No, this is not about the military-industrial complex, politics, Google, or the Whitehouse. There is no axe grinding or personal attacks. This post is about applying universal concepts to business.

Business is a lot like warfare.

There is something that makes wargaming more appealing to me than traditional sports. New terrain, varied and changing makes for a more interesting game then a fixed and finite empty field.

To be successful at war, game or real, you have to both think and execute strategic and tactical actions. In business, strategy and tactics are what seperate long time winners from short term burn outs.

As an employee you sometimes are forced to take action on the tactical level. This might mean performing a successful sales routine or convincing a lead to learn more about your product. Unless you make it to the upper ranks you will have little involvement on the strategic level.

As a business owner you are thrown in to strategic and tactical decision making immediately.

If you are having trouble understanding all of this, let me give you a few examples.

Few wargames operate on both the strategic and the tactical level. Strategic games involve moving large groups of forces. You may place a battalion of tanks, but nothing smaller. At the tactical level you move individual units. Tactical is clearing a room, stopping an ambush, or exiting Mogadishu.

As an internet publisher or marketer you are making both strategic and tactical decisions daily.

Strategic — should I focus on this long term publishing project that will make me money 5 years from now, or should I venture into affiliate marketing in hopes that I can pump the profits in to my publishing project? Tactical — a webmaster rejected my link request, what action am I going to take to ensure that my link is on his website?

What really makes this interesting is that the rules are constantly changing.

Chess is set. The rules, the pieces, the board, they never change. In real warfare things change. Staying a step ahead can mean the difference between winning and losing. Despite having pathetic “armies” Islamic militants in the Middle East have put up one hell of a fight. Right now, in 2006, we are witnessing an evolution of warfare.

World War I looked much different than World War II. I venture to guess this was not simply because of technology but because there was a realisation that there were better ways to fight. In fact, it could be argued that those understandings influenced the techonology of warfare.

As a internet business owner you need to understand the basic concepts of humans. Why does someone tell their friends about something? How do you convince a person you are trustworthy?

At the same time, understand what pieces of technology are going to change the game — and be prepared to take advantage of them, or to evolve if they don’t include you. There are a lot of businesses out there that really don’t understand how search engines can benefit them.

I don’t enjoy static environments full of limitations. I do enjoy learning, growing, and ultimately evolving. If you are the same, you are in the right businesses.