Fire and Motion

If you had to reduce your business strategy to three words, what would they be?

For Joel Spolsky, the co-founder of Fog Creek Software and author of blog Joel on Software, the three words would be "Fire and Motion."

"Fire and Motion" is a military phrase that refers to firing your weapon (and causing your enemy to cower), while running forward (thereby gaining territory and through your promixity to your enemy, improving your aim).

Spolsky explains how everyone from small businesses to large companies like Starbucks can use "fire and motion" to drive their businesses forward.

Spolsky's article appears in the April edition of Inc. Magazine. You can find an online copy here.

As a metaphor, "fire and motion" does a good job of conveying the relentless activity that successful businesses engage in. But I find the idea of "firing" a little vague.

Spolsky cites the example of Starbucks throwing McDonalds off their game. Starbucks educated a lot of America about what coffee could be (at least compared to the watery stuff served in most restaurants) and offered customers a superior sipping and dining experience—purple armchairs and wood paneling beat hard plastic chairs every time.

But it's hard to derive this strategic approach simply from the idea of "firing." Firing is attacking the enemy. Undoubtedly Starbucks is attacking McDonalds by marketing good coffee and giving their customers a more comfortable environment for consuming fast food. But Starbucks could have interpreted "firing" with some other strategy for attacking McDonalds: cheaper burgers, more burgers, aggressive advertising, etc. And these other approaches would not necessarily work as well as the strategy Starbucks has chosen.

To fire with maximum effect, it's important to pay attention to Spolsky's comment about successful companies setting the agenda for their markets.

If you look at a competitive market, the successful company is always the one setting the agenda and forcing competitors to match it. For example, JetBlue's version of fire and motion came in the form of a superior customer experience.

This is the key: To fire effectively, you've got to be more than busy. You've got to set the agenda.

That's where a blue ocean strategy comes in. A blue ocean strategy creates new products and services that redefine the costs and benefits of a solution, enabling a company to move from an intensively competitive "red ocean" market to a new "blue ocean" market, free from competitors.

A blue ocean strategy sets the agenda for a market:

• JetBlue redefined the US airline market
  
• Starbucks redefined the fast food market
  
• Yellow Tail redefined the US wine market (it's now the top selling wine in the US)
  
• Salesforce.com redefined the sales force automation market
  

To gain sufficient fire-power, you've got act on a blue ocean strategy. Simply keeping busy with traditional tactics (promotions, store openings, etc.) doesn't cut it.

This is why I recommend that management teams develop value curves for their products and markets, then use those curves to develop a blue ocean strategy designed to deliver dramatic growth. (Value curves are described by Kim and Mauborgne in their book Blue Ocean Strategy. I help start-ups with this type of planning.)

By comparing value curves, I can understand how Starbucks is firing at McDonalds. I can see what Starbucks is adding and subtracting from the traditional fast food experience. I can get a sense of how Starbuck's choices relate to its costs and prices. And I can better understand how Starbuck's new fast-food agenda creates trouble for McDonalds, and why McDonalds is now responding the way it is (i.e., with better coffee and more stylish decors) to align itself with the market as Starbucks has redefined it.

So, be relentless. Use "fire and motion." But to figure out how you're going to fire and what ammo you're going to load, develop a blue ocean strategy.