Business and politics run parallel

It’s a brand-new year. And it promises to be exciting both in business and politics. The noise leading to the May 2010 presidential election will surely increase as we kick off the holiday feeling and prepare for a new wave of competition. The same goes with business as companies tweak, improve or totally reconfigure their strategies in what seems to be a fiercer battlefield.

It has been said that business or market leaders need to think and act like an underdog to maintain dominance. This argument is strengthened by the cases of a number of large corporations in first-world countries that were at their best when they practiced strategic humility. They acted small, not as condescending incumbents, but as hungry insurgents. Such a stance has also brought a level of success to local companies and conglomerates.

The Law of Insurgency

Political strategists and consultants David Morey and Scott Miller call such an approach the law of insurgency, which allows for an underdog advantage. This radical rule has been established and refined over centuries of military and political experience and has worked on battlefields, ballot boxes and businesses. It works on the premise that “It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts. What matters is the size of the fight in the dog,” a principle aptly applied to today’s business practices.

Using the political campaign template, Morey and Miller call attention to the paradigm demanded by today’s business milieu, which states, “On election day you either win or lose.” But in this country, we often hear the claim, “Di ako natalo, nadaya (I didn’t lose, I was cheated)” from defeated wannabes. The truism that we are either a winner or a loser envelops the objectives of a company. It creates a daring, courageous and aggressive stance that focuses on nothing less than being number one and beating the competition.

As we will see in the 2010 presidential derby, passionate campaigning, vigorous communication and pumped-up financial muscle will rule constituencies, and as we all know these factors make winning the coveted post an expensive proposition. In business, however, insurgent strategies will help companies gain markets, satisfy customers and maintain satisfied, more productive and loyal employees — with less financial drain.

The underdog principle has also introduced a political model of doing business anchored on two beliefs. First, the rules of leadership, business, and communications have completely been altered, considering that consumers are even more empowered by information that is instantly available and immediately distributed through various platforms. As such, these consumers have more choices, and brands have more competition.

Second, insurgent business strategies and communications work. Morey and Miller believe that there are two types of organizations and organizational behaviors. There are the incumbents, described as bloated, slow, risk-averse, bureaucratic, change-resistant and more likely to play defense to maintain power; and there are the insurgents who are harboring an attitude of difference. They are more agile and welcome change as an opportunity. They are more mobile, faster and hostile.

Winning an Election Every Single Day

There are no excuses the day after an election. That’s a political reality. One side is preparing for a victory party, and the other side is sulking and declaring that it has been cheated. But, truth be told, there are no ambivalent results in an election — a candidate either wins or loses. To the winners, victory is mighty sweet. To the losers, the bitter taste of defeat is something that will not be forgotten for extended periods.

The main thesis of an insurgent business approach, on the otherhand, is that successful companies always think of themselves as the underdog or the insurgent. They (companies, brands or celebrities) never allow complacency to set in. They run themselves and their programs like a political campaign, needing to win an election every single day.

A presidential candidate has to show that he can still act like an insurgent and not just play defense. He needs to control the two-way communication, to frame the argument for voters and not let other aspirants get at it first. That’s what a great company or brand should do as well. It should control its conversation with both its external (customers) and internal (employees) publics. In business, insurgents do a great job of reminding consumers what’s at stake. And they have a high level of belief in the company or the brand itself. Incumbents just say, “We’ve got a better jingle than they do.” An insurgent would ask, “What would my best customers really love for me to do that would just shake things up?”

Both political and business campaigns need to move their respective targets that can still be swayed. Both have to play offense, believing that companies or brands can learn a lot from politics about playing offense. The following are insurgent business considerations to make our programs more responsive to the needs, not only of our organization, but more importantly, of publics we want to be on our side:

1. Focus on achievable, but no-compromise results. This is not the same as loosey-goosey objectives. We can do this by defining our conviction, mandate and focused actions.

2. Narrow the targets. Develop an insurgent strategy based on things that are doable. It requires breaking our pick on the impossible, focusing on the undecided, and moving the movables.

3. Clearly define who we are. Control the market dialogue via insurgent tactics. It is defining ourselves before our opponent can do so, riding ahead of today’s waves of change, getting scared and staying scared and playing offense to win.

4. Translate ownership of our conviction and strategy to our internal publics. In other words, communicate inside-out. This means we have to communicate to our employees and secure their buy-in first before hitting the external publics.

5. Give our targets the five Cs. That includes control, customization, convenience, choice and change. Forget reality because perceptions rule. Picture who we truly are, what we do and why people should care in our publics’ terms and not ours.

6. Understand that everything communicates. The tiniest details define success. Thus, it is vital to herd the details to be on the winning trail.

7. Remember that crisis is standard operating procedure. Recognize that we must create a core strategy group, a crisis plan and a crisis-response team.

The boldness of the insurgent can make a president. It can also make our business lead and lead well.

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E-mail bongsorio@yahoo.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.