|
From: Jeannine Addams For Immediate Release NEW BOOK SOLVES “BUSINESS AS WAR” CONUNDRUM Atlanta, GA – June 28, 2004 – Public relations counsel Tarkenton & Addams, Inc. announces publication of Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd Applied to Business. Written by Tarkenton & Addams business and communications strategist Dr. Chet Richards, Certain to Win is the first book to translate Boyd’s ideas to business competition. The late John R. Boyd, a Colonel in the United States Air Force, created the strategic framework that underlies much of the doctrine and hardware of the US military, from the “maneuver warfare” strategy employed by the US Marine Corps to the F-16 fighter. He was the subject of a recent and successful biography, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, by Robert Coram (New York: Little Brown, 2002.) Boyd, a purist who fought bureaucracy and corruption in the Defense Department, fell into obscurity after his retirement. His ideas reemerged during the first Gulf War when then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney quietly consulted with him to develop what became the nation’s winning strategy. The Marine Corps also employed his strategies in their lightning strike at Baghdad last year. The terms “OODA loop,” “getting inside the enemy’s decision cycle” and “operational agility” all refer to concepts Boyd developed. Since the publication of Coram’s biography, business people have begun to ask whether Boyd’s strategies apply to business. In short, the answer is “yes.” “Certain to Win, in contrast to the many ‘business is war’ books, asserts that business and war are fundamentally different – one aims to compel opponents and the other tries to attract customers,” said Richards. “Both, however, involve groups of people working under stress and uncertainty against other groups of people who do not wish them well. Under these conditions, Boyd’s principles provide a winning advantage, whether on the battlefield or in the marketplace.” Chet Richards is a retired Colonel (US Air Force Reserve) who holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He was a colleague of Boyd, who reviewed and commented on the manuscript before his death in 1997. In his business career, Richards has worked in development and marketing for defense contractors, sold airplanes in the Middle East, consulted to a variety of companies, and owns one of the most successful defense policy sites on the Web, Defense and the National Interest, http://d-n-i.net. He is also the author of A Swift, Elusive Sword (Washington: Center for Defense Information, 2001), which was recently translated into Russian. At Tarkenton & Addams, he develops and executes business communications strategies for a range of clients. Certain to Win is available at http://www.xlibris.com/CertainToWin.html or call 1-888-795-4274 and it will be available through Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and other on-line stores later in the Fall. Tarkenton & Addams arranges speaking engagements for Dr. Richards, including for Col Boyd’s “Patterns of Conflict.” Tarkenton & Addams, founded in 1987, is a full service, high-value public relations firm that helps companies use communications to build credibility and achieve their goals. ### Tarkenton & Addams, Inc. |
