Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business

by Chet Richards

Individuals cultivate and polish their intuitive competence, Fingerspitzengefühl, for the jobs they hold—whether lathe operator, junior drafter, engineer, sales person, project leader, or senior executive. Represent this by small rectangles (bear with me.) Figure 13—Individual Competence Einheit is usually translated as “unity” or “mutual trust.” But as Boyd noted, it can also be thought of as a super-Fingerspitzengefühl—it suggests the competence of the group, working together to accomplish some purpose. So Einheit aligns the rectangles, although not rigidly. Figure 14—Einheit Represents Intuitive Competence of the Group Schwerpunkt provides focus and direction to aim the entire organization towards that goal or purpose. Figure 15—Schwerpunkt Aims the Organization And finally, the mission contract, Auftrag, provides the energy, the motive force to encourage the members of the group towards accomplishment of the common goal.