Look at any industry, in any market, and you’ll find the same attrition strategy playing out everywhere. Companies compete with one another in a mindless race to the bottom, matching feature for feature, which commodities markets and drives down prices and margins. Ultimately, no one wins not even the consumer, as quality, service, and differentiation suffer. Yet there is another way: maneuver strategy.
Maneuver relies on speed, agility, insight, and innovation to win the most in any market at the least possible cost. Unlike attrition, maneuver never seeks to attack an incumbent in head-to-head competition. Instead, maneuver uses reconnaissance and insights to identify weaknesses and uses three strategies (preemption, dislocation, and disruption) to attack those vulnerabilities. Using speed and agility, a maneuver strategist wins new spaces before competitors become aware of the opportunity or disrupts the well-laid plans and efficient operations of competitors.
As the pace of change accelerates, as speed and agility become more important than size and strength, as new entrants disrupt existing markets, attrition strategy seems outdated. Maneuver strategy, with its focus on speed, agility, and innovation, is the right strategy for the new emerging markets.
