Frederick Lanchester was a key figure in the development of the automotive industry and the man who defined modern aeronautical technology and science. Lanchester is another legend in technology and science that most of us have never heard of or never learned about in business or engineering school. The theories Lanchester developed were adapted for business, especially sales and marketing which we will focus on within this episode.
Japanese business consultant Dr. Nobuo Taoka adapted Lanchester’s theories into The New Lanchester Strategy which provides guidelines for creating winning business strategies for both market leaders or firms struggling to remain profitable or increase market share. The lessons in this episode are straightforward but extremely effective for developing differentiation and keeping your competitors guessing and your customers excited.
Show notes (with time stamps)
Introduction: 00:00 - 03:00
Frederick Lanchester: 03:07 - 20:30
Lanchester Laws: 20:34 - 26:58
The New Lanchester Strategy: 27:03 - 57:57
Music
Artist: Scott Holmes
Album: Road Trip
Track: Indie Rock
Resources
Lanchester Strategy, Volume I by Shinichi Yano
New Lanchester Strategy, Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Weak, Volume II by Shinichi Yano
New Lanchester Strategy, Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Strong, Volume III by Shinichi Yano
The Lanchester Strategy for Management: How to Win in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises by Yoichi Takeda
Of Horseless Carriages, Flying Machines, and Operations Research: A Tribute to Frederick William Lanchester by Joseph F. McCloskey (The Journal of Operations Research Society of America, Vol. 4, #2, April 1956)
Do Lanchester’s laws of combat describe competition in ants? by Terrence P. McGlynn (Behavioral Ecology, Vol. 11, No. 6, 686-690, April 2000)
34 ISMOR workshop: How do we improve Lanchester combat models for defense decision-making? By Paul R. Syms (July 19, 2017)
Asymmetric Warfare: A Primer by Charles A. Fowler
Fractal Effects in Lanchester Models of Combat by Nigel Perry
System Dynamics Applied to Combat Models (Lanchester Laws) by Oscar M Bull
Model of Warfare by Ioannis D. Sfikas, Journal of Computations & Modeling, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2017, 99-114
Lanchester’s Square Law in Theory and Practice by Major Ronald L. Johnson