New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Move, Shoot and Communicate

"Move, Shoot and Communicate" was a standard phrase I learned as a young officer in the US Army regarding the three essential capabilities to develop, build and perfect in order to be successful in battle.  And the faster a troop leader can perform and lead the soldiers, the more effective he was at gaining ground.
  
I remember a cartoon I saw as a lieutenant that stuck with me: the cartoon featured an armored personnel carrier tearing down a tank trail at a high rate of speed with a caption that read "speed is my camouflage".  That resonated with me.  While some leaders stopped to put on more camouflage to avoid enemy fire, the best leaders thought fast, spoke clearly and took quick and decisive action with a commanding presence.  They were often on top of the enemy before their presence was detected -- or had blown past their enemy so fast that the enemy didn’t have a chance to get them in their cross-hairs.

During the Gulf War, it was typical for an Iraqi POW to tell us that they had no idea the US Army was even in the area until their tank was hit by a rocket.  The Gulf War was the fastest land war ever waged up until that time.  In fact the biggest problem we had was that our combat units moved so fast that the food, fuel, and ammo supplies couldn’t keep up with them.  We actually had to tell field commanders to slow down so we could keep them properly equipped.

Leading a company as an entrepreneur has many parallels to military leadership, but instead of "Move, Shoot and Communicate", it is more like "Engage, Sell and Service": "Engage" with your prospect/customer community (communicate clearly, add value, inform, etc.); "Sell" your offering: (a compelling value proposition that is priced properly and that meets a real need); and "Service" your customers with great service that keeps them coming back for more and/or leads to other customers via referrals.  And the faster we can learn about customer needs and apply them to our message and our offering, the more effective we will be.

Like military leaders, great entrepreneurs need to think fast, speak clearly and take quick and decisive action.  Keep it fast, keep it clear and keep it crisp.  And take the hill.

Adam Sheridan August 9, 2010

Thanks, Wade. This is very pertinent to our situation right now and I find it encouraging. Here is a related question: in the practice of these skills, we are bound to make mistakes and deliver poorly. How do we regain those customers' trust as our "engage, sell, service" skills improve?

Wade Myers August 10, 2010

By being open and honest with customers, which can be frightening for a leader and a company. Look at how long it took Apple to admit to the antenna issue with the newest iPhone. But once they fessed up and offered a free case, the issue finally started to fade. Some brand damage was done, however. And some credibility was lost. Had they immediately addressed the issue properly, less damage would have been done. Recall the need to have a "Service Recovery" plan in place that we discussed in the Service Management section of the Venture Academy? Good service recovery actually builds customer respect and trust because they see a company doing the right thing immediately after a failure. And that leads to even more referrals than if the company had never failed in the first place as we also discussed in the Service Management lecture.

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