Wednesday, 31 October 2007

Research questions in Boydian strategy

In our attempts to validate Boydian strategy in Business we will use following questions when reading news, books, white papers, etc.

1. Evidence of boydian strategy:
a. "we don't know what hit us" type situations
b. evidence of one company winning 'hearts and minds' of customers
c. companies where priorities are people, ideas, and only then hardware
d. unexpected market positionings ('blue ocean strategy' moves)

2. Limits of boydian (time-based) strategy:
a. Time-based strategy in literature
b. is time-based strategy limited to only some industries but not others?
c. problems in boydian strategy
d. connections to cognitive and positioning schools of strategy (see Strategy Safari, Mintzberg, 1998)

Who is John Boyd?

From Wikipedia:

Colonel John (Richard) Boyd January 23, 1927–March 9, 1997) was a United States Air Force fighter pilot and military strategist of the late 20th century whose theories have been highly influential in the military and in business.

Boyd was born on January 23, 1927 in Erie, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor’s degree in economics and from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering.

Boyd enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the Army Air Corps from 1945 to 1947. He subsequently served as a U.S. Air Force officer from July 8, 1951 to August 31, 1975. He was known as “Forty-Second Boyd” for his ability to beat any opposing pilot in aerial combat in less than forty seconds.


Boyd’s funeral was meant to have fly-over by F-15s from the USAF’s 1st Fighter Wing, but it was cancelled at the last minute because of slight haze, vindicating Boyd’s life-long insistence that it was impossible to build a true all-weather fighter.