The CEO and Speed Chess

There’s a New Normal breaking through the ice concerning how a CEO makes decisions.  The traditional linear method of forecast and response has been replaced by a new process that resembles both Special Forces field tactics and…. speed chess:

Here’s how the Wall Street Journal describes it:

Now, even though the economy is slowly picking up, those fresh habits aren’t fading. “This downturn has changed the way we will think about our business for many years to come,” says Steve Odland, Office Depot’s chairman and chief executive.

Walt Shill, head of the North American management consulting practice for Accenture Ltd., is even more blunt: “Strategy, as we knew it, is dead,” he contends. “Corporate clients decided that increased flexibility and accelerated decision making are much more important than simply predicting the future.”

Strategic Plans Lose Favor, Wall Street Journal 1.25.10

Who Was John Boyd?

In America’s current business “Story”, the question is not “Who is John Galt?” but “Who was John Boyd?”

John Galt is of course the famous antagonist of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s classic tale of capitalism.  Rand’s story begins with the question, “Who is John Galt?” in reference to the stealth anti-hero who eventually reaps global influence on America’s economy.  John Boyd was on the other hand a non-fiction, relatively unknown Air Force colonel in the late 20^th century; Boyd is a best kept secret where the Pentagon is concerned, but to fighter pilots he was a flying legend who, in less than forty seconds, could defeat any other aviator on the planet. When asked about his vocation, Boyd would announce “I’m a #%*&# fighter pilot!” But he accomplished more than owning the skies; Boyd also changed the art of war for our entire armed forces.

Boyd was somewhat of a Renaissance man; he revealed brilliance as an engineer, designer, author and teacher in addition to his role as “40 Second Boyd.”  Little did Colonel Boyd realize that his brilliant calculations and theories would one day not only change American aerial and field combat tactics forever, but also equip business leaders to make decisions in the current “war” of our economy.

Boyd created the first calculations and strategic procedures for aerial combat.  His landmark equations justified federal funding to create tactical fighters, like the F-16 and F-18 in lieu of traditional budget-busting bombers.  Boyd also constructed the now famous OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) after years of research and testing.   Our aviators and Special Forces currently use the OODA Loop as their trusted decision process on missions around the world.  Boyd designed the “organic” OODA so that officers could consistently out-maneuver the enemy.

Here are the brutal facts of American businesses in Boyd’s context: we currently experience a 9:1 kill ratio in favor of the enemy.  Who is the entrepreneur’s “enemy”?  In addition to competition and current political legislation, the CEO’s enemy could be his or her own lack of essential information and lack of readiness (more later) to make tough decisions on a continual basis to survive and defeat competition.

If our mental processes become focused on our internal dogmas and isolated from the unfolding, constantly dynamic outside world, we experience mismatches between our mental images and reality… The only alternative is to do a destructive deduction and rebuild one’s mental image to correspond to the new reality.

John Boyd

Over 90% of emerging businesses fail, but those that prevail produce over 85% of the jobs in our country.  Many experts believe entrepreneurs need trusted process, as Special Forces and military aviators experience with the OODA loop, to make decisions quickly and remain maneuverable.

In the next post I’ll describe the contribution John Boyd made 30 years ago to the success of business today.  I call it the Six Secret Steps to Split Second Decisions.  It’s the “Speed Chess”  of decision making and it could make the difference of CEO survival in 2011.  Not that you’re scared of that, of course.

August 8, 2010 | Categories: CEOs Don't Scare | Tags: Ayn Rand, brent sapp, brentsapp, john boyd, John Galt, OODA, OODA Loop, Wall Street Journal, you don't scare, youdontscare | Leave A Comment »