Sun Tzu used two analogies to emphasize the importance of two aspects: momentum and time. With momentum, even water that does not have a solid form is capable of pushing large rocks, and with good timing, the eagle was able to break the body of the prey without much effort. As seen below, or Chapter Five of Sun Tzu Art of War.
When the torrential water that gushes throws stones pushing boulders, it is by the force of its impulse. When the fierce blow of an eagle breaks the body of its prey, it is for the moment of the blow. Therefore, the adept’s forces and momentum in war are so overwhelming and fierce and his combat timing is precise and fast.
IMPULSE
So where and how can we use momentum in business? One area where we can use momentum is advertising. When you enter a new market, the first most important thing to do is set up your marketing campaign correctly. Your marketing campaign should build momentum by having consistent and ongoing exposure of your products and brand to new consumers. Repetition helps consumers better remember your brand and product. Ways to make consumers remember your products and brands are logos, jingles, slogans and many more. Many consumers have preferred the senses to learn and absorb things. Logos would appeal to people who are more visual in learning, jingles and slogans would appeal more to people who are more auditory. That is the reason most marketing campaigns have both. For example, NIKE has “JUST DO IT”, HSBC has “The World’s Local Bank” and many more.
Therefore, repetition would create momentum for its advancement into a new market. With this boost, you can get noticed in the new market and consumers, who are currently disappointed with what is currently offered in the market, would be willing to try your products or services. Keep in mind that you need to do some research on the competitors operating in the new markets you are moving into. You need to know if you are providing any value proposition to the new market. If what you’re selling is the same, whether it’s the sales process and the products, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to maintain the market share you initially took from your competitors.
MOMENT
So what about time? Is time important in business? In an article in the Singapore Business Times (February 23, 2005), many niche restaurants have to close soon after opening. This could be attributed in part to poor timing of restaurant openings. They mostly opened during bad economic times. So you see, bad timing can kill, but good timing can make one prosper. We have seen in investing, if we are able to time our stock buying and selling well, we would get the maximum amount of profit, but this is difficult. In business, the timing of entering a new market is also important, for example, when you enter a new market when consumers are beginning to change tastes or in bad economic times, you may not be able to get many sales to maintain your business. business.
But it should be noted here that these are both good and bad times to execute trading decisions. Bad economic times, while resulting in lower sales, also mean lower expansion costs. SEMBAWANG MUSIC, a publicly traded company in Singapore, expanded its branches during the financial crisis because only during that time the six locations they wanted were cheap and the Singapore currency was stable while the regional currencies were crashing, which it allowed them to import a large quantity of music CDs at a low price. (The Sunday Times, March 27, 2005, page 19). To put it in another perspective, for every moment, there is the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do.
So how can we get the timing right? There are two aspects, one is knowledge and the other is experience. Knowledge allows us to measure a range of time when opportunities are about to happen, so we can prepare to seize the opportunity. Now, we can get relevant insights on our own, but to be able to capture time correctly, it would largely depend on experience and attitude. Because timing is like shooting an arrow, you can know the direction of the wind, the strength of the bow, the angle to shoot and much more, but when it comes to practice, which is shooting the arrow, experience is needed. As the common phrase used to say, “Practice makes perfect”, it never says “Knowledge makes perfect”.