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Principle #2: Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness

Now that we've learned exactly what the ultimate goal of our small business should be, it's time to define exactly how, in a strategic market and business sense, we are to accomplish this goal. Sun Tzu's second principle, deception and foreknowledge, is rather simple, but at times the application can be tricky. Let's see what we can do...

Attacking Weakness:

• Leverages your resources as effectively as possible
• Increases the value of your victory
• Avoids the "we only need to do what our competition has been successful doing to be successful" mind set
• Keeps you from missing opportunities

How To Attack Weakness in other Companies:

• Evaluate your competitors value chain and attack their weakest point. (lure away distributors, strengthen/improve your operations n opponents weaker area to profit where they are not succeeding, etc.).
  
• Identify your strongest competitors and smaller, weaker, competitors. In your market you may attack companies that are more fragile than you to gain market share in order to build strength against a larger company.
• Enter new geographic markets
• Create new products
• Identify under served market niches or new markets
• Utilize the first mover advantage when possible and feasible. Use this preemptive strike to build a defensible position in markets.
• Identify boundary points within competing companies - areas in which one part of the company intersects another in responsibilities. These points often expose value chain weaknesses and areas for creative attack and useful insights.
• Find psychological weak points and attack those (through PR, swaying of customers by emphasizing your strengths in areas of competitor weakness, etc.)
• Determine your point of attack in the weakest/high yield area possible.
• UTILIZE THE WEB
  

Keys for a successful attack:

• Attack from a defensible position, and when the time is right. Do not attack if situations change, be aware of your surroundings.
• Attack the weakest point with the highest yield.
• Do not always assume the obvious answer is right. Develop your strategy and analysis capabilities to identify a variety of options.

Web Marketing and your Strategic Attacks:
Marketing and web marketing especially provide some unique tools for capitalizing on your competitors' weaknesses. Whether it be supply or value chain, psychological, or a quick strike into a new market, the web provides tools to improve each of these areas within your own business, as well as research and identify weaker areas in your competitors.

• Learn what web applications may be used to enhance your own supply and value chains
• Study your comeptitors website for weakness - web marketing and search engine optimization is often a weak point, especially for small businesses.
• Utilize sights such as spyfu.com, compete.com, and semrush.com to identify competitors strategies for online marketing.
• Sell product online when it makese sense (expand your geographic market)
• Utilize the web to quickly distrbute a new product
  
• Utilize the social media and viral aspects of the web to launch psychological attacks on your opponent and influence consumers' opinions.
• Utilize analytics tools and web testing strategies to gain insights into consumers and new market opportunities.

Principle 3 coming soon...