"Unconventional Business" (pt. 2) Prepared for conflict? Asymmetric business...

Nowadays, win a battle in corporate world requires a lot of capabilities that many people into the business world are not able to understand for many reasons.

• First because many people are not prepared for the business, don't have the knowledge for acting.
• Second because many people involved are into old models of administration, kind of static administration doctrine.
• Third the leadership are still the old model of hardcore bossess.
• Fourth because the economic system is failed in general, not giving good oportunity to new companies take the market in between the business anarchy.
• Between many others!!!

We have to apply our theory into the model of natural law, of Thommas Hobes, and business model is the same anarchy, companies are searching for the monopoly, for the welfare and survival, and they can do anything, like implementation of spies, sabotage, fake denounces, stealing models of administration, etc.

In general, sabotage and stealing of information are most used, like fake denounces or giving fake information, making new companies lose the focus. Also, the logotype is very important for the company, people in general prefer to go to any company that is well known in the market.

Anyway, what this irregular conflict can show us is that in corporate world, small companies can also use the same technics of counter intelligente, fake information and, also, prices, mouth to mouth propaganda is good and also, a small kind of sabotage.

Let's start anlysing with this:

A conventional military force can fight asymmetrically, which demands that we tailor our operations so that we do not have to fight like with like, or can avoid battle on unfavourable terms. This may include dissimilarity, whereby we apply forces in a way that the adversary is not expecting, and overmatching at decisive points, whereby we create more or greater effects than the adversary can counter. We can achieve effective asymmetry against most adversaries by using our conventional forces to apply coercion or direct pressure in unconventional ways. In the future, fighting asymmetrically may involve using lethal and non-lethal force, acting in concert with other elements of national power, or acting against critical vulnerabilities that are not usually the focus of military operations. Increasingly, these effects will be produced from both kinetic and non-kinetic weapons. 

Deception and surprise are parts of an asymmetric attitude that refuses to accept conflict on the adversary’s terms. Surprise is created when the adversary is unable to react effectively to our initiatives in time. Deception is created by measures that mislead the adversary. In the future, synchronised surprise and deception will be integral to our efforts to generate shock and thus create desired effects.

(Future Joint Operating Concept (FJOC), Operations for the 21st Century, May 2007, p. 25.)

Using the model of Asymmetric Warfare Group, let's start with the threat. What is the product and what is the threat involving the product. How to involve the consumer, being products or services, to the type the company is offering.

So if you have any threat, you must number what and how much. Mitigate them is important, so what kinds are the theats, like active or passive.

To be honest, note them is hard, because the active threats can be inside the company. Can be sabotage for exemple, or can be adirect propaganda from the other companies. Can also be a passive threat, using trade marks, joint ventures and make the product be not interesting as it really is.

The actives are a big problem, because when people loses the faith on a company is hard to restore, and some kinds, like sabotage, can destroy the company from inside. Like poison water in a brigade, or an IT company has a person who is stealing information to hackers.

About the use of violence. Let's not think of lynch the person, or kill the person, but take a measure like fire him, or denounce him as a criminal, what kind of atitude the manager have to take, and what is the hierarchy to follow, about who is the guy? Which level is him?

Remember that the Maslow Pyramid can show the level of satisfaction of each one and maybe the problem is not external, but internal to the company.

About the measure taken, it was supposed to take the decision with a colaboration for sure, do not take any decision irrationaly is important, because the manager or president must know that imporatnt information is involved in the situation and the information must not be spread easily, or at least in a case of dismission of the employee, he must leave thinking that everything is alright, and take all care for this information keep inside the walls of the company.

In a case of irrational or rational decision, the need of keep things under control is important.

That's the point of the counter intelligence is important, investigate, and understand all the possible motives, also, do not belive in everything said, and keep all the information is important. A council for that, of trustable people is important.

Remember that every employee is a sensor!

So about the old fashioned style of hardcore bossess are not able to be actioned today. Because you must have friends there and not only employees that are only interested on work and receive, nothing more.

So people can act as monitor, and it's usualy done as daily reports of negative atitudes. It's important to mitigate possible problems that will cause insatisfaction.

When something happens, the administration must take the direction, and try to solve the problem inside the capability of reunions, changing the for of action, separate the possible problems, observing and advice of possible strike.

After this, if the problem persists, the high administration must take a decision, together the council, because in that situation, many things can be happening at the same time, like selling of information, people infiltrated, also physical injuries and people unsatisfied to sabotage the company, with small groups that act like a virus, spreading bad ideas and fake propaganda dissimulated, against the company.

That's why have all the sectors close, acting together, as one completes the other is important. In the FM 3-05.130, they say about interagency:

THE NATURE OF INTERAGENCY BUREAUCRACY 

4-94. Each agency has core values and legal requirements that it may not compromise. In any interaction, all participants must be constantly aware that each agency will continuously cultivate and create external sources of support and maneuver to protect its core values. Individual agency perspectives and agendas complicate policy development. Protection of institutional prerogatives may often drive the various USG agencies’ positions. These positions may not always coincide with a common approach to UW.

4-95. As uncertainty increases during a crisis, so does the likelihood of compromise. Compromise may bring the sacrifice of power, security, or prestige. Uncertainty allows for the coexistence of varying views about the likely outcomes of a given action; these differences in viewpoint often lead to conflicting interests. An organization will seek to reduce uncertainty and lessen the threat to its own stability. Information can reduce uncertainty and increase an organization’s power. Thus, information equals power in interagency coordination, because it provides those who possess it a decided advantage in the decision-making process. Maintaining unity of effort in complex, sometimes contentious, and often long-term UW interagency campaign planning is a coordination challenge for ARSOF execution of UW. 

(Page 65)

The decision must be taken in the nature of the business, for exemple, security must be preventive or coercitive, active or passive. The business can be passive or active. Financial business can be agressive or reactive. Depends of the nature of the leaders, the design of scenarios expectations.

Decisions can be rational, thinking of mathematics and numbers or irrational, decided by any agressive factor, of being on monopoly of the whole market.

Leadership must understand that any decision taken can have ant reaction from the whole business scenario and market. That's why using unconventional methods is dangerous and can be very well calculated before the decision.

Check here the KLE cycle, and try figure the process on the business scenario.

Understand the whole market puts the operators on a dangerous and inconstant scenario. The cycle goes from the entity that we are searching for, for exemple, the objective, the whole scenario, challenges than the canonical scenarios. The OODA Loop comes now, the difference is that we must have a briefing and difusion of operations, acting in many other "fronts", than a return of the whole sectors to the unity.

Exemple: A man that has two or three companies for the same objective, difusing the employees to them as the need of the company to work, put his own companies to dispute the same objective, taking the focus of the other competitors.

In Afghan War on Terror, USArmy and Asymmetric Warfare Group developed one great strategy on reconize population as alied. The capability of break the paradigm on being seem as an enemy and started getting reconized as a friend helped the operators on having the support of population.

First of all the kids were happy with their presence because of the moon of good threat of them, candies, money, toys, etc. Than help the women on having some help in home, than support the men with works, money, good conversation. Many of the Afghans were not involved into terrorism, and they don't support these tactics and measures taken by extremists.

So the manager or the directors should use the external links on being friendly. Like support of causes, extra works, volunteering, etc. In general the return is not financial, but informal, with new partners that support the company as a friend, and the information starts to come in. 

Also, being friendly with the employees, reconizing their extra works, supporting their personal needs.

Some companies use the external people to help on receive information. Personal experiences I could check like the man that guards the cars of the directors could help on information of competitors, others like guys who sells candies in front of the company always give information of who enters the buildings, information of local violence. The Doorman always knows many information as the security personel.

Working together them and not getting insolated helps put on a strategy of map the possible future clients, and steal the possible future clients of competitors.

For exemple: If the guy who guards cars close to the office don't let other competitors client's park there, they easily will give up, or will remark other places. That feeling on deal a contract will get cold, that's the time of map a possible partnership with these possible clients.

That's why we always hit the same key of Maslow Pyramid, to make people realized, know their needs, use their needs in favor of the company, but it's a exchange of favours, it's change the need of the company for their needs. But check, the need of the company is only one, the needs of people around are diverse.

Again:

For this we must take what are the poins inside and outside the company, priorities and problems, and it's a cycle of Observation - to monitor the problems, solutions, causes, consquences -. Flag - to point and mark the problems, solutions, causes, consequences -. Action - to take atitudes and solve the problems, give the solutions, check the causes and consequences and make the flowin of the cycle.

Remember that take the Atitude (Action) is the last measure! 

This can be an exemple of what can cause problem to the capability of operation of a company, from the types from the observation to the action, we must number each one and understand each one.

Observe: always look and monitoring the capability, insatisfaction, create the good manners, create ideologies, make people love the mark they work for, make people belive the direction and management, etc.

Flag: always point the problems, associate the problems with possible crisis, cut relations with competitors and employees. The relations with competitors fits to the directors and managers. 

Action: dismiss, fire, demonize the competitors, collect all information and use against, check the legallity of competitors, etc.

The Information Warfare

Following the FM3-05 130, at the page 121:

B-1. The information environment is the total of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information. The actors include leaders, decision makers, individuals, and organizations. Resources include the materials and systems employed to collect, analyze, apply, or disseminate information. The  information environment is where humans and automated systems observe, orient, decide, and act upon information, and is therefore the principal environment of decision making. Even though the information environment is considered distinct, it resides within each of the four domains of air, land, sea, and space. 

B-2. The information environment is made up of three interrelated dimensions (Figure B-1, page B-2):

• The physical dimension. The physical dimension is made up of the C2 systems and supporting infrastructures that enable individuals and organizations to conduct operations across the four domains. It is also the dimension where physical platforms and the communications networks that connect them reside, which includes the means of transmission, infrastructure, technologies, groups, and populations. Comparatively, the elements of this dimension are the easiest to measure, and consequently, combat power has traditionally been measured primarily in this dimension.
• The informational dimension. The informational dimension is where information is collected, processed, stored, disseminated, displayed, and protected. It is the dimension where the C2 of modern military forces is communicated, and where commander’s intent is conveyed. It consists of the content and flow of information. Consequently, it must be protected.
• The cognitive dimension. The cognitive dimension encompasses the mind of the decision maker and the TA. People think, perceive, visualize, and decide in this dimension. It is the most important of the three dimensions. A commander’s orders, training, and other personal motivations affect this dimension. Battles and campaigns can be lost in the cognitive dimension. Factors such as leadership, morale, unit cohesion, emotion, state of mind, level of training, experience, situational awareness, as well as public opinion, perceptions, media, public information, and rumors influence this dimension. 

B-3. Advancements in technology have enabled information to be collected, processed, stored , disseminated, displayed, and protected outside the cognitive process in quantities and at speeds that were previously incomprehensible. While technology makes great quantities of information available to audiences worldwide, perception-affecting factors provide the context that individuals use to translate data into information and knowledge.

The RAM showed how important is to have all technology updated. Use the computers, information warfare together the C2 and commander's orders is essential to the nowadays capability of understanding and spread information inside the company.

How the leaders must act inside the company?

Following the principles of the FM3-24F, page 74:

The element that possesses the high finality of the business is the final decision, but the leaders must be decisive on his decisions. The capability of entrust and design the works to the sectors is essential and direct right the work to the right person, speak clear and be decisive, is a kind of old fashion, but the voice, the looking and make understanding is the most important characteristics for the leaders.

Develop leadership in relationship is essential. Knowledge, use the technology and promote models to be followed can make the company operate in diverse lines, dividing the whole work to the best capable people to design each of the process of the final result.

Planning is essential, the first of decision tree and brainstorm is important, reunions, and a briefing is the most important part of the personel selection. But to create scenarios, the first step is intuition, the reasonable and mix with intuiton can make a possible scenario. It's before the release of a canonical scenario, the most probable and think the most perfect scenario, point the possibilities on achieve the goals to this scenario!

Objective!

Follow the principles of the Counter Insurgency, Asymmetric Warfare, the leaders must follow these described:

ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

4-8. The key elements of the design process include the following:

• Discourse.
• Systems thinking.
• Model making.
• Intuitive decision making.
• Continuous assessment.
• Structured learning.

4-9. Discourse is rigorous and structured critical discussion that provides an opportunity for interactive learning, deepening shared understanding, and leveraging the collective intelligence and experiences of many actors to enable design.

4-10. Systems thinking involves developing an understanding of the relationships within the insurgency and the environment, also the relationships of actions within the various lines of operations. This element is based on the perspective of the system sciences that seeks to understand the interconnectedness, complexity, and wholeness of the elements of systems in relation to one another.

4-11. In model making, the model describes an approach to the COIN campaign, initially as a hypothesis. The model includes operational terms of reference and concepts that shape the language governing the conduct (planning, preparation, execution, and assessment) of the operation. It addresses questions like these: Will planning, preparation, execution, and assessment activities use traditional constructs like center of gravity, decisive points, and lines of operations? Or are other constructs—such as leverage points, fault lines, or critical variables—more appropriate to the situation?

4-12. Intuitive decision making involves the act of reaching a conclusion that emphasizes pattern recognition based on knowledge, judgment, experience, education, intelligence, boldness, perception, and character. This approach focuses on assessment of the situation vice comparison of multiple options (Army/Marine Corps). The design emerges intuitively as understanding of the insurgency deepens.

4-13. Continuous assessment is essential as an operation unfolds because of the inherent complexity of COIN. Any design or model necessarily has mismatches with reality. The object of continuous assessment is to identify where and how the design is working or failing and to consider opportunities for redesign.

4-14. The objective of structured learning is to develop a reasonable initial design and then learn, adapt, and iteratively and continuously improve that design as more about the dynamics of the COIN problem become evident.