The best way to win is to make your foe's strength redundant

“Corporate Aikido”
Robert Pino
McGraw Hill, 1999


Humankind, throughout the centuries, has been pre-occupied with the thought on how best to win or – at the very least – survive. Even before Charles Darwin theorized on the “survival of the fittest,” men and women from ancient to modern history have had to fight to survive.

The obsession to win pumps up our adrenaline. Henry “Red” Sanders puts it best (in words sometimes attributed to Vince Lombardi): “Sure, winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

Viewed on a grand scale, men go to war to secure the survival or supremacy of their village or country, and they come home greeted by the jubilant cheers of a hero-worshipping people.

Such a culture of war and war drums, of soldiers and generals has also influenced the world of business. How many times have you attended a sales conference where event managers produce a show where the firm’s commandos fire upon and blow up to smithereens the logos or products of competitors?

What about a product launch where battle cries of “kill,” “annihilate,” and “pulverize” dominate the entire auditorium – out to banish the villain-competitor into oblivion? The more blood thirsty the salesmen, the better. The sharper the killer instinct'; return true;" style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 3px double; TEXT-DECORATION: none" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;" href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=killer%20instinct">killer instinct, the more desirable.

The problem with this approach, according to Robert Pino, author of “Corporate Aikido,” is that it saps the energy of antagonists – or competitors. At best, either one scores a partial win, while the other licks his wounds and plans for the next bloodletting.

The problem is people mistake fighting for winning. Pino advises companies to use the aikido-based strategy to “realize their strategic intention and to deepen further the core ideology of the company.”

The author uses Aikido, a martial art known to avoid a “force vs. force” approach, as an extended metaphor in advancing his theory of “winning without fighting.” He points out: “Aikido is focused on absolute victory and on the continuous improvement of oneself.”

Obviously trained in the martial art, Pino debunks the belief that the “defensive art would not be of much help in a real fight.” He ascribes doubts about its effectiveness on the “complexity and difficulty of the defensive techniques.”

Throughout this thin book (161 pages), the author describes in detail Aikido as it applies to a winning strategy. “Those who look for victory by destroying the opponent are usually disappointed. Making the strength of your opponent redundant and controlling him is more effective,” he asserts.

He cites the cases of Dell Computer and Starbucks. Dell had no chance to lock horns with IBM, Apple, DEC or Compaq in building up an authorized dealer network, and so it used direct mail successfully. Starbucks avoided head-on competition with big restaurants and decided to introduce a new “coffee culture” giving customers “a sense of wonder and romance in the midst of their harried lives.” Read about how Nike use aikido strategy against Adidas and Puma.

Pino mentions aikido when other marketing gurus call the strategy “finding a niche,” or “surpetition,” i.e., above the competition. In the same vein, military strategists talk about winning a battle without firing a single shot.

The book’s discussion on winning is not confined to marketing or war; it is training and preparing the body, soul and spirit of the corporation for victory. The authors cites cases of collaboration, not competition, that was the key to the phenomenal success of a number of companies.

If that’s the case, is competition a thing of the past? “Competition forms an important part of the external environment,” concedes the author. “But it is never the most important driving force behind the company’s activities.”

To the author, the most important thing is competing with oneself, muck like the defensive art of aikido. He brings you, the reader, through three parts of the book – the “ai” (coordination and harmony), the “ki” (mental energy or spirit), and the “do” (the method or way), with real life applications in the marketplace.

The good thing about real martial arts training, like in aikido, is the insistence of the Senseis – aikido master – for students to look inward, achieve balance of body and spirit, and seek victory where no one loses. We have been accustomed to “zero-sum” games where one wins and the other loses. At the onset of the new millennium, it is time to march to “a different drum,” where cooperation, not competition, is life’s prevailing principle.