The OODA Loop

I have written an article on the OODA Loop and its use in business.

We have incorporated into our Competitive Intelligence processes the OODA loop and the traditional intelligence cycle.

It’s not the flash marketing campaign or the company that spends the most on its advertising that wins the war.

The companies that tend to win are those that execute the concepts of the OODA Loop faster and more effectively than their rivals allowing them to become more responsive to customers, market needs and forces.

The OODA Loop was creating by American fighter pilot Colonel Boyd to prevent being shot down during a combat mission. He developed the OODA Loop by allowing him to defeat his opposition from any scenario of disadvantage.

The OODA decision making model is a loop and dominated by 4 simple principles:

Using the OODA Loop, a company can act with incredible speed, constantly updating its strategy before a rival can even figure out what's happening.

Instead of looking erratic, the many members of your team act in concert to produce a coherent whole. In other words: you look like a blur to your enemies.

The OODA Loop is a success in the business world because it can be used in all business change scenarios and shows that improving operating processes is also an excellent way of reducing costs and vital for survival.

The OODA Loop grabs the essence of competition: the businesses that complete the loop quickest and most appropriately wins.

The more time you spend observing your rivals and analysing what is happening the better informed you are about their next move.

‘When artillery is falling on where you were thirty minutes ago, you’re inside your enemies OODA loop.” US Marine officer training manual

The recent Obama election Campaign used the OODA Loop at the centre of its operation and the speed at which the campaign was executed was impressive.

Observe

At the end of each day, volunteers would laboriously enter data, updating the campaign's voter database with information about every voter contact (primary intelligence) accomplished that day. That voter database was accessible to staff at every level of the campaign.

Orient

And then the voter data would be crunched, by someone at State wide HQ, and each night the local volunteers would start the process of creating new packets of instructions for the next day. The packets were created from targeted lists of voters, based on all the data the campaign was able to gather from its multi-pronged collection efforts.

Decide

Each day the local campaigners would be directed to use specific lists with specific scripts, all created by the campaign. They also learned what our overall goals were, and they reported on how well they had accomplished those goals at the end of each day.

Act

Each morning, volunteers would arrive and be handed packets with instructions. The local campaign teams would train them on-demand as they came in, and send them into the world (or onto the phones) with written instructions and voter contact data. Over the course of the day, the campaign teams would take the volunteers feedback about how it was going into account, revising the script occasionally (back to the Orient step) to try and maximize the goal for that day (voter contacts, persuasion, get out the vote, signing up new volunteers, etc).

The whole loop took only one day. I expect the Conservatives will be using something similar in their campaign.

Using the OODA Loop will make your business stronger. By taking a defensive position based on excellent Competitive Intelligence which threatens your rivals base (core markets, customers etc), it gives them no alternative but to attack a prepared position or withdraw.

Any attack can be countered as you completely understand their strategies, strengths and weaknesses.

The loop is a very simple business model based on a simple idea.

Make sure you are in a position of strength with your business.