As your market changes, you should regularly take time out to
identify your most profitable products and services. What are
they today? What are they likely to be tomorrow? What could they
be? What should they be?
Of all the products and services that
you offer, if you had to retreat to your citadel, what one or two
products and services would you continue to produce and sell?
Who are your most important customers?
Who are the people wh buy from you the most readily, and from whom you
earn the highest profits? Who are the 20 percent of your customers
that account for 80 percent of your sales revenues?
What is your plan to keep these customers and to create more of them?
Who are your most important people internally? Who are
the people in your business whom you depend upon the most
for the success of your enterprise?
Who are the 20 percent of
your staff, either internally or externally, who produce 80 percent
of the results that your company depends on? Develop a
plan to retain, appreciate, and reward your key people before
someone comes along and hires them away.
What are your most successful methods of marketing and
sales? Which are the most effective? On a cost per sale basis,
where do you get the biggest bang for your buck in sales and
marketing expenditures?
Based on this analysis, what should
you be doing more of—or less of—in sales and marketing?
Many companies dramatically increase their revenues by
reorienting their marketing efforts and focusing on a specific
market segment to the exclusion of all others. Would this make
sense for you?
The Battle of Austerlitz
Napoleon achieved one of his greatest victories at the battle of
Austerlitz in Moravia on December 2, 1805, by using the principle
of the mass.
The combined forces of Alexander I of Russia
and Francis I of Austria outnumbered him, and they were well
positioned on the battlefield. Nonetheless, he defeated them
by concentrating all of his forces on seizing the Pratzen
Heights, the high point in the center of the battlefield, which
was occupied by the Russians. If he could control the highest
point in the battlefield, he could move his reserves and mask
his attacks against the Austrian and Russian Armies.
When the battle began, Napoleon had 73,000 men and 139
guns. The combined forces of the Austrians and the Russians
were 85,500 men and 278 guns. The battle raged back and forth
from 7:00 in the morning until about 2:00 in the afternoon, but
the French were eventually victorious. By concentrating all of
their forces on the key objective, they were able to seize the
commanding heights of the battlefield and dominate the fight.
From this point, Napoleon was able to operate from the
Pratzen Heights lashing out against the allied columns on his
The Principle of the Mass—Concentrate Your Powers
south and north. Napoleon’s genius was in continually shifting
his forces so that he had superior numbers at each point of
attack. By 4:30 P.M., the battle was over. The Austro/Russian
casualties amounted to more than 27,000 men. The French lost
only 8,300. This was one of the decisive battles in European history.
It was a classic application of the principle of the mass.
Just as Alexander the Great concentrated his forces and led
his elite companion cavalry in a focused attack on the enemy
center at the Battles of Issus and Arbela, great generals win battles
by concentrating and massing superior strength at the
right time and the right place to assure victory.
Selecting the rght time and place to concentrate your powers is always a
matter of judgment based on many factors. Selecting the right
time and place comes from training, experience, good intelligence,
and luck.
