. They they choose wisely when and where to fight. Right? And so, uh, you know, when we we probably all know instances of businesses, uh, one of the most notable in history being

[3:17] the the new Coke debacle where Coke decided to take on Pepsi by essentially trying to replicate Pepsi's taste. Coke, Coke and Pepsi taste different. Um, anybody who's had them knows that and and that's I think why people have their preferences, right? So Coca-Cola, the Coca-Cola Company did not choose its battlefield wisely by changing its flavor formula away from

[3:54] what what it had been for, you know, decades upon decades, trying to make it sort of a faux Pepsi, right? That is not choosing to fight where to fight wisely, right? So um What this episode is going to cover is why many companies lose not because of weak execution, but because they commit themselves to the wrong market or the wrong category or the wrong competitive terrain. Okay. So, uh, like like all of these episodes, um,

[4:32] uh, uh, uh, I'm going to on business lessons for the military, I'm going to talk about the military doctrine first so you can understand the source material, if you will, and then I'll extend it into lessons for the business world. Okay? So uh so choosing the battlefield what it means in war. So the battlefield is more than just the actual ground on which a particular battle is fought. It's really

[5:07] the conditions of the conflict. and a a wise commander wants to set up the best overall set of conditions before he comes into contact with the enemy. Okay. So if you watch uh you know movies of of the US cavalry you know during the you know set during the 19th century right often times you'll see um uh the the Indians will have the high

[5:42] ground they'll be hidden in the rocks on some kind of pass and then the cavalry is filing through you know single file between what looks like kind of two cliffs right okay This is not choosing good battles of condition. When when when a when a force has got the high ground, they can project all of their destruction uh you know onto people below them much more easily than the people below can number one protect themselves and number two project force back. Right? That's sort of a classic,

[6:17] you know, film trope if you would about the conditions of a conflict. But but there it's more than just terrain. So uh and and the again the wise commander um seeks to create the best conditions before contact with the enemy. Okay. So there is terrain, there's geography, there's infrastructure, there's choke points. So you may have flat ground, you may have hilly ground, you may have plateaus, you may have rivers, you may have an ocean, you may have a lake, you may have

[6:53] forest, you may have open plains, you may have fields with crops growing or animals grazing, right? All of these are issues of terrain o on on the sea. You know, you may have uh a situation where like the the Black Sea goes into the Mediterranean Sea through the dinels, which is a choke point. You have the same thing at the straight straight of Gibralar. You have the same thing at the Suez Canal, right? You have choke points where it's more difficult

[7:28] for shipping to get through. number one, but just maneuver in general, right? Lakes are harder for ships uh um they're harder for ships to maneuver in than would be an ocean. Um, on the other hand, like in World War II in the Pacific theater of operations, so these uh the islands that were surrounded by coral reefs, so those are harder to approach on a terrain basis uh than an island that didn't have a coral reef.

[8:03] There were there were islands that had natural harbors, easier to approach than an island without a natural harbor. Okay, so those are all the factors of terrain. Okay, [snorts] so that's number one. Number two is timing. So when to engage, when to delay or avoid conflict. Should the engagement begin, you know, at dawn? Um should it be at night? What what is what is the point of the engagement? Is it uh some sort of special operation? Okay. where secrecy is

[8:40] is is absolutely necessary. And so the cover of darkness although it may be more difficult in in which to operate in it still because it helps protect uh the secrecy of the mission. Uh that may be a better time uh to engage than during the daylight hours. um take the Normandy landings, right? So the issues of tides, weather, um availability of shipping, all of

[9:17] those factors went into eventually the date being set for uh June uh 5th. Um and then because of some adverse weather, it got delayed a day until June 6th, right? And and here's the thing. If the weather had not cleared and if General Eisenhower had not given the go-ahead for uh the the the Normandy landings, uh the timing would have had to have been put off for another month. Okay? Because that was the next time that the tides were favorable and the other

[9:53] timing issues were favorable, right? So timing is another aspect of the of choosing the battlefield. Um, next is opportunities for force disruption. So where is the point at which strength can meet weakness? Okay, going back to that example of the Normandy invasion. One of the reasons why in in the end General Eisenhower settled on the invasion on invading at Normandy was because the Germans appeared to be

[10:30] convinced that the invasion of Europe would come at the Padal. And in fact, Hitler believed that even even after the initial landings on Normandy, Adolf Hitler continued to believe that the Podal was going to be where the real invasion started and that Normandy was just a faint. Okay. And now there were reasons for that. there was uh um intelligence operations and and and such to um you know keep keep Hitler

[11:06] believing that. But but nonetheless, the fact that Hitler held back a lot of his forces meant that the invading armies on Normandy were were hitting strength with weakness relatively so, right? Um, I mean, Normandy was still heavily defended, uh, but not as heavily defended as it would have been without the deception, uh, and and and Hitler's belief that the main, uh, invasion would come at the Pad Cala. Okay. And then there another factor of of of choosing

[11:42] the battlefield is operational reach. So, it's one thing to be able to uh to mount an a battle, mount an invasion, but um as you continue to make progress, um an an army or for that matter a navy may be getting farther and farther away from their supply depots. Um they they may be stretching their forces ever thinner, which reduces the endurance of those forces. And so the ability to sustain the the forces,

[12:19] sustain the momentum starts to attenuate uh as the op operational reach gets longer and longer. Right? So again, choosing how do you how does one choose a battlefield that will provide for the the level of sustainment necessary to keep the momentum going. Okay. And then finally, enemy constraints. So, how can the battlefield be chosen in a way that forces the enemy into an

[12:54] unfavorable or a constrained position? Okay. So, uh going back to the Pacific Theater in World War II. So at first the the American strategy was to conquer each island one by one by one, right? Um but then um pretty quickly um the senior leadership realized they didn't have to conquer every single island. In fact, they could do what what came to be called island hop. So they would take one island and then they would look for the next strategic island to take which

[13:32] often left some in between that were still held by the Japanese. But by be by hopping over those islands and taking the next one and cutting off uh the Japanese forces from among other things resupply of food. So those forces withered on the vine. That was how they described it. Right. So um and and the Japanese especially in the beginning didn't didn't really grasp the strategy that the that that the United States was following. And you know had they they

[14:08] could have withdrawn their forces reinforced the the strategic points at which the Americans were going to land or at least which they thought they were going to land. Um but they they ended up not not doing that and as a and as a result they kept their forces dispersed. Um and that meant they they were in a less favorable position than the invading American Marines and and soldiers. Okay. So all of these factors taken together are a part of choosing

[14:43] the battlefield. Okay. So um [clears throat] so Sun Sue uh summarized this concept simply. He said, "He who knows the terrain and himself will never be in peril." Now you might say, "Well, that's kind of an oversimplification." Okay, maybe it is. But but the reality is that the better we know the conditions under which we're going uh well from a military standpoint, the better a commander knows the conditions under which his forces will have to fight, the less peril he faces. Okay? And the and a

[15:20] similar thing is is true in in in business as well as I'll take up in a moment. So um how does this idea of choosing the battlefield then show up in contemporary military practice? Well, first of all, [clears throat] in the US Marine Corps's uh maneuver warfare doctrine, it prioritizes position over attrition. So when I've started this show now, um this is the fourth year, so over three years ago, the first series

[15:55] of uh episodes I did was on Marine Corps warfighting doctrine. And one of there there is an episode if you want to go back and find it, you can see that there's there's an episode on position over attrition, right? This idea of choosing the battlefield. That's a better way to go than just sending your forces and pounding away leading to much higher casualty among among your soldiers, your marines, your you know your sailors, your airmen etc. Right? So position is always a better way to approach a battle than just using brute

[16:32] force. Okay? So air power doctrine also seeks to dominate the battle space before the ground forces move in. Okay. So you'll see uh strategic and even tactical bombing that that goes on uh before forces land. Let's go back to the Pacific uh where when there was an amphibious landing, both uh ships uh cruisers and battleships would shell a a particular um island um in an effort to soften up

[17:09] the defenses before the Marines uh hit hit the beach. Um but also uh sometimes aircraft would be used as well to drop u munitions on on a targeted beach. And the idea was to to dominate at least in the air um and and hopefully the sea as well the battle space so that even if the the uh the um landing on the island was difficult yet the the Japanese would not be able to get uh would not be able to resupply

[17:47] those forces by air or by sea because the United States Navy um and and naval aviation was dominating uh the the the battle space um even prior to the actual landing happening. And then finally naval strategy. So it focuses on controlling sea lanes rather than shipto- ship combat. Right? So we see this um in the South China Sea for example where uh mainland China has built these um uh they're sort of

[18:24] man-made islands in an effort to encroach ever farther into the South China Sea and try and dominate that waterway as a prelude to potentially invading Taiwan or even the Philippines. And that's why US naval ships, including the ship I was on when I deployed back in uh 20 uh 2011 I believe was was um my my deployment. We traversed the South China Sea because we consider it to be an

[18:59] international seaway or sea lane. Okay. And by periodically uh sailing through the South China Sea, we are signaling to China that we don't we don't uh uh hold by the idea that this is kind of their exclusive territory, right? And that's a more efficient way of handling the the situation. It's a choosing the battlefield strategy rather than having to fight ship to ship because we let China, you know, believe that in fact it

[19:35] it's the South China Sea is its sole preserve. Okay. So those are the ways that you see that we see from a military standpoint um how choosing the battlefield fits into doctrine. So um [clears throat and cough] so the idea is don't fight the enemy where it's strongest or most prepared rather look for ways by choosing the battlefield where we can meet weakness with strength. Okay. So

[20:10] that's the fundamental idea in in this uh strategic concept of choosing the battlefield. All right. So let's translate this now into some uh battle some business lessons. Okay, I've got I've got five applications of this principle. So uh number one, select a market you can shape, not just enter. Okay, so going back to the military for a moment, military leaders prefer terrain that can be controlled or

[20:45] influenced. Okay. So in business before you select a market define for yourself what is the category of of of product or service that I'm going to be providing and how do I select the market that is most warm most compatible in which I should be competing. Okay. So, I'll give you an example from my own business. Uh, I get probably 95% of my business

[21:24] from estate planning and probate and trust attorneys. Okay. Um, once in a while I may get uh, you know, a client from some other source, a real estate agent or someone involved in financial services or something for that. Okay. So, I was offered an opportunity to work to do some marketing with uh somebody who's essentially a registered investment advisor and he does seminars for potential investors. But here's the thing, that's not my

[22:01] market. My market is lawyers. So, while it might be fun to get up in front of a bunch of people who have money to invest, okay, uh the chances that I'm going to get a client from them is very very small. So, I wouldn't be choosing the right battlefield to use that as a marketing strategy. Okay? I'm I'm better off you maybe going to a bar association meeting for a section on estate planning and and trust and probate administration. Okay, that's my

[22:36] battlefield, right? Because th that that's where I can find clients. They're already clients of a lawyer and if I can gain that lawyer's trust. So then when he needs someone to uh act as a independent trustee or or administrate a probate, okay, so then he'll call me, right? So that's that's choosing the battlefield in the context of marketing a business. So what is the category? Who are your customers? Who are your sources of

[23:11] referrals? If you're a professional like me, right? So while if if I'm going to be trustee of a trust, my client is is is actually kind of the trust or the beneficiaries or the grtors of the trust. But trying to market to those people, I I'd have to go through hundreds of them if not thousands to find one that that might need uh you know a trustee. Whereas lawyers are already doing that, [laughter] right? they've already sifted through so I can cut through all the noise and

[23:47] go directly to them. Okay, so that's that's one question. What what you know can I define the category? Number two, can I set pricing norms? Right? So again, um if I want to essentially, you know, dominate a market, [snorts] uh I I need to know where do I have the most pricing power. Okay? Again, to go directly to, you know, trust trust grantors or trust beneficiaries and

[24:23] such. So, they don't really have a sense of what uh professional pricing is a lot of times. And really, oftentimes what they're doing, they're just looking for the lowest price they can get. Well, I don't want to have to compete on price. Okay? So, again, for me to go to lawyers when my prices are cheaper than what lawyers charge, right? So by comparison, okay, I my pricing strategy looks perfectly appropriate and and competitors of mine who do the same work

[24:59] I do that that is a competitor, right? It's redundant, but um our fees are set because that we're working at a certain level. We have a certain we have a you know a great deal of experience. We have a great deal of knowledge and uh you know we have we are able to handle a level of complexity commensurate with what we with the fees that we charge. Okay. And so I don't want to be in a market where I have to compete on price because what I found

[25:34] over the you know decades of my business career is there's always someone who's willing to charge a little bit less. Okay. And and the one of the features of capitalism is especially on the product side is there's all someone will continue to undercut on pricing until they get to the point where their profit is, you know, minimal. That's why for a lot of the items that we buy in a grocery store, although they're, you know, more expensive now

[26:09] than they were a few years ago, still the profit on any individual item is actually very small. Oftentimes just a few pennies. Okay? And the food suppliers, they the reason they make money is because they sell huge volumes. So, you know, um I'm just going to pick a product. Hunts Hunts canned tomatoes. Okay. Do Do you ever have their fired, you know, fire roasted tomatoes? They're actually really good. Free plug for Hunts, I guess. Um but anyway, that

[26:44] you know, 15 12 ounce can of tomatoes, I don't know, what do we pay these days? A $119 or something like that. Maybe, you know, three, four, five cents of that is profit. like, well, how can they make any money when when they've got, you know, when they're making so little per can, right? But when you think about it, they don't ship one can to a store. They don't even ship 10 cans to a store. They're probably shipping who knows 100, 200, 300 cans to each store, right? And so the volume of goods that they sell make their business

[27:21] profitable, but the margins are very narrow. Okay? That's and because in a way you know canned tomatoes are basically just a commodity so they end up having to compete on price. That's why so many uh food suppliers try to develop an outstanding brand. That's why you know Hunts wants to be Hunts because we we know that brand and you know for at least for people who grew up in my era Hunts Hunts was good you know store brand not as good that

[27:58] was you know to put it at its simplest right so that's the idea of a brand right is is it it it has a cache to it it it it means higher quality now whether that's true these days or not because so any um store brands or just white labelled brands that are being manufactured by you know Hunts or by whoever is manufacturing for Hunts. The food supply has gotten much more complicated over the last few decades. Um but but nonetheless the idea of a brand is is to be able to then set pricing norms. Okay? Otherwise

[28:34] we're not controlling the market, right? And so in in business, that's what we want to look at. How can how can we set pricing norms? And then finally, can can can you can we set standards others must follow? Okay. So, uh, going back to my business, um, one of the things that I do that as far as I can tell, uh, no other professional fiduciary does is I send out a weekly report on the status of all the matters that I'm handling. So, a lawyer never

[29:10] has to reach out to me to find out what's going on. He knows every Thursday he's going to get an update. And if he has any questions, he can just, you know, click reply to the email report and ask his questions. And so if his clients are are on him about what's happening with this or what's happening with that, all he has to do is go back to the last email report that I sent and and look it up and say, "Okay, here's what's going on." So, it makes it super easy for him to uh keep track of what's happening on the administration side of a trust or probate matter. uh and and

[29:47] and so that really sets the standards and I know from the the attorneys that I've with whom I've spoken that they they view that as a big benefit, right? And that's one of the reasons why they choose to do business with me as opposed to one of my competitors. Now, maybe at some point some of my [snorts] competitors will will clue in. Maybe they're watching the show and they're like, "Oh, this is what Kevin's doing. All right, we're going to do the same thing." Uh you know, who knows? Um but and and it's it's not the only way of course that I seek to um to establish the standards of the profession. Uh but

[30:25] that is the idea. How can we set the standards? Right? If we're selling uh fresh vegetables, right? Do they do they look the best? Do they taste the best? Right? So you look at um uh if if you're familiar with cuties, right? The little tangerines, right? Cuties have sort of set the standards now for tangerines. So tangerines have to be easy to peel. They've got to be very sweet. Uh you know, they can't leave a lot of little threads on them, whatever. So that's why Cuties um has come to dominate the

[31:00] market for that particular uh food item. Okay. So um you know entering a mature market with fixed with fixed uh rules okay that's equivalent to attacking a fortified position right we're going to take on entrenched competitors okay and or are we going to look for a way to slip in behind them are we going to develop a new market where we can we can define the category we can set the pricing. We can establish the standards.

[31:36] Okay. Can we look? Cuties. I'm I'm sorry. Tangerines have been around for I don't know, at least since I was a kid because my mother used to put them in my lunch when I was a little boy, right? Cuties came along and they in essence redefined the category. Okay. and it allowed them to uh set pricing norms and establish standards. That's what they did. I mean, it was it was brilliant. Now, you might say, well, in the end, it was just all marketing. Well, certainly marketing was a part of it. I mean, if

[32:11] you've ever driven through the central valley of California, you'll see the facilities where Cuties um you know, does their distribution. Uh but I think it's more than that. it was finding the right fruit um to which this strategy, this marketing strategy could be applied, right? So people have done it with tomatoes like especially cherry tomatoes but not as successfully. Um you know chaita bananas that maybe that's kind of an early example. Um so you know these

[32:48] the you know marketing strategies have to be coupled with the the correct product so you can define the category. Okay so select markets you can shape not just enter. That's that's number one. Number two avoid head-on competition when asymmetry exists. Uh so uh militaries um avoid symmetric fights whenever they possibly can. Okay. So to go head-to-head with forces of a similar

[33:25] size and lethality as yours means there that the the deaths the woundings are going to be higher. Okay. going up with an asymmetrical force where your forces dominate. Now, I'm going to talk about that word dominate in just a concept of dominating in just a moment, but where your forces dominate are likely to reduce casualties maybe even on both sides. So, it's not like you're necessarily going to take your dominant forces and go and wipe out the enemy. What you're looking to do is convince the enemy that they're so dominated that

[34:01] they refuse to fight, okay? Or they stop fighting. Right now when when I say dominate that doesn't necessarily mean having the most number of soldiers or the most number of ships. What it means is creating a sense that victory for the enemy cannot be attained um on anything like acceptable terms. And so in essence, uh, surrender or, um, just withdrawing from the battlefield is

[34:36] the better option. Okay? So that's what I mean about dominate. It's not necessarily, well, you know, I've got a force of, you know, I've got a 10,000man division and I'm fighting uh, you know, a thousand gerillas. um that wouldn't necessarily be a case of domination because the because the fighting is as if the fighting is as symmetrical which it would be in that case. So to be able to concentrate the that the 10,000 men of that division in a way that convinces the thousand

[35:13] guerillas to give up could well not be impossible. That's the experience in Afghanistan for example, right? And so when we when we think about avoiding head-on competition, okay, and creating um or finding an asymmetrical situation, okay, in in on the business side, so we don't want to challenge incumbents on their core strengths. Okay. So let's go back to Coca-Cola. Okay. to challenge

[35:49] Coca-Cola to a cola war. Probably gonna lose. Okay. Probably going to lose. Now, where might Coca-Cola be vulnerable? Well, it could be vulnerable on a a cola drink that's perceived to be healthy because nobody looks at a Coca-Cola and goes, "Oh, this is really good for my health." Right? So there are opportunities to fight asymmetrical uh battles with, you know, products,

[36:25] right? So um maybe there's a an opportunity to take on Coca-Cola with taste or with uh attractiveness of packaging. Okay? Although the Coca-Cola bottle is pretty iconic, right? But the idea is don't attack them at their core strength. Look for a way to shave off part of their market. Okay? So this is what's happened over the last couple of decades with the healthier food trends and it's it's why a lot of foods that

[37:02] were very dominant uh in various categories have lost a great deal of market share. Let's take breakfast cereal. Breakfast cereal was was when I when I was a a child and a teenager was a healthy breakfast. In fact, even into my young and sort of mid adulthood, like breakfast cereal was what you ate for breakfast. Right now, um not so much. People are more they're looking for um in some cases healthier uh breakfast options. And so they they don't eat

[37:38] cereal nearly as much. And that's why you saw Kellogg's um spin off their their you know cereal making division and and different things like that. So um more recently um the idea of protein for breakfast has become much more popular. I think that that's in part because um with the various um weight loss drugs um that you know people who are taking them are told to focus on protein consumption and cereals for the most part are not particularly high in protein whereas uh meat uh eggs these

[38:14] are proteinrich foods uh and so they have replaced uh cereal um as as a breakfast mainstay Right. So, uh, for companies that want to get in pro, oh, another category that that's become a breakfast foods is yogurt. Look at the expansion of of choices in yogurt. There's Greek yogurt, there's Icelandic yogurt, like all these different, you know, sort of regional brands, but then there's there's goats milk yogurt, there's cow's milk yogurt, there's there's the uh French yogurt

[38:51] that's almost like custard. There's the the the goat yogurt that I get from Trader Joe's that's very soft and light and easy to digest, right? So, these products rather than going, you know, after the dominant makers, they've tried to peel off just parts of the market. And that's a that's a um that's a way of gaining success without while avoiding head-on competition. Okay. So, so look for an opportunity where maybe speed of delivery of the product or the design of the product or distribution of

[39:27] the product or trust matter more than scale. Now, some of these won't necessarily apply to your your business. So while I think trust applies to pretty much any everything whether it's a product or a service you know distribution is maybe more of a product focused um aspect uh although I know for my business the ability to do zoom meetings and that kind of thing allows me to distribute my services more efficiently and more effectively right and so you know it is something that I think about

[40:02] sometimes okay so Especially for those of us who are in small businesses, right? Asymmetric competition, it really favors the smaller, more adaptive business. Okay? And that's how we can compete with larger companies that have more bureaucracy, take more time to make decisions, take more time to execute those decisions once they're made. Right? And for larger companies, how can you make yourself more nimble so that you can make these kind take advantage of these kind of asymmetric

[40:39] opportunities and potentially beat out your smaller competitors. Okay? So if your only advantage is trying harder, right, then you've chosen the wrong battlefield. So I think it was it was it it was either Avis or Hertz back in the I think it was 70s. Their marketing slogan was we try harder, right? And essentially they were conceding that there wasn't any real difference between Hurst Hurst uh car rental and Avis car rental. It's just you know I I think it was Hurst we try harder right we're we're really in there

[41:15] plugging for you right? You know I don't think that's an effective strategy. It's certainly not a um choosing the battlefield strategy. Okay. Number three, use exits and withdrawals as strategic tools. Okay. So, from a military standpoint, not every battle needs to be fought to its bitter end. So, you know, sometimes forces will engage in a battle and pretty quickly it becomes obvious, nope,

[41:52] we're not going to win this one or winning this one is going to be too costly in terms of lives, in terms of material, etc. So, a strategic withdrawal may be the better option, right? Save your forces to fight another day.

[42:11] >> [snorts]

[42:11] >> So um in business as well this is also part of choosing your battlefield. So sometimes exiting a market can strengthen the core. Okay. So some businesses you know they'll especially large companies where they're growing by acquiring other businesses. they acquire products and they hang on to them for a while um in in order uh you know because just be kind of because they have them. It's almost uh inertial in that sense, right? But periodically um they some companies

[42:49] do if they don't they should review their product lineup and say wait a minute which of these are really really strengthen our core business and which of them aren't really part of our core business and then exit those markets or sell off those products that don't really strengthen the core. Okay. And in that way they can focus better on their strengths and not be distracted. Okay. So it it not it it not only means you know not wasting

[43:26] resources for marketing etc on on a on a suboptimal product but it also gives leadership the the you know headsp space to be able to focus better on what needs to be done to really drive improvements in in the core offerings. Okay. So being able to say no is often the highest form of discipline. Okay. So um I know for for going back to my business now for a moment. So uh you know when I

[44:01] first got started um look I would pretty much take any assignment uh any probate administration that was offered to me. Okay. I have come to regret that decision frankly. Um but but nowadays it's very difficult for me to justify taking smaller cases um for for a number of reasons. One is a probate takes a certain amount of work no matter what the size. Um however the the fees for them are based on the assets under administration.

[44:36] And so if it takes, let's say, you know, uh, a 100 hours to administrate a probate over a 12 to 18month period, um, that 100 hours isn't much different for a an estate valued at a million dollar versus one valued at $2 to $3 million. Okay? But the fee for the $2 million estate, it's not double that for a $1 million estate, but it's probably like 1 and 3/4 times. And the fee for a $3 million estate is probably

[45:12] um you know, two times the fee of a $1 million estate, but it's the same amount of work, right? and and so you you'll you'll find in in people in my business, professional trustees who do this kind of administration um we pretty quickly leave behind administrating smaller estates because it's it's not it's it's not the right market. We exit we may start there but we exit that part of the business uh you know pretty much as soon as we can um because it it doesn't make sense to continue there. Now I do have a friend

[45:47] who that is his core business. $5 million and below is what he does. He has a very efficient highly regimented process. And so you know because of how he it because he does such a huge volume. So he can cut in half the time it takes to administrate a small estate versus what it would take me. Okay. So, it it makes much more sense for me to uh to um refer a small estate to my friend

[46:23] Josh, who's I think he's got he's he's got a um an episode coming up on Trust and Estates Weekly. Let him do it, okay? And I'll focus on where I can add value, which is in in estates $5 million and up. Okay? So, um saying no is important. Just because a piece of business is you know wagged in front of us doesn't mean we have to take it. Okay. So staying in a mark in a losing market it's not it's not persistence it's erosion and it's eroding our overall businesses. Okay.

[47:00] Number four um force competitors to respond on your terms on our terms right. So um through through faints, through positioning, through tempo, right? Milit military leaders, commanders try to force the enemy to behave the way they they want their enemy to behave. Okay? As opposed to letting the enemy respond the way the enemy thinks is best. So we need to do that in business as well. We need to change the basis of competition. Right?

[47:36] So that's going going back to the example um that I gave a few minutes ago about sending out weekly reports. I'm changing the the the way that people have to compete. Okay. By by providing this service that is of value, okay, and avoids misunderstandings, it avoids some sometimes conflict, right? I'm setting I'm changing the basis for of of competition. I'm in essence forcing my competitors to um to compete

[48:15] on my terms not their own. Okay. So um you know the idea is is to shift from price to to experience to trust to being part of an ecosystem. So this is this is somewhat related to when we talked about um you know do you control the category, do you control the pricing etc. Right? So if we can shift kind of the rules of the game and force our competitors to respond to what we're doing rather than

[48:51] our having to respond to what they're doing. We are choosing the battlefield. In this case, we're creating the battlefield. So whether it's the quality of our product, whether it's the amount of trust that a customer or client has in our product, whether it's um we're well, okay, here's a great example, right? Apple computers. Apple computers are part of a larger ecosystem that includes, right? It includes iPhones and it includes iPads. It includes Apple

[49:27] Watch, right? I'm in the ecosystem, right? A Apple has captured me as a customer and I've bought into its ecosystem. I don't have any non-Apple uh devices um in my house. Okay, at least where Apple has a device, I guess, is the best way to put it. Like this is not an Apple printer, but Apple doesn't make printers, right? So Apple is forcing competitors in essence to respond on their terms. Okay. And finally understand terrain beyond the market.

[50:05] Okay. So military terrain is not just the or the battlefield is not just those items that I talked about um at at the beginning of the show. uh terrain, timing, force disposition, operational reach, and enemy constraints. Those are part of the battlefield. But there are other dimensions, if you will, to the battlefield. There are political dimensions. There are social dimensions. Okay? All of these have an impact on choosing the battlefield. This is why

[50:42] or one at least one of the reasons why war is such a complex endeavor because it it isn't happening just in the battlefield. Even if we're talking about the battlefield, you know, large where we're talking about the entire, you know, battle space, still there are the political and social dimensions of fighting. Okay? And those are almost always beyond the battlefield. Okay? So the same thing is true in the business world right. So we have regulations could be local, state, federal, even

[51:18] international, right? We have culture, we have availability of people, we have distribution channels. Those are all part of the larger concept of choosing the battlefield, right? So, um, if if you know, if someone is if you're thinking about expanding overseas, um, you know, is now a favorable time to consider, uh, expanding into mainland China? Maybe not. You know, the United States and China are, you know, pretty not not pretty. They're fierce competitors. Um, there's not a whole lot

[51:55] of love loss between them, I think. and and this may not be the best time for Americans to be trying to enter the Chinese market. Okay. On the other hand, there may be markets that are very favorable to the United States. Israel very favorable to the United States right now. Okay. Um some of the um Arab countries, as much as we hear about this and that uh in the news, uh Bahrain, the UAE, even Saudi Arabia, um pretty, you know, looking pretty favorably on the United States these days. Okay. So um that's you know as we um as we choose

[52:32] the battlefield in this case on an international basis where does it look best and not just in the here and now but long term where is where where is the battlefield that over the long term where is the market over the long term that looks best for us. Okay. So um battlefields are multi-dimensional spaces. Markets are multi-dimensional spaces. They're not, you know, spreadsheets where we can, you know, easily sort of plug in this and that and okay, this looks great. Off we go.

[53:09] They're they're chaotic. Battlefields are chaotic. Markets are chaotic. They're they're they can change rapidly. Both can change rapidly, right? That's why the idea of choosing your battlefield, choosing your market, okay, again, market rit large is such an important concept as we look to guide our businesses through the 21st century. So, uh, smart leaders, you know, they win before the first fight really. They don't outfight their competitors, they out position them. Okay? And choosing

[53:45] the battlefield is as much about restraint, patience, and clarity um as it is about actually fighting. Because the easiest way to lose is to charge forward somewhat blindly without considering whether the ground on which the battle is going to be fought is is is more hostile than another alternative. Okay. So, that's my thoughts on choosing the battlefield. Uh, I thank you for joining me. Uh, got some live viewers here today. That's

[54:21] always great. Uh, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. is my show, uh, people making money. And every other Thursday, please join me at Jiggers's Place at 5:00 p. p.m. Pacific time for a cocktail and a smoo talk about things unrelated to our financial lives. So, once again, thank you so much for joining me today. I appreciate your viewership. If you have questions, comments, criticisms, links to the social media will will be available when the when this episode posts on YouTube. And if you're watching it on Spotify or

[54:56] Apple Podcasts, please if you like the show, please uh post a favorable comment. I'd really appreciate the opportunity to gain some additional viewers and help out more people. So, I wish you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell.