Maintaining Competitive Edge in the New Normal
- Brainz Magazine
- Jul 9
- 3 min read
John Gelmini, aka John Alexander, is an international consultant, trainer, and interim transformation leader. He has completed 80 engagements since 1995, has helped raise £650 million, and jointly wrote Can You Handle the Truth.
In today's unpredictable business landscape, companies face constant challenges, from the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic to supply chain disruptions and rising costs of living. These ongoing issues, along with new global crises, create an environment where traditional strategies no longer suffice. To maintain a competitive edge, businesses must draw on timeless strategies from history, including insights from Sun Tzu and modern adaptations of military tactics. This article explores how businesses can navigate the "new normal" by leveraging strategic intelligence, adaptability, and innovation to thrive amidst uncertainty.
Recent events in new normal
Today, it seems that we are in the age of uncertainty, with seemingly unpredictable events striking at economics and businesses out of the blue.
We can all remember the COVID pandemic and “non-essential businesses,” repeated lockdowns, furlough schemes, and still disengaged/unproductive workers.
Now, we have the “cost of living crisis,” shortages in the supply chain, the Ukraine War, and new COVID variants set to drive absenteeism skyward.
Long range penetration strain
The late Sir John Rawlings-Reece, mentor of Dr. Henry Kissinger and former Head of Psychological Warfare for the British Army, coined this phrase for the phenomenon we now see. This has emerged from the coronavirus pandemic and earlier trends and includes:
Falling productivity, 42% below German levels
Working from home/hybrid working
Ultra-short attention spans
“Quiet quitting” (the modern version of working to rule and doing just enough to keep one’s job)
Intermittent absenteeism
The answer
Surprisingly for businesses, this comes from the past in the thinking of Chinese General Sun Tzu, who wrote his thoughts, embracing Confucian values, on tiny bamboo strips 2,500 years ago. These thoughts were about how to win battles without fighting by using the principle of ordered flexibility and the use of spies to overcome larger and more powerful enemy forces. The approach, refined by Lt. Colonel John Boyd in the Korean and Vietnam Wars in A Discourse of Winning and Losing, added the elements of surprise, deception, and speed.
a) Competitor intelligence and analysis
Sun Tzu used his spies to gain human intelligence so he knew what forces he was up against. In business, we need to analyze the political and economic landscape and gain insight into what competitors are doing through knowledge of current and emerging competitors, job moves by directors and senior managers, and leapfrog breakthroughs in technology by competitors and those who could become one.
b) Armed with this data, one can then decide to:
Effect market entry directly
Via a circuitous route
Buy a smaller competitor and then proceed with added strength
Form a strategic alliance
Set up a new subsidiary with an innocent-looking profile
c) Using Boyd’s Model OODA LOOP
One then uses speed, surprise, and deception to confuse and wrongfoot the competitor, who is reacting to events that have already happened. Ongoing analysis of the various factors in the form of P.E.S.T.L.E. and Patterned-Based Strategy will ensure that your business remains ahead of the curve (except, of course, in the case of “Black Swan” events, which are unpredictable and cannot be insured against). To deal with these, your business model has to be:
Agile
Fast
Resilient
Robust
Adaptable
Capable of rapid metamorphosis in the face of new realities
Directors, senior managers, and employees must have these characteristics as far as possible, except for those engaged in repetitive tasks replaceable by offshoring, machine learning, AI, robotics, and other technologies. This can be ascertained by reverse engineering the CVs of current boards to identify leaders and those no longer fit for purpose. Traditional approaches, firefighting, and “muddling through” will no longer work, as evidenced by the UK’s lackluster economic performance, balance of trade deficit over 41 years, and poor market productivity.
Thus, competitive capability, future threat analysis, and board effectiveness can be assessed, improved, and placed on a firm footing. Employee encouragement and productivity can then be optimized to produce the EBIT and CLV required using appropriate frameworks.
Read more from John A. Gelmini
John A. Gelmini, Mgt Consultant, Interim Leader & Business Mentor
John Gelmini, aka John Alexander, is an expert at optimising productivity, profitability, and sales in culturally diverse and monochrome environments. As an ex-GE Capital troubleshooter, John understands how to effect transformation in challenging environments in the corporate, public, NGO, and foreign government sectors with strategic insight and speed. He is the founder of TRANSFORMATION and believes in "mission completion" to time, budget, and accelerated roadmaps to benefits realisation.
