Skip to content
Logo of blog www.exploitingchange.com by Alcera Consulting Inc.
  • About
    • Richard Martin
    • Alcera Consulting Inc.
  • Services
    • Consulting
    • Facilitation
    • Training
    • Speaking
  • Blog
  • About
    • Richard Martin
    • Alcera Consulting Inc.
  • Services
    • Consulting
    • Facilitation
    • Training
    • Speaking
  • Blog
Contact
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Powerful Ideas
  4. »
  5. If you’ve lost or given up the initiative, then you’re automatically in a defensive posture

If you’ve lost or given up the initiative, then you’re automatically in a defensive posture

Share this post

  • Richard Martin
  • February 10, 2014
  • 2:30 pm
  • No Comments
Picture of Richard Martin

Richard Martin

Richard Martin empowers leaders to outmaneuver uncertainty and drive change through strategic insight and transformative thinking.
All Posts

You’re on the defensive when you’ve lost or intentionally given up the initiative to your competitors or opponents. You know you have the initiative when you set the timing, rhythm, location and nature of the action.

You can give up the initiative willingly and go into a temporary or local defensive mode. This allows you to buy time to reorganize, rest, or reconstitute your resources. It also allows you to free up valuable resources to reassign them to higher priority areas. In practical terms for business, this means you can free up resources to be on the offensive strategically while maintaining a defensive posture in certain areas. How can you tell if you’re on the defensive?

  • You’re constantly surprised by events and by your opponents’ or competitors’ actions.
  • You’re constantly playing catch up, because your opponents or competitors are beating you to the punch: They introduce new products or services before you do. They open up a new market segment before you do. They introduce new processes and production techniques before you do.
  • Once you realize what’s happening, you’re slow to react and can’t turn your ship around quickly once you DO decide to act.
  • You have little insight into your competitors’ or opponents’ intentions.
  • You have little insight into your customers’, suppliers’, and distributors’ preferences and intentions.
  • You are constantly reacting to competitors’ and opponents’ actions instead of setting the agenda yourself and making them react.
  • More often than not, you’re fighting on ground (i.e., markets, on issues) NOT of your choosing.
  • More often than not, you have to compete or fight with your weaknesses instead of your strengths.
  • Morale and mood are low, as people realize that your company or organization doesn’t have the initiative.
  • Cohesion and coherence of action are difficult to maintain, as you’re constantly reacting rather than proactively managing resources and assigning them to your strengths and to reaching YOUR goals.

Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.

© 2014 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.


Discover more from Exploiting Change

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ready to

Navigate change and strengthen your strategy?

Let’s get started.

Book a call

Share this post

Richard Martin, President of Alcera Consulting Inc.

Richard Martin

Richard Martin is the President of Alcera Consulting Inc., a strategic advisory firm collaborating with top-level leaders to provide strategic insight, navigate uncertainty, and drive transformative change, ensuring market dominance and excellence in public governance. He is the author of Brilliant Manoeuvres: How to Use Military Wisdom to Win Business Battles and the creator of the blog ExploitingChange.com. Richard is also the developer of Strategic Epistemology, a groundbreaking theory that focuses on winning the battle for minds in a world of conflict by dismantling opposing worldviews and ideologies through strategic narrative and archetypal awareness.

PrevPreviousHow to Shape Your Competitive Space
NextFocus your limited resources and effort on the actions with the biggest payoffNext

Business Under Threat: Rethinking Free Enterprise in an Era of State Mobilization

Read More »

Strategic Calibration: Leadership in a Sovereign-Constrained World

Read More »

Coherence Under Fire: Why Enterprise Requires Alignment, Not Autonomy, in a Sovereign World

Read More »
Page1 Page2 Page3 Page4 Page5

You've come this far...

Ready to build a strategy

That is truly impactful?

Book a call

Logo of www.exploitingchange.com blog, by Alcera Consulting Inc.

I collaborate with top-level leaders to provide strategic insight, navigate uncertainty, and drive transformative change, ensuring market dominance and excellence in public governance.

Contact me

+1 (514) 453-3993

Latest Articles

  • Business Under Threat: Rethinking Free Enterprise in an Era of State Mobilization
  • Strategic Calibration: Leadership in a Sovereign-Constrained World
  • Coherence Under Fire: Why Enterprise Requires Alignment, Not Autonomy, in a Sovereign World

Links

  • About
    • Richard Martin
    • Alcera Consulting Inc.
  • Services
    • Consulting
    • Facilitation
    • Training
    • Speaking
  • Blog
  • About
    • Richard Martin
    • Alcera Consulting Inc.
  • Services
    • Consulting
    • Facilitation
    • Training
    • Speaking
  • Blog

Sign up for weekly insights

Sign up for weekly insights

We don’t spam! Read more in our privacy policy

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Privacy Policy – Terms & conditions

Alcera Consulting Inc. © 2024 Copyright - All Rights Reserved

Socials

X-twitter