No battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy…
Sadly the news is filled with details of battle plans from Ukraine, and hopefully, failure of the Russian battleplans will soon lead to a negotiated peace. The plethora of news pouring out of Ukraine has reminded me of how much management best practice has been derived from the military.
As a child I was somewhat obsessed with war, and spent far too many hours watching war movies, many of which were in black and white – The Dam Busters, Where Eagles Dare, A Bridge Too Far, The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape, all told stories of bravery and the battle of good over evil, but to me also told me so much more. They showed to me how critical planning is, how important it is to have conviction in whatever you do, and that when things don’t go to plan, it’s important to review your actions, and plan again, again and again until you achieve your ultimate goal.
Whilst running a business should never be a battle, it’s not without its challenges, and using the right tools to achieve your objective is critical in making any business a success. Every year business’ set a budget, a strategy, a one or five year plan and all sorts of other targets (or battle plans), and then go on to not deliver on them. Meanwhile, employees watch this lack of success and the ‘not delivering’ on those targets becomes the norm and acceptable. However, it doesn’t have to be that way.
When aiming for any type of goal, it’s important to ensure the objective is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound).
A goal that can’t be achieved is just a dream, and whilst goals should be ‘stretchy’ those that have to deliver on them must believe, or it’s doomed for failure. Often it’s better to achieve a goal that isn’t so challenging than it is to fail on one that is… success can snowball. Many a general knows that sometimes you have to lose a battle in order to win a war.
Then responsibility for the various activities has to be assigned. Most modern organisational structures are derived from military structures, and increasingly, industry has learned how important it is to devolve responsibility to the smaller frontline groups, whilst the strategy is set from the HQ, who have an overview of the entire ‘battlefield’. Having set objectives for each of the smaller groups the command centre is elevated to a position of oversight, without being lost in the detail. This isn’t the same as disengaging and leaving the frontline to it, regular reviews of the detail, and checking on the morale of the troops is crucial.

To ensure the objective is met, measurables need to be tracked to ensure progress can be monitored in real time.
With information constantly being sent back to the command centre, progress can be monitored and adjustments made to ensure the plan stays on track, or if necessary, is re-written – this is effectively PDCA (or Plan – Do – Check – Act) without which, any good plan will fail due to incorrect assumptions, changes in uncontrollable external factors… or quite simply, a plan that just wasn’t good enough.
Reviewing progress against a plan, and taking action is critical in delivering an outcome, but without dedicated and committed soldiers, all plans will fail. It’s often said (but not necessarily truly believed by some that say it) that people are any businesses most important asset, but if you take the military analogy and look at the investment in service personnel, most businesses look woefully inadequate. In my opinion, the British forces are some of the best (if not the best) in the world. We have 100’s of years of experience in which we have fine tuned our military machine, and whilst I would be the first to say we could do more for less (well I would, wouldn’t I?), the training we give our forces really delivers when it matters the most.
The training given to the British military personnel gives them the tools to deal with situations of very high stress, it teaches them how to communicate, how to work as a team and how to have the confidence to achieve the seemingly impossible. As the investment in people has increased, so has the investment in the equipment to protect them, from vehicles, to body armour, to protective weaponry such as drones and missiles. The same is true of the workplace, we should never just send our people out to the frontline and leave them to fend for themselves, they need support, coaching, reviews, fresh challenges, and reward and recognition when they do well. A few ‘medals’ can go a long way to motivating a larger group.
Whatever the financial cycle of your business, monthly reviews at least (I would recommend metrics that provide shorter intervals of control – monthly = just 11 times per year to course correct) are required to ensure the business is on track, and for changes to be made to ensure objectives can be met.
- So, how is your business doing?
- Are you on track?
- Is delivery of objectives the norm, rather than the exception?
Here at MCDBT we are experts at ensuring targets are met, time after time after time. If you want to know more about how we do it, and how we can help you, please do contact me through the website for a free, no obligation review.
Mike Cameron-Davies CEng, FIMechE
Solving your Strategic and Operational Challenges