Customer Reviews

Judo Strategy: Turning Your Competitors' Strength to Your Advantage

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Taking examples primarily from the high-technology business world of the past 7 years, Yoffie and Kwak use the sports of Judo and Sumo as metaphors to analyze small, new companies competing against large, entrenched companies. A brief introduction to the sport of Judo is followed by an overview of the Principles of Judo Strategy in business -- Movement, Balance, and Grip - with short examples of companies as varied as Amazon.com, Capital One, Charles Schwab, Dell, eBay, Frontier Airlines, Inktomi, Intuit, Juniper Networks, JVC, Netscape, People Express, Priceline.com, and Transmeta using these strategies (mostly) successfully. CNET Networks, Palm Computing, and Real Networks each get a chapter of their own discussing their use of Judo Strategy in detail.

Of course the upstart company does not always win, so the authors introduce the sport of Sumo and then describe how to apply Sumo Strategy to deal with a Judo strategist, using examples of behavior by AOL, Cisco, Coca Cola, Du Pont, Intel, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments.

I enjoyed the judo and sumo metaphors and especially all the stories about companies that had used these strategies successfully. The only suggestion for improvement I might offer the authors is to include more examples of companies (like Netscape) who violated these strategies and paid the price.

Judo Strategy winds down with a list of five rules for the Judo Strategist, which I will summarize as: Focus, Execute, Be Nimble, Leverage Creatively, and Cut Your Losses Quickly. I was particularly impressed by the passion, energy, intellect and dogged determination required of a small company leader to compete successfully with a large company. The commitment over a long period of years by a single leader sets a very important tone for a company, and events like George Sheehan leaving WebVan [I wrote this review before WebVan folded!] or Peter Neupert kicking himself upstairs to Chairman at Drugstore.com should be seen as critical warning signs about the long-term viability of those companies.

Okay, I'm biased about this book. After all, our story (the Palm story) is well profiled in it! But I do believe that Yoffie and Kwak have captured and articulated well some of the essential elements of our strategy. Judo Strategy gives solid advice, and is loaded with examples, for those entrepreneurs who dare to compete against industry giants. Refreshingly, it also instructs you on what NOT to do, which is sometimes even more important. I recommend this book for anybody who choses to compete with market leaders.

This is a great book for anyone competing with the 800 pound gorilla of their industry. It gave me a lot of ideas about how to look beyond other companies' strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses. The examples are inspiring (especially the examples of moves to avoid, like getting into a war of attrition). If you work anywhere other than Microsoft, you should definitely read this book.

To understand strategy we study the details of campaigns, what worked and why. You can fill a library with good books on military affairs, but if you want to think about business strategy there are relatively few that combine reliable history with analysis. Most business strategy books are either simple exhortations to do better or rigid formulas that would have brought tears to Clausewitz's eyes. Many business histories, on the other hand, offer little more than a dry recital of events.

Judo Strategy is different. This is good analytic history, blending individual perspectives with overall strategy issues. Yoffie and Kwak bring in the personal dimension, while not losing sight of what it really takes to win. They present numerous detailed accounts of how entrepreneurs built (and in some cases then damaged) some of the country's best-known companies. Judo Strategy provides both an entertaining read and an important reference volume for entrepreneurs.

Napoleon is quoted as saying: "Read and reread the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Ceasar, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Eugène, and Frederick; take them for your model, that is the only way of becoming a great captain, to obtain the secrets of the art of war." Following this logic, we should read and reread the campaigns of companies like eBay, Palm Computing, Sony, and Charles Schwab. Start with Judo Strategy.

The usual garbage. Let's find a firm which has succeeded (for example RealNetworks) despite small size, and force fit it into our facile strategic model. Then let's find a firm which has been creamed (for example Novell) and show (by a selective telling of history) how it failed to do what our stupid (but seductively named) model would have suggested. Repeat three or four times and you have a book.

It is easy to tell stories, but that is all this book does. The predictive power of this claptrap will be zero - and results, specifically future results, are all that counts. Prospective CEOs should look inwards and discover themselves rather than waste their time on this and similar books.

I like metaphors as much as the next person. They help me see a situation in new and more revealing ways. However, that only occurs when I am familiar with the metaphor. Even after reading this book, I still don't understand enough about judo to grasp many of the points the book is making. Perhaps if it were combined with a video, photographs, or illustrations, it would have worked for me. On the other hand, if you practice judo and work for a dot com company, this is the book for you.

The book's other weakness is that over 70 percent of the examples come from Internet, software, semiconductor, and the computer industries. If you work in another industry, I suspect that you will have a hard time translating the concepts into specific tactics for what your business should do. For example, how does this strategy apply to network marketing, fast food, and motion pictures?

The authors did a lot of research on judo, both in the U.S. and in Japan to write the book. So if you always wanted to learn a little more about that martial art, this book will give you an introduction into the history and philosophy of judo.

The book is organized into three sections. The first explains the principles. The second section provides three examples (Palm-Handspring, RealNetworks, and CNET). The final section talks about how to use size to crush judo strategies (the sumo strategy) and more advanced ideas for judo strategy.

Judo strategy focuses on answering the question of why Palm was able to prosper against Microsoft while Netscape faltered. So if you keep that comparison in mind, you will get a good sense of much of the book's content. I liked the way the authors used "failure" examples to help reinforce their points.

The principles of judo strategy involve movement, balance, and leverage. For movement, the authors suggest avoiding attention ("the Puppy Dog Ploy") as Transmeta did with its new chips, redefining the competitive space, and being fast to execute. For balance, the subpoints are gripping your opponent (as eBay did with AOL), avoiding tit-for-tat, and pushing when pulled (and vice versa). Leverage involves turning your opponents assets and accounts against him or her (as a barrier to change), and using competitors' partners and competitors as resources.

These are all sound ideas, but in most markets the primarily issues are not competitors . . . but customers and finding better ways to attract and serve them. The concepts in this book are a good adjunct to the type of high-technology marketing thinking that Geoffrey Moore has done, but will rarely provide enough of a base for a whole strategy. Of all these concepts, I thought that avoiding tit-for-tat in new developments was the most helpful one.

I suspect that a book built around the metaphor of the underdog overcoming the dominant company, such as David and Goliath, would have worked better than judo for a book on this general subject.

Given the metaphor and the industry focus, the book is very well done. So my observations relate to the concept of the book rather than its execution.

Perhaps a good test of this concept will be to see how well the book sells compared to other strategy books. Time will tell.

When have you seen underdogs turn that position into a triumph in nontechnology businesses? What were the lessons?

Consider your competitor's size and strength among your potential resources for strategy.

Yoffie & Kwak have written a terrific practical guide to winning a competitive battle against a business rival. I have used their ideas on numerous occasions in the past few months with my own strategy consulting clients and have highly recommended this book to them as well. I enjoyed the clear well-written insights from my first reading, but I am now drawn back to write this review months later as I have come to realize the general applicability of these concepts and the value I've gained from them.

On reflection, I believe the strength of their book is the judicious use of the judo metaphor. Metaphors are powerful when they get us to see familiar opportunities or threats in new ways. That is exactly what this book did for me. Moreover, the judo metaphor helped me to remember easily all the nuances of their three core principles--movement, balance, and leverage--so that I could apply them to the business situations I deal with in my everyday life. This book describes a competitive insight supported by an apt metaphor--not a metaphor accompanied by numerous business examples.

Yoffie & Kwak describe a battle plan for stealing advantage from the dominant player in an industry. Their advice for winning is not to be better, but to be smarter. I think their principles apply in any situation where the market leader has made explicit, valuable, often irreversible, commitments to the market place--to its customers, to its suppliers, to its employees, or to its alliance partners--in order to achieve its position. The strength of the leader's market position derives from these commitments. The authors recommend that we study these commitments and then use them against our rivals in order to gain competitive advantage for ourselves. The book guides one through numerous techniques for doing exactly this.

Even though their examples are largely high-tech companies, this principle is as applicable to the steel industry as it is to biotech. I appreciated, though, their numerous applications of the often very clever techniques used by the high-tech companies cited in the book. Once I saw how the principles worked in these more challenging, and sometimes, more subtle situations, I was able to extend the principles myself to other industries and to make them part of my own strategy toolkit.

Judo Strategy is one of the best strategy books I've read in the past year.

This book uses the metaphor of judo as the basis for a surprisingly nuanced look at how (mostly) startups can compete with bigger companies. While some of the ideas the authors present are familiar (redefining the competitive space), many others are new or deserve to be emphasized in the new economic environment. The same goes for the examples. Many of the usual suspects (Southwest, Dell) appear, but often with a new twist, and the authors also discuss less-known companies like Transmeta.
The book is a little heavy on high-tech/Internet-related examples, but overall, it's a good read, and unlike many others in the category, it's almost entirely jargon-free.

I read dozens of business books every year, and this one is a standout. In clear compelling language, Yoffie and Kwak lay out a set of strategic principles and techniques that companies can use to fight back against stronger competitors. The three principles they analyze are movement, balance, and leverage; the techniques include the puppy dog ploy, define the competitive space, and leverage your opponent's assets, partners, and competitors. These ideas come originally from the sport of judo, but Yoffie and Kwak demonstrate through numerous examples that they also make sense in business.

As well as short examples from Intuit, eBay, Schwab, etc. that are used to explain the three principles, the book includes indepth studies of three companies that have been successful at judo strategy (Palm, Real Networks, and CNET). These chapters are a "must read" for anyone interested in the new economy. A great deal has been written about all three companies (especially Palm), but here the analysis and details, often culled from interviews, are first-rate.

The last section of the book deals with sumo strategy, which is the counterpart to judo for large companies such as Microsoft and Intel. Smaller companies will find few direct lessons here, but reading about sumo strategy is a good wake-up call for anyone who thought that competing with giants might be easy.

Judo Strategy uses Judo as an analogy for competing against a larger and more powerful competitor. The Columbia Encyclopedia defines Judo as in the following way: [Judo] depends for success upon the skills of using an opponent's own weight and strength against him, thus enabling a weak or light individual to overcome a physical superior opponent.

Judo Strategy does a good job of successfully applying judo techniques to a business setting. What are these techniques (I am glad you asked)? 8~)

Judo depends on a couple of main tenets that are listed below.

Movement
Balance
Leverage

Movement is broken down into a couple of techniques such as not inviting attack, define your competitive space and following through fast. Balance techniques include gripping opponents (co-opting competitors), avoid head on conflict and pushing when pulled (e.g., accepting a competitors coupons). Leverage techniques include using an opponents assets (installed base), partners and competitors.

The authors do a nice job of providing business examples of each of these judo disciplines. The examples include Real networks, Charles Schwab, Progressive, Cnet, eBay and others.

As an additional bonus the authors include a section for companies that are sumos in a category. Sumo techniques include unnerving the opponent, and locking up an opponent (e.g., outspending, cutting of channel options). There is a nice section on sumo and anti-trust (with Intel and Microsoft as examples).

This book is a fun read and extremely useful when consider how to deal with powerful competitors.