As the United States Air Force (USAF) seeks to maintain competitive advantage in the skies, it has rolled out a technological marvel–the F-22 Raptor. Indeed, the F-22 takes advantage of the latest in technology to help its pilot’s process battlefield information quickly and make decisions faster. What does this advanced airplane have to do with marketing? Probably a lot more than you think.
As a heavy carpet of snow drapes over the mountains outside of Anchorage, Alaska, a small squad of Raptors flies across the sky. Meanwhile, on the ground at Elmendorf Airforce Base, pilots and ground crews shake their heads in disbelief as they watch the F-22s perform maneuvers in war games against its predecessor, the F-15 eagle.
According to a recent Atlantic Monthly article, the F-15 eagle has been the work horse of the modern USAF for the past twenty five years. Yet airplanes from other countries have caught up technologically and now equally match the F-15 strike eagle in capabilities. Desperate to keep competitive advantage, the USAF turned to the F-22 Raptor which sports improved and advanced avionics. However, competitive advantage in the skies hasn’t always been about technology.
For example, during World War II, pilots with first rate eye sight would often be the last one flying. That’s because fifty years ago, it was important to be able to see enemy planes 7-10 miles out, and then maneuver accordingly. Seeing the enemy first had its advantages.
As avionics and computer technology improved over the years, winning the skies became less about what the pilot could physically see and more about what sensors in the plane could detect. Pilots would essentially wrap themselves in a “digital cocoon” of lights, sensors, gauges and radio signals. The most important attribute for pilots then, changed from eyesight to an ability to process “multiple streams of information”, and then choose a course of action.
The ability to capture information, process it, and choose a smarter course of action is a key to competitive advantage, and the new F-22 Raptor takes this into account.
Now, instead of forcing the pilot to absorb many information inputs, the F-22 offers pilots a single display in the middle of the cockpit. The pilot now has a 360 degree view–in color–of the battlefield with communications and inputs fully integrated from the plane itself, fellow Raptor pilots and AWACS commanders.
While the technological advantages of the F-22 Raptor have changed the playing field, technology alone does not confer competitive advantage in the skies. Skill, training, and the right physical characteristics (to cope with G-forces) all play a part.
However, since most modern combat now takes place, “beyond visual range”, having a complete picture–a single, integrated view–allows a pilot to react to a threat before they even see it. Pilots can leverage the explosion of information, and react quicker than their competition. And in a “dogfight“, seconds make a difference.
As marketers across the globe grapple with challenging recessionary forces, gaining new customers, adding wallet share and retaining cash flows is more critical than ever. The technology exists to help marketers capture, integrate, analyze and manage the onslaught of data that customers, suppliers and partners produce. Data can be leveraged into information to help understand customer behavior, generate insights and drive better customer interactions.
Think about this–whatever analytical capabilities you have now–may not be good enough in today’s complex marketplace (think: F-15 Eagle). Are your competitors building an F-22? Will you know when they’ve launched a missile–or will it be too late to react?
Questions:
* Does the ability to display information in a relevant, logical and prioritized fashion confer competitive advantage for businesses, much as it does in military conflicts?
* How critical a factor is “time” in decision making? Do seconds and hours count? Have you seen the windows of opportunity closing faster than in previous years?
* Some marketers believe it’s not their job to promote integrated data across a company–they say this should be the role of the CIO. What do you think?
Related post: CMO’s Don’t Get Customer Service
Tags: 360 degree view, analytics, competitive advantage, data capture, information, insights into action, IT
Regardless how many technological advances we make, Paul, and how much data we can retrieve and digest(hopefully in an integrated manner, it all boils down to one thing. A sale is still made between two entities: a buyer and a seller. The more we know about the buyer and their business, the more we can tailor our offering to their specific need. Building and maintaining relationships are all-important in a world where many of our competitors’s products and services are the same, or marginally better than ours. Is it important to continue to innovate products and services? Of course; without a doubt. Yet, when our understanding or our customers helps us anticipate their needs well, and we take care of them well, that trumps everything else.
BTW: thanks for the nice mention of my related post, Paul. I appreciate it.
Ted, thank you for taking the time to comment.
Indeed, the more we know about our customers the better we can tailor our products and services to meet their needs instead of resorting to “spray and pray” marketing tactics. Intrinsically, I believe that most marketers know this to be true. However, as you are aware, there is often a large chasm between knowing and doing.
The goal of understanding our customers still remains elusive for many marketers. Reaching out to and engaging customers with social media is a step in the right direction, but just a piece of the pie. Ultimately, data from myriad sources should be integrated across the enterprise to present a comprehensive view of the customer. In this way, we’ll begin to truly learn more about our customers (holistically) and better predict their needs.
Excellent analogy. One thing business folk can do today to help avoid a pre-emptive strike is to proactively monitor their business name, their name, their twitter ID, their site, etc. on Google Alerts and have a concrete plan *already in place* for how to deal with unexpected competitor advances, negative PR and the like.
This is an article I’ll be sharing with my network – thanks! Barbara
Brilliant juxtaposition of military and marketing scenarios, Paul.
Everything I’ve been reading suggests that the CFO or CEO would be more effective than the CIO at promoting integrated data, but the CIO still plays a critical role. In any event, it also pays to have a “Business-IT Hybrid” who speaks both languages fluidly enough to act as a conductor for the efforts.
Some retailers and suppliers aggregate scanner data with their own market research data to understand trends and consumer behavior every quarter or year. That is necessary but not sufficient.
To understand when trends may be changing, when consumers are changing their behavior, when processes of providing the right product at the right time are breaking down, data needs to be analyzed as close to real time as possible.
Having done the trend analysis, knowing the annual or quarterly trends, current data can be tracked to identify deviations. Some retailers and suppliers monitor this data monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly. This definitely provides a competitive advantage — not just knowing what is happening today or this hour but how that compares with past data.
Barbara, you have highlighted the need to set up listening posts across the internet (and beyond since the Net is just one channel) to gauge and survey reactions to your company’s reputation in near real time. I think this is one of the wonderful aspects of social media and tools like Google Alerts or using something more sophisticated like services from Nielsen or Biz360.
Don’t get me wrong, monitoring is very important. However I am keenly interested in the next steps companies take once they have identified something of significance, or like you mentioned “having a concrete plan” on what to do with the feedback.
Thank you for taking the time to lend your insights!
Cam, thank you for your take on who should lead the charge on integrating data across the enterprise to get the 360 view that F-22 pilots enjoy. As you stated, I think it’s the CEO for sure, but it’s also interesting that you mentioned the CFO.
I’ll certainly agree with you that the business value of integrated data is hard dollar savings in IT costs, coupled with business value created from increased competitiveness, improved productivity and increased collaboration.
Ideally though, I’d like to see the CMO and CIO lead the charge with explicit support from the CEO.
Camille, thank you for taking time from your day to post a comment.
You are exactly right in that the ability to monitor information in near real time (and then ACT) does confer competitive advantage. I love this quote from the Atlantic article from one of the USAF generals, “The less time my F-22 pilots have to spend sorting out all this data, the more time they have to think tactically and react to what is happening around them.”
Competitive advantage indeed.
Thanks, Paul, for another excellent, thought-provoking post. Agreed: the push for sharing integrated, quality, timely data has to come from the CEO. Otherwise, it will depend on whether the specific players–CIO, CFO and CMO can and will work together at any given time. Can we leave something as important as this up to whether executives choose to cooperate and work together, or not? I don’t think so. Too much is at stake.
Claire, I appreciate the compliments. Sadly, when it comes to enterprise data management, too many companies are flying -metaphorically– not an F-15 eagle (technology from 20 years ago), but an F-4 Phantom (technology from 40 years ago).
In a recessionary economy, now is the time to get smarter about segmenting, targeting and taking care of all customers, but especially those that frequent your business, and even better –those that are most profitable. Technology is one component of a successful strategy. The right people and processes are also essential.
Sorry, the above response should have read; “those that frequent your business OFTEN, and even better…”
Great articles in BusinessWeek, March 2, 2009 regarding Zappos and Amazon–two companies that are really getting and acting upon this strategy.
Paul, I was stationed in Alaska atop a mountain responsible for scrambling fighter jets to intercept MIGs. So I have fond memories.
But to the point of your post, Cam is right when he mentions the CEO and the CFO. Both have to lead the charge and bring the CMO and the VP of customer service in the loop so we don’t build another IT infrastructure that doesn’t serve to create a marketing, sales and service profit center.
Good post Paul.
Questions:
* Does the ability to display information in a relevant, logical and prioritized fashion confer competitive advantage for businesses, much as it does in military conflicts?
Yes. Clearly. We all want 360 and the element of surprise.
* How critical a factor is “time” in decision making? Do seconds and hours count? Have you seen the windows of opportunity closing faster than in previous years?
Yes.
* Some marketers believe it’s not their job to promote integrated data across a company–they say this should be the role of the CIO. What do you think?
It depends on your CIO. We have a smart, business savy CIO.
Paul,
There is so much that business people can still learn from military tactics. Great insights here!
I believe that precursor to all of this, and you bring it up in your post, is the training and acclimation to dealing with data and information and having the know-how to translate it into business advantage. For what it’s worth, I can think of many businesses who, armed with integrated data to make faster decisions, would be lost because they’re simply not trained to deal with it.
For example, I remember back when we first installed a major web analytics package at a large manufacturer, and while they had all of the ERP data they could handle on the plant, the couldn’t make sense of the web stuff until they were trained to understand the value of the data and what to do with it.
Nevertheless, you’re spot on in your analysis of the F-22 and the lessons here. Time is always of the essence, but I still fall back on the human aspects of the equation here. It’s not just the data – it’s the interpreter of the data having the experience and wisdom to choose the right course of action (in a split second) by using that data.
Dana, thank you for the reminder that all the integrated data and analytics in the world is of little use unless a professional is trained to analyze and interpret the data into actionable information.
This doesn’t mean that data analysis is the domain of lofty experts, rather that with the right training, analytics really can be for the masses.
Lewis, thanks for taking the time to comment.
While I agree sponsorship from the CEO is necessary (for integrated data across the enterprise) and a business case presented to the CFO is mandatory, I still believe the CMO and CIO should lead the project planning, implementation and then management of the system that makes all this possible.
I realize this advice won’t work in every organization. Perhaps I’m an idealist…
I read your post again, Paul. An outstanding post.
At our firm we have brought together people internally with mathematical, computer science, and marketing talent to do some things for our own business. What we are doing internally is much less ambitious than the business equivalent of the F-22’s capability.
If a consulting company were able to create F-22 level of sophistication tools for businesses, or even close, the world would beat a path to that company’s door!
When I think of war analogies, Master and Commander comes to mind, the film based on several of Patrick O’Brian’s novels.
I work in a relatively small business, so the idea of a small ship like the HMS Surprise (the ship of the protagonists) relying on wits, grit, experience, and unrelenting hard work to contend against a far heavier ship (the Acheron) has resonance with me.
In 19th Century lingo, the HMS Surprise sought to get the “weather gauge” giving it control of the engagement. I won’t go beyond that into what happens in the film.
To bring this back to the F-22 Raptor, the F-22 *always* has the weather gauge. That is why the pilots and crews on the ground were shaking their heads in disbelief. Always having control of the engagement means the game is over before it begins.
Neil, thank you for the compliment. I really had fun with the analogy and enjoyed writing this post.
One of the things that really struck me about the F-22s advantage is that pilots often see the enemy before Raptor pilots are ever seen. This is in part due to the advanced avionics, but also due to the coordination with AWACS commanders who have a long reach when it comes to radar. In fact, the design of the F-22 itself is interesting in that the plane is coated with stealth materials and has no external missiles (they launch from a bay) so that the radar footprint is reduced.
I bring all these points up because seeing the enemy before they see you confers competitive advantage in the skies. The same holds true in the marketplace, where the company with the ability to collect, analyze, use and continually manage data better than their competitors can often “see” things before others can. They in effect, give themselves a bit more time to react or capitalize on a key trend. And in an accelerating world of change, this is a necessary capability for success.
So, let’s see: I upgrade the avionics in the F-15 and I have the same info that the F-22 has. But, I can probably buy 4 F-15’s for the price of a single Raptor?
Secondly- while having intel is great, and great intel is even better- much can be said for the element of surprise and slipping in under the radar. As a former Special Forces operator- I can tell you that superior firepower doesn’t do you a lick of good- if it’s pointed in the wrong direction.
The key to out-maneuvering your competition is being nimble and quick- and amassing strength at your enemies weak points. I don’t need an F22- I need to muster my F15s to hit them where they aren’t.
Military analysis as applied to business has many strengths- unfortunately, the rules of war are even more rigid than the rules of business. Go for unconventional warfare any day of the week over traditional might makes strength tactics and you’ll win everytime.
David, thank you for taking the time to comment. You have a great point in that the value of surprise and slipping under the radar is very helpful in winning in business and the battlefield.
As a former special forces operator, I won’t quibble with you on military strategy. However, the analogy I put foward is not necessarily the F-15 vs F-22 but more, the value of integrated data and information as competitive advantage. Those companies that can see the smaller (and bigger picture) faster than their competitors will ultimately make more timely, relevant and fact based decisions. This isn’t pie in the sky; there are numerous case studies of companies using data based decisioning to win in the marketplace.