If you were a betting man at the Valley of Elah in the 10^th century, chances are you’d have placed every shekel you had on the heavy favorite in a contest that pitted a young upstart, (armed only with a sling!) against a giant of a man bedecked in full armor with sword and spear in hand. 

You’d have lost – as did Goliath.

But how could this have happened? Surprisingly, David’s victory was not an anomaly. “Davids” beat Goliaths all the time as Malcolm Gladwell points out in a recent article in the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell).

In David’s case, he refused to fight in the conventional manner of sword on sword. Instead, as a shepherd, he took a weapon he knew and used on a daily basis. But it wasn’t just unconventional armaments that won the day. David also had the element of surprise and supreme confidence on his side. As the story goes, he not only stands firm, he runs at Goliath who in his astonishment becomes immobilized for the few critical seconds it takes David to let loose his stone. The rest, as they say, is history.

In another stunning upset, Lawrence of Arabia refused to attack the Turkish stronghold as expected in World War I and instead, successfully wages a guerilla war along the enemy’s supply lines where they were weak. His band of ragtag Bedouin zealots were unskilled in conventional warfare, but accustomed to the terrain, willing to endure great hardship for their cause and in the end, victorious.

Gladwell also describes how teams of under-skilled and smaller (but highly conditioned and determined) basketball players can, and do beat, far better opponents simply by tenaciously contesting the normally routine throw-in pass, then defending every inch of the court with a full-court press. By making their opponents abandon their game plan and try to adapt to rarely used tactics, the underdogs were able to score easy baskets as a result of turnovers and other errors.

The same principles can help businesses succeed in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace. If your company goes up against a stronger opponent on their terms, you will almost certainly lose. Defy convention and look for ways to use your own strengths and new weapons to their best advantage. Embrace new technologies and use social networks to reach out to your customers and learn what your brand means to them. (You may be very surprised at what you hear!)

By catching your opponents off guard and firmly believing you’ll win, chances are you just might. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Risdall Marketing Group. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.