Certain To Win: The Strategy Of John Boyd, Applied To Business

Rating:
Summary: This book is not just a read, it's a tool.
Review: "Certain to Win" is a book about "making things happen". It breaks through the old concepts of long meetings and over analysis of a situation by "cutting to the chase" and taking action by intelligently using time and knowledge gained from current and past experiences in a rapid manner. Dr Richards illustrates this by using historical examples where the entity that took action was determined the winner, and that the winner was often a force less likely to win.

Many people experienced with managing/leading others will be able to relate to examples in their lives where people provide a lot of great ideas, but fail to act on them for one reason or another. This book helps people break through that challenge by providing actionable ideas/concepts that have been time tested via both military and commercial applications. Additionally, this book is designed to be employed by the reader by virtue of its direct and succinct approach to taking positive action in chaotic situations. The end of his book follows up with a number of references that can be sought for further study.

Key issues that challenge leaders are addressed in this book such as:

Creating/establishing a Vision (Concepts for team building)

Creating a winning climate in a highly competitive environment

How to survive and thrive in a Chaotic environment on your own terms

Provides leaders managerial and leadership concepts that are not mainstream

The strength of this book lies in its concepts of making rapid decisions and taking action. These very concepts are used by the military in crisis action planning, conducting combat operations, leading and managing U.S. Marines.

Operation managers can use this book to develop strategies that can assimilate cultural, educational and life experiences of its employees. Human resources managers can use this as a guide to develop templates to better identify who they want to hire and where they can best support the organization. Business Intelligence personnel can use the enclosed information, particularly the Boyd Cycle, to better support unit operations. Competitive Intelligence personnel can template out competitors utilizing the Dr Richards' concepts to properly assess competitors.

There something for everyone in this book whether you are military or civilian. This book is not just a read, it's a tool.


Rating:
Summary: Getting inside your competitor's decision cycle
Review: "Certain to Win" is an interpretation of how to apply John Boyd's warfighting principles to business, written by someone who worked with Boyd. If you are a member of a group or team in competition for something, this book is a must-read.

I learned of John Boyd after his death in 1997. At that time all I knew was that as a fighter pilot, Boyd had developed an Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) theory to explain how some pilots and aircraft were more successful than others. I also learned that very little of Boyd's work was captured in written form - he preferred to deliver his message via marathon briefings.

When Robert Coram's biography "Boyd, the Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War" was published in 2002, I immediately snapped it up. Little did I know this would set me on a path which has helped me immeasurably as I grapple with life in corporate America.

Boyd is the modern day analog of Percy Scott and William Sims, two men who revolutionized gunfire at sea in the early part of the twentieth century. Many parallels exist in the methods these three men used to effect change in large bureaucracies - insights which are immediately applicable today in large corporations which struggle with innovation and growth amid the presence of lithe, agile, often unforeseen threats to their very existence.

In Coram's biography of Boyd, he spends a great deal of time describing Boyd's acolytes: Chet Richards, Raymond Leopold, Chuck Spinney, Jim Burton, and Pierre Sprey. These men worked with Boyd. They inspired and drew inspiration from him. Many continue to evangelize and expand on Boyd's ideas. One of the most prolific of Boyd's acolytes is Chet Richards. Chet has extended and reinterpreted Boyd's work in a business rather than military setting. His most recent book, "Certain to Win", demonstrates how organizations can achieve their goals through application of Boyd's concepts.

Coram's book and Richards' book are two important signposts on a journey of exploration which reveals connections amongst contemporary and historical thought leaders as diverse as Clayton Christensen, Sun Tsu, Brian Goodwin, Werner Heisenberg, Eli Goldratt, Mohan Sawhney, Niccolo Machiavelli, Michael Porter, Jaclyn Kostner, Gary Klein, Alistair Cockburn, John Kotter, and Tom Peters. Coram sets the stage, and Richards delivers the prescription for success in achieving fast OODA loops in organizations. "Certain to Win" shows how time can be exploited as a weapon for competitive advantage. Richards debunks the myth that "size matters" when it comes to modern competition. He makes it clear that business strategy is not a "super plan" to be plotted our far in the future and then executed with unfaltering mechanical precision. He shows that bureaucracies are inflexible and rigid at the top, while organisms are agile and adaptive.

Central to the value of "Certain to Win" is a detailed description of how to institute Boyd's organizational climate, a climate exhibited in elite organizations such as the US Marine Corps, Southwest Airlines, and Toyota. Consider the following:
1) Focus and direction
2) Mission responsibilities
3) Intuitive competence
4) Mutual trust
Like most of Boyd's concepts - OODA loops, energy maneuverability theory, destruction and creation - the simplicity of these four concepts belies the complexity and profound insight in creating them and the challenges in instituting them. Easily shrugged off as platitudes, they cry out for the detailed insight on how to apply them within a complex organization. With these four elements in place, organizations are able to operate at higher tempo than their competitors in the face of a rapidly changing set of environmental and competitive circumstances.

If you can get inside your competitor's OODA loop - whether you're a fighter pilot, a member of a sports team, or a business person - you will win every time. The key factors which enable this higher organizational tempo are focus and direction, mission responsibilities, intuitive competence, and mutual trust.

Boyd will one day be remembered as a man who not only changed the art of war, but through extension of his acolytes such as Chet Richards, the art of business and even the art of team sports. If you haven't read Coram's book, do so. Next, pick up "Certain to Win", which describes the steps individuals and organizations can take to move closer to their goal.

Basically, "Certain to Win" demonstrates how Boyd's principles can be applied wherever humans band together to improve their capacity for independent action. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: ARE YOU READY TO RIDE THE TIGER?
Review: Chet Richard's CERTAIN TO WIN: The Strategy of John Boyd Applied to Business

DO GET THIS BOOK -- If you want to learn more about how to lead high performance organizations in constantly changing competitive environments filled with uncertainty.

DO NOT GET THIS BOOK -- If you want to learn more about managing incremental change efficiencies in a stable environment filled with little uncertainty.

This is the first book to help leaders better understand the impact of COL John Boyd USAF (1927-1977) on business theory and practice.

Boyd's impact -- on the U.S. Marine Corps; Defense Secretaries Rumsfeld, Cheney and Aspen; House Speaker Newt Gingrich; the 1980's Military Reform Caucus in Congress; Operational Test and Evaluation of U.S. weapons and the U.S. Air Force's design and production of the F-15 and F-16 fighters -- has filled other books and movies: PENTAGON WARS by Burton; THE PENTAGON PARADOX by Stevenson; THE MIND OF WAR by Hammond; BOYD by Coram.

This book belongs in your library if you're interested in some of the business principles underlying the success of the Toyota Production System, Southwest Airlines, WALMART, and others.

The book has seven chapters:

CHAPTER I **NOR THE BATTLE TO THE STRONG**

Success in war sometimes goes unexpectedly to the little guy who outsmarts the bigger guy. Why? Richards provides insights from the Blitzkrieg and Operation Desert Storm.

CHAPTER II **VISIBLE FIGURES ALONE**

How leaders who rely on "visible figures alone" to run their organizations are usually setting themselves, their people, and their stockholders up for a big loss.

CHAPTER III **STING LIKE A BEE**

If you can only read one chapter, read this one. Richards examines some of the key attributes of success in 'agile' organizations.

CHAPTER IV **WHAT STRATEGY IS AND WHAT IT CAN DO FOR YOU**

While there are some nuggets in here, for me, it was the book's weakest chapter.

CHAPTER V **A CLIMATE FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS**

Richards does a good job identifying and explaining key elements for winning organizations in competitive environments -- culture, mutual trust, intuitive knowledge, the contract of leadership, responsibility, communication, and focus on the long term.

CHAPTER VI **SURPRISE AND ANTICIPATION: THE REAL PRINCIPLES OF WAR AS APPLIED TO BUSINESS**

Helps business leaders understand how to think and practice combat proven leadership methods and practices in competitive business environments.

CHENG = Conventional or core quality business that customers expect and grabs the attention of the competition.

CHI = Unconventional or unexpected business that delights customers and is capable of destroying the competition.

CHAPTER VII **WHAT YOU REALLY DO WITH OODA LOOPS**

How leaders create and sustain favorable market conditions.

Rating:
Summary: ARE YOU READY TO RIDE THE TIGER?
Review: Chet Richard's CERTAIN TO WIN: The Strategy of John Boyd Applied to Business

DO GET THIS BOOK -- If you want to learn more about how to lead high performance organizations in constantly changing competitive environments filled with uncertainty.

DO NOT GET THIS BOOK -- If you want to learn more about managing incremental change efficiencies in a stable environment filled with little uncertainty.

This is the first book to help leaders better understand the impact of COL John Boyd USAF (1927-1977) on business theory and practice.

Boyd's impact -- on the U.S. Marine Corps; Defense Secretaries Rumsfeld, Cheney and Aspen; House Speaker Newt Gingrich; the 1980's Military Reform Caucus in Congress; Operational Test and Evaluation of U.S. weapons and the U.S. Air Force's design and production of the F-15 and F-16 fighters -- has filled other books and movies: PENTAGON WARS by Burton; THE PENTAGON PARADOX by Stevenson; THE MIND OF WAR by Hammond; BOYD by Coram.

This book belongs in your library if you're interested in some of the business principles underlying the success of the Toyota Production System, Southwest Airlines, WALMART, and others.

The book has seven chapters:

CHAPTER I **NOR THE BATTLE TO THE STRONG**

Success in war sometimes goes unexpectedly to the little guy who outsmarts the bigger guy. Why? Richards provides insights from the Blitzkrieg and Operation Desert Storm.

CHAPTER II **VISIBLE FIGURES ALONE**

How leaders who rely on "visible figures alone" to run their organizations are usually setting themselves, their people, and their stockholders up for a big loss.

CHAPTER III **STING LIKE A BEE**

If you can only read one chapter, read this one. Richards examines some of the key attributes of success in 'agile' organizations.

CHAPTER IV **WHAT STRATEGY IS AND WHAT IT CAN DO FOR YOU**

While there are some nuggets in here, for me, it was the book's weakest chapter.

CHAPTER V **A CLIMATE FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS**

Richards does a good job identifying and explaining key elements for winning organizations in competitive environments -- culture, mutual trust, intuitive knowledge, the contract of leadership, responsibility, communication, and focus on the long term.

CHAPTER VI **SURPRISE AND ANTICIPATION: THE REAL PRINCIPLES OF WAR AS APPLIED TO BUSINESS**

Helps business leaders understand how to think and practice combat proven leadership methods and practices in competitive business environments.

CHENG = Conventional or core quality business that customers expect and grabs the attention of the competition.

CHI = Unconventional or unexpected business that delights customers and is capable of destroying the competition.

CHAPTER VII **WHAT YOU REALLY DO WITH OODA LOOPS**

How leaders create and sustain favorable market conditions.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional strategic wisdom
Review: I purchased the book yesterday. I tip my hat to the author, Chet Richards. What an exceptional read. I paid roughly $30 for it. I would gladly pay $100 for what has become a gold nugget of strategic wisdom in my collection of wisdom books. Concise, penetrating, and above all, the concepts make sense.

I have numerous books on strategy. How Richards interprets Boyd's concepts to a business format is far and away more meaningful than anything I have ever read. I can honestly see how they can be applied in real everyday business circumstances.

While "Certain To Win" is written from a business perspective, it is easy to see how the principles are also adaptable to everyday life.

Just buy the book. Worth the investment.

Rating:
Summary: The prescription for high professional performance
Review: If you are looking for a manual to success, you will find it here. In seeking answers to the elusive questions of leadership, I have read and continue to read a lot of advice. Most books on leadership are full of insights, but fail to establish a robust, systematic framework on how to approach work. Having read Chet Richards book, I am struck by how most leadership advice I now read is either a subset or derivative of the concepts presented in this concise work. His writing has truly went a long way in solving the leadership puzzle for me.

Between Coram's, Hammond's, and now Richard's book - you have the opportunity to approach your efforts from a new basis. A basis your competition will want to know. The sooner you learn the concepts, the better off you will be, and your competition will wonder what happened.

The insights related to trust, harmony, speed, reflection, orientation, intuition, surprise, focus, mass, decision-making, agreement, and their relationship to winning are basic common sense. But without reading this book, you won't be able to understand how they fit together into a universal system which results in realizing your strategic vision. What more could you possibly want?



Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of the Next Wave of Business Strategies
Review: John Boyd created models for strategy and decision-making that led to modern maneuver warfare, and success on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Concepts such as `operational tempo', and `agility' emerged as new doctrinal pillars, yet found their roots in the earliest writings on warfare and conflict. Chet Richards has adopted and adapted these concepts to the business `battlefield.' This battlefield, unlike that in warfare, reflects the reality of `winning the customer,' and not just `beating the competition.' Richards's application of Boyd's theories, coupled with a significant bibliography of references (enough for a Strategist's Library), provides both a practical framework for adoption, and a basis for significant future research. Richard's references to the likes of Gary Klein (Sources of Power) and his theories of intuition and decision-making, cause the reader to think beyond formulaic approaches to business strategy. The reader is challenged to consider the human dynamic at the individual level, as well as the group and organizational level. The book is a quick read, which makes it ideal for picking up again and again.

Chet Richard's "Certain to Win" is a rich playbook with for the practitioner, and a sourcebook for the researcher.


Rating:
Summary: Boyd for Business
Review: Most everyone in the military has at least heard of the late Col. John Boyd, USAF, and his military theories, but few have really thought of applying Boyd to Business. Chet Richards has brought Boyd to a whole new audience.

I first met John Boyd in 1979, and his impact was dynamic. I didn't meet Chet Richards until much later, but he has really captured the essence of John Boyd in a particular and unique way, the application of Boyd to the world of commerce. Chet Richards was close to Boyd and exchanged ideas with respect to business applications. Boyd was enthusiastic about Chet's desires to put Boyd's theories into the business dimension and offered his help. Unfortunately for us, John Boyd died in 1997, but this did not detract from Chet Richard's long and determined effort to capture Boyd for the rest of the world. This, to Chet, must have been a labor of love, and no one else that I know could possibly have done what Chet Richards has done for us in this fine book.

I lamented the fact that there was not a lot written about Boyd after he died. While he briefed his ideas prolifically, he didn't write any serious works about these theories (other than one small paper), and I was afraid that his concepts and ideas would be lost to posterity. Then along came Grant Hammond with his biography of Boyd, and just a few years ago, Robert Coram wrote his extremely readable biography, and now Chet Richards has added considerably more to our understanding of Boyd from his own treasure chest of memories and understanding. I consider these three books a trilogy of Boyd, his life, and his ideas. The biographies were undoubtedly difficult undertakings, but this original application of Boyd's theories to business is a superlative achievement that deserves reading and recognition.

I was particularly impressed by this book with the very cogent and pertinent examples of how Boyd's theories apply to the business world. The examples are really what stirs the imagination because without them, it would be difficult to grasp military ideas in civilian clothes.

This is a masterful piece of relevant reading! Well Done, Chet Richards!

Rating:
Summary: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business
Review: Possibly, the best book I have read on strategy, both in the arena of warfare and business (and I've read a few!). Chet Richards has done a great job of taking John Boyd's work and applying it to the arena of business. He uses a number of case studies (e.g. Toyota and SouthWest Airlines) to illustrate the concepts.

As an example of the insights I gleaned from the book, it makes it very clear why "me too" strategies rarely produce good results.

Anyway, a great book,only 187 pages (including notes etc) so it's easy to read and there's no "filler". Like all classics, simple and to the point but incredibly profound. Buy it! You'll be glad you did!