Lanchester Strategy: An Introduction [Paperback]

Nobuo Dr. Taoka (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Widely practiced in Japan, but understood by only a handful of business leaders in the U.S.A., the Lanchester Strategy is speeding around the globe because it defines how to be a winner in a global contest. If you want to understand the new economy, this book could be your most important book purchase of the decade. -- Dr. Ted Lewis Ph.D., author of The Friction-Free Economy published by Harper Business 1997.

From the Author

After publishing Sales Forecast in Competitive Markets, in November 1971, questions from readers on Lanchester Laws came pouring into my office. Many people inquired if there was any book that offered a simple explanation of these laws. This book attempts not only to respond to these requests from readers, but also to explain my ideas on how to apply these laws to daily marketing activities. Lanchester Laws are, in a word, about the science of competition. Originally stated as a way to calculate losses in military combat, they became the guiding principles in strategies of landing and securing bases in the Central Pacific during World War II. After WWII, these laws and principles became the basis of Operations Research (OR) and were applied to management and marketing strategies. During the war, as a junior high school student, I witnessed the terrific magnitude of laws of logistics being exercised by the United States as I watched my house reduced to ashes, in an instant, during a B29 bombing. The laws of logistics were nothing but Lanchester Laws themselves. Actually, the Lanchester Strategy as a marketing strategy, as long as it is based on quantification, follows the laws of logistics. However, it is not simply the law of the strong. Rather, these laws are utilized as the strategy of the weak. In that sense, Lanchester Laws seem to be presented as the logic of the strong. This assumption is clearly wrong. Through numerous example this fact is spelled out in this book. Chapter 1 of the book explains the basic principles of Lanchester Laws as a military strategy. Chapter 2 discusses Lanchester Laws when they are adopted as a marketing strategy and explains the general principles brought on by these laws as a science of market share. Chapter 3 shows examples of Lanchester Laws applied to areas of 'regional strategy,' 'distribution strategy,' and 'product strategy' and comments on how corporations are developing these principles creatively. Chapter 4 discusses the principle of applying Lanchester Laws to the theory of strategy and expounds my own ideas on how to approach the volume of attack quantitatively, with respect to marketing power. In this book, I used the manuscripts from my lectures at the Japan Productivity Center, the Marketing Research Society, the Management Statistics Research Society, and other seminars and training conferences. For this reason, there are no detailed notes or annotations on the names of people and terminology. I should note, however, that I plan to publish four other books on Lanchester Marketing Strategy (in a series of five volumes) under the following titles; Volume 2, Market Entry Strategy, Volume 3, Territory Strategy, Volume 4, Agencies and Franchise Strategy, Volume 5, Salesperson Strategy. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the editing staff at Business Publications and the employees at Management Statistics Research Society for all their efforts in visiting the Defense Agency and the British Embassy to supplement materials required to publish this book. At the Roppongi Office, Tokyo, November 1972. Nobuo Taoka.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 203 pages
• Publisher: Lanchester Press, Inc (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573210099
• ISBN-13: 978-1573210096
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,368,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars After the first third, this book is terribly convoluted., May 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lanchester Strategy: An Introduction (Paperback)

Dr.Taoka's original text from 1970s is worthwhile to view his original conceptualization of a marketing strategy employed by Japanese business. However, while the book's first third begins with defining a mathematical model in marketing its last two-thirds spiral into anecdotes of application. These 'case studies' use little of the formulas introduced earlier, suggesting that qualitative rather than quantitative methods are more useful in the field, and questions the validity of the first third of the book. The translation is a difficult read, despite its grammatical correctness, the words seem to make little sense. Maybe the "manga" comics are a better buy. Without quantitative methods much of Lanchester strategy is similar to methods from Sun Tzu to Andrew S. Groves: divide and conquer; superior numbers in battle is a plus; out-flank rather than meet powerful opponents head on etc., Nevertheless, the concepts laid down: market shares as ~70%= monopoly ~40%= market leader ~26% = player, shooting range, efficiency exchange and other pearls of Lanchester strategy has its roots in this book, and while the book isn't clearly a winner, the strategy is.

Marvin Gozum, MD

1.0 out of 5 stars Lanchester Strategy: An Introduction (Lanchester Strategy), July 19, 2006

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Albert Wassmer (France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lanchester Strategy: An Introduction (Paperback)

This book is still a good reference for the application of the Lanchester strategy, however the references to real examples are too old.