Operating Inside the Customer's Decision Cycle
What do a game of soccer, an aerial combat, and an IT Service business have in common?
At first glance, there might not seem to be anything in common.
But if you look closer, they all have to do with
competition and winning in a fast moving environment.
Let us delve into this matter a little more in detail.
A Game of Soccer:
Let's put our thinking cap on for a second
and pretend that we are inside Park Ji Sung's or one of our favorite player's mind
in a hotly, contested game of soccer.
To make winning plays, what we, as Park Ji Sung, have to do is:
First, constantly observe where the ball is and where the players are.
Second, try to orient and understand the evolving situation on the soccer field.
Then, third, make an almost instantaneous decision about what to do next.
And finally, fourth, carry out the decision with a winning shot into the net.
And all of these activities can happen in a period of few seconds.
In other words,
in a fast moving environment of soccer
Park Ji Sung tries to Observe - Orient - Decide - Act (or let's call it OODA for short),
and he does this OODA cycle over and over faster than his opponents.
An Aerial Combat:
Soccer isn't the only place where this OODA cycle applies.
In fact, the concept of OODA was first observed in an aerial combat
in the skies of Korea in 1950.
At the time, the soviet-made MiG-15 was considered a much better aircraft
than the American-made F-86.
However, the combat results indicated otherwise.
The F-86 actually had a 10:1 kill-ratio over the superior MiG-15.
This means that for every F-86 that was shot down,
10 MiG-15's were also shot down.
How was this possible?
This had perplexed the analysts for years
with their only answer about the phenomenon
being relegated to the experience of American pilots.
It wasn't until 30 years later
when an U.S. Air Force Colonel named John Boyd
reopened the case and solved the mystery.
What John Boyd observed was that
it wasn't the performance of the aircraft
nor the experience of the pilot what won the dogfight.
It was "whoever could perform the OODA cycle faster"
had a strategic advantage and eventually won the dogfight.
You see, the MiG-15 had a better turn ratio, better speed,
almost better everything than the F-86.
Buy John Boyd, an F-86 pilot himself who served in Korea in 1953,
described that a pilot in an aerial combat does 4 things over and over.
That is...
Step 1: He constantly OBSERVES where the enemy aircraft is.
Step 2: He ORIENTS himself relative to the sky, ground, and the enemy plane.
Step 3: He makes a DECISION about what to do next to put his plane behind the enemy's plane
so that he could shoot it down.
And finally, Step 4: He CARRIES OUT his decision with his flight stick.
So, the F-86, with the only advantage of having a better visibility due to a higher canopy and a faster operation due to a mechanically operated flight stick,
actually performed the OODA cycle faster than the MiG-15.
With a faster OODA Cycle,
as the F-86 creates a new situation (S2),
the MiG-15 will still be operating with the OLD situation (S1) and information.
In other words,
the F-86 gained a strategic advantage
by operating inside the enemy's OODA cycle.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The allies dominated the sky
and this advantage played an important role
of checking the power of ground forces of Red China in the later stages of war.
IT Service Business:
The IT Service business that we're in,
is also conducted in a fast moving environment.
We don't have an enemy to destroy
but we DO have customers to satisfy.
Marketing experts claim that potential customers go through 4 phases of Purchase cycle:
Awareness, Interest, Action/Trust, and Loyalty.
In order to win the hearts and minds of customers,
we have to operate inside this Purchase Cycle.
In other words, our OODA Decision Cycle must be shorter than the Customer's Purchase cycle.
Let's see what happens if this is not the case.
Let us assume that this [OODA Cycle] is our Product Development Cycle
At situation 2, we will still be trying to develop a product
based on the OLD Situation and Information (of Situation 1).
We will not be rolling with the changes, and our products will not be sold in the market.
As time progresses, we will eventually be erased from the hearts and minds of customers.
We can prevent such an awful scenerio
by actually shaping the Purchase cycle rather than passively responding to it.
And we do this,
not by performing individual actions better,
but by ITERATING through the entire OODA cycle faster,
a concept also known as Agility
And the key to fast interaton of OODA cycle, or Agility,
is the ability to orient and re-orient as situation dictates.
Because once we have a good orientation (or understanding) of evolving situation,
we can minimize the wrong decisions or the time it takes to decide,
and move quickly into action.
John Boyd claimed that the net effect of having a fast OODA cycle,
is equivalent to having the opponents move in slow motion,
while we are running at double speed.
It is like we are commanding both sides of the competition.
Conclusion:
So, now, back to the question of what do a game of soccer, an aerial combat,
and IT service business have in common.
Well, they all have to do with competition in a fast moving environment.
And to win in such a competition,
we have to get inside the opponent's or customer's decision cycle.
May OODA be with you, and have a wonderful day