Strategy Moves: 14 complete attack and defense strategies for competitive advantage

Book description

This book will become the bible of a bible for the field of business strategy for many years to come.An invaluable playbook of strategic moves for managers, marketers and entrepreneurs, covering all 14 known attacking and defending strategies, and backed up by over three hundred international examples. 


  • Backed up by copious examples from industry:  more than 300 examples in the text, and a unique chapter case study on how Japanese auto firms conquered the US market using a combination of various moves covered in the book.

  • Almost twenty years after the appearance of Al Ries's groundbreaking Marketing Warfare, the time is right to bring the practitioners up to date with the thinking and show them how to use it. 

  • A Complete manual.  The book is built around the 14 strategic moves.  It shows you what move to use, how to use it, and when. Like a book of chess moves for business.

  • Positioning and Marketing Warfare are two of the most successful books ever published in marketing/business strategy, and Strategy Plays clearly falls in that space.

  • Will prominently feature endorsements from Kotler and from Ries.

Table of contents

  1. Strategy Moves
    1. Financial Times Prentice Hall
    2. Acknowledgements
    3. Preface: Nothing is written
    4. 1. You can win with ten or lose with a hundred: Two examples from the field of war
        1. 1.1. Introduction
        2. 1.2. The Zulu War
        3. 1.3. The path to war
        4. 1.4. The invasion
        5. 1.5. The battle of Isandlwana
        6. 1.6. Rorke’s Drift temptation
        7. 1.7. The battle of Rorke’s Drift
          1. 1.7.1. Why did the Zulus go?
          2. 1.7.2. Bravery
          3. 1.7.3. Importance
        1. 1.8. Conclusion
    5. 2. The reasons for victory and defeat – and the lessons for business
        1. 2.1. Introduction
        2. 2.2. Knowledge of the enemy’s characteristics and plans
        3. 2.3. Focus
        4. 2.4. Choice of terrain
        5. 2.5. Surprise
        1. 2.6. Conclusion
    6. 3. Attack: The six strategic movements
        1. 3.1. Introduction
        2. 3.2. Guerrilla strategy
          1. 3.2.1. Types of guerrilla attack
          2. 3.2.2. How to implement a guerrilla strategy
        3. 3.3. Bypass
          1. 3.3.1. The four types of bypass
          2. 3.3.2. Criteria for bypasses
          3. 3.3.3. More thoughts on bypasses
        4. 3.4. Flanking attack
          1. 3.4.1. Criteria
        5. 3.5. Frontal attacks
          1. 3.5.1. Using frontal attacks
        6. 3.6. Undifferentiated circle
          1. 3.6.2. How to perform undifferentiated circles
        7. 3.7. The differentiated circle
          1. 3.7.1. Five principles for differentiated circles
          2. 3.7.2. Synthesis
        1. 3.8. Summary
    7. 4. Defense: The eight strategic movements
        1. 4.1. Introduction
        2. 4.2. Signaling
          1. 4.2.1. How to signal
        3. 4.3. Barriers to entry
          1. 4.3.1. Fixed barriers to entry
          2. 4.3.2. Mobile barriers
          3. 4.3.3. Barriers: Conclusion
        4. 4.4. Global service
          1. 4.4.1. A few points to note about global service
          2. 4.4.2. Rules for successful global service
        5. 4.5. Pre-emptive strikes
        6. 4.6. Blocking
          1. 4.6.2. Using blocking
        7. 4.7. Counter-attack
          1. 4.7.1. How to perform a counter-attack
        8. 4.8. Holding the ground
          1. 4.8.1. How to hold the ground
            1. Size
            2. Quality of resources
            3. Experience
            4. Synergy
        9. 4.9. Withdrawal
        1. 4.10. Summary
    8. 5. When to follow each strategic movement
        1. 5.1. Introduction
        2. 5.2. Choosing between attack and defense
        3. 5.3. When to choose a defense strategy
        4. 5.4. When to choose an attack strategy
        1. 5.5. Conclusion
    9. 6. Organizational alliances
        1. 6.1. Introduction
        2. 6.2. Thirteen types of alliances
        3. 6.3. Advantages and disadvantages of alliances
        4. 6.4. Choosing the type of alliance
        5. 6.5. Choosing when and how to ally
          1. 6.5.1. Define the strategy clearly
          2. 6.5.2. How does an alliance help in implementing the strategy?
          3. 6.5.3. Use alliances to upgrade strategic move by one level only
          4. 6.5.4. Potential benefits must outweigh potential costs and risks by at least 25 percent
          5. 6.5.5. Use contention management by setting up a devil’s advocate function in the board
          6. 6.5.6. Benefit and cost computations must be done in terms of their impact on profit, deducted from the cost of capital
          7. 6.5.7. Eliminate alliance types that do not fit the defined objectives
          8. 6.5.8. Eliminate the types that do not address our weaknesses
          9. 6.5.9. Make a plan and timetable for all required organizational changes to harvest benefits and keep costs under control
          10. 6.5.10. Select an organizational heavyweight to implement the step plan
        1. 6.6. Conclusion
    10. 7. Case study: Lessons from the Japanese car industry in a global age
        1. 7.1. Introduction
        2. 7.2. How Japan used strategy to succeed
          1. 7.2.1. Phase I: Defense of the internal market through entry barriers
          2. 7.2.2. Phase II: Attack through bypass and geographical concentration
          3. 7.1.3. Phase III: Holding the ground while erecting entry barriers to indirect competitors and performing a frontal attack on the market leader, Volkswagen
          4. 7.1.4. Phase IV: Geographical expansion
          5. 7.1.5. Phase V: Adding mobile barriers to fixed barriers
          6. 7.1.6. Phase VI: Jumping from one segment to another – bypassing again
          7. 7.1.7. Phase VII: The circle
          8. 7.1.8. Other Japanese companies follow suit
        3. 7.3. Lessons to be learnt
    11. 8. Conclusion: The eight rules to follow to deserve success
        1. 1. Defense is stronger than attack
        2. 2. There are four criteria that must be satisfied before attacking
        3. 3. There is a natural sequence for choosing a defense
        4. 4. There is a natural sequence for choosing an attack
        5. 5. The criteria for defense or attack must be well implemented
        6. 6. Strategic moves can be performed in isolation or in alliances
        7. 7. Internationalization is the most difficult form of attack
        8. 8. Success depends on mastering the rules of when (to perform each type of strategy); how (to implement it); and whether (to do it alone or in alliance)
    12. Notes
        1. Chapter 1
        2. Chapter 2
        3. Chapter 3
        4. Chapter 4
        5. Chapter 5
        6. Chapter 6
        7. Chapter 7
    13. Bibliography

Product information

  • Title: Strategy Moves: 14 complete attack and defense strategies for competitive advantage
  • Author(s): Jorge Alberto Souza De Vasconcellos e Sá
  • Release date: May 2006
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780131370333