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4 What are the aims of a school?
5 In tackling a big fire, what might be the objectives of the fire chief?
6 What are the goals of a journalist?
Targets
A target is just another term for an objective. As suggested in the figure below, a
target may be far or near. It may also be wide or narrow. It follows that if a target is
both wide and near then success is more easily assured. So it is not just a matter
of saying: That is my target, how do I get there? . It is also a matter of designing or
changing the target so that it becomes more easily accessible. Dimitri Comino,
who invented the very successful Dexion slotted angle strip, once told me how his
invention was designed as a target that was both near and wide. The strip had so
many uses that even if one market segment did not work out, there were many
others.
THINKING AND DOING
If you are throwing darts at a dartboard and your aim is not very exact, it would be
nice if - somehow - the dartboard moved to meet your flying dart so that this
landed in the bullseye. It would be nice but rather unlikely. In a similar manner if
you manufacture a radio and then hope that the market will move to like it, you
may be disappointed. Far better to spend more time on a better aim - finding out
what the market really wants.
Strategy and tactics
At several points in this book I have mentioned the L-Game which I once designed
as the simplest possible real game . New players find it hard to develop an
effective strategy precisely because the game seems so simple. As a broad
strategy they might offer the following:
" break up the empty spaces
" stay close to the opponent s L-piece
" use the neutral pieces to block rows and columns
" dominate the centre
" keep out of the comers
" force the opponent to the edge
All these are general guidelines or broad strategy. Within that broad strategy
there are moment-to-moment moves that have to be made. These are the
tactics . A computer company might have the broad strategy of riding on the
coat-tails of IBM . Within this broad strategy there are many tactical decisions that
have to be made: to avoid directly competitive products; to make sensitive pricing
decisions; to anticipate IBM policy. Another computer company might adopt the
strategy of catering for customers who needed the utmost reliability in their
computers rather than the most advanced system. Yet another company might
direct its attention to the small business user. This company might use the tactic of
making personal computers in order to get people used to its products and then
offering rather more powerful machines. In this case it may be difficult to decide
whether this is really a tactic or a sub-strategy . The important point is that the
strategy is the overall intention and way of behaving which itself guides the
moment-to-moment movement or tactics.
Corporate strategy has recently become a much more fashionable subject.
This is because in a competitive world it is no longer enough to rely on a
dominating market position - or just quick reactive behaviour to whatever a
competitor has done.
(jTt7^)
DE BONO S THINKING COURSE i
Courses of action
In the L-Game there are so many possible courses of action at any one moment
that it is virtually impossible to work through the consequences of any one move.
One way around this is to work backwards from the winning positions. Most of
the winning positions (but not all) have the losing L-piece in a corner. So we
assume that if the opponent can be forced into a comer we shall eventually block
his piece. Then the opponent leams to keep out of the comer. So we must now
learn a move which will force the opponent into a comer. He learns that too. So we
leam the move that will force him into the position from which we can force him
into the corner from whence we can block him. In effect we are working
backwards .
We can look at the same process in another way. Suppose we wanted to get to
Edinburgh. We then worked backwards from Edinburgh. If only we could get to
Newcastle then the next bit to Edinburgh would be easy. So we make Newcastle
the objective. Then we find a town from which it would be easy to get to Newcasde
- and so on.
This working backwards process is illustrated below.
It is a very powerful way of designing a course of action. In fact it designs several
courses of action, and then we look around to see how close we actually are to one
of the entry points . It must be said that working backwards is not easy because it
requires a great deal of mental effort and the ability to imagine things.
The points from which we could get to the final objective become objectives in
themselves and so on as we work backwards. Action is thus divided up into easy
stages. It may not be the most efficient method (for example, the road to
Edinburgh may bypass Newcastle) but it is an effective one in situations where
there are
118 ) no obvious courses of action.
THINKING AND DOING
If-box maps
I described the if-box map method in my book Opportunities. It is a convenient
notation for mapping out a course of action so that we can separate the action
channels from the if-boxes.
An action-channel is something that we can do as soon as we decide to do it.
The channel is there, and there is nothing to stop us advancing along it. For
example, if you want to ask a friend to lend you some money there is nothing to
stop you picking up the telephone and calling him.
You can call your friend but you do not have any control over whether or not he
will lend you the money. The best you can do is to make a good case and exert
your sales charm. Since you do not have control this is an if-box . You have to
await the outcome. It depends on factors beyond your control. You are held up.
You cannot advance as you might along an action channel.
The idea is to plot a course of action by dividing it into action channels (which
you can zoom along) and if-boxes (where you are held up).
For example, if you conceived the business idea that it might make sense to set
up a camera rental business (in the same way as there exist car rental businesses)
for people going on holiday, scenic spots, special occasions, you might construct
an if-box map as shown below:
j I_
_i i rj ~i
r~L_j l_t
A-1 IF 1 A-2 IF 2 A-3 IF-3 A-4
(A)-1 (IF)-1 (A) 2 (IF)-2 (A)-3 (IF)-3 (A)-4
The letters below refer to the letters on the map:
A-1 Approach a bank for finance
If 1 If the bank agrees to lend money
A-2 Pay for a market survey
If 2 If the survey shows there is a market
A-3 Approach camera company for special deal
If 3 If camera company agrees to such a deal
A-4 Look for premises, etc.
DE BONO S THINKING COURSE
We might look at the if-box map on page 119 and decide that it does not offer
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