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38Principle · Group 5

Maneuver

Maneuver warfare in business

“Use movement to put yourself in a better position instead of pitting your strength head-on against your opponent’s.”

The principle of Maneuver asks not how you can strike harder but where you need to stand for the blow to become easy.

Group 5: Position and SpaceT3 Indirect Strategy and Maneuver
Go to the in-depth section ↓
Two blocks of dots face each other, a large teal one and a smaller golden one; the golden block crashes into the other head-on, both lose dots, and then the picture rewinds. In the second run, part of the gold stays put while the rest flows past the side in an arc; a dashed line shows the severed connection to the rear, and the teal block breaks up into single mist-blue dots without any collision.
In short

Use movement to put yourself in a better position instead of pitting your strength head-on against your opponent’s.

What it’s about: The principle of Maneuver asks not how you can strike harder but where you need to stand for the blow to become easy. Every strength faces a particular direction: a fortress is strong toward the front, a market leader in its core business, an experienced opponent in what it expects. If you move around that direction, you hit places that nobody has had to defend so far. Maneuver aims less at the other side’s strength than at its cohesion and its options.

In depth

The principle in detail

Three steps through the principle: grasp it, place it, put it to work. Open each topic on its own.

The core messageCore statement and 3 clarifications
In essence

You often win not by surpassing the other side’s strength but by making it irrelevant.

It does not say
That movement comes free. If you move without knowing the situation and without supplies, you lose your way.
It does not say
That hard fighting becomes unnecessary. In real conflicts, maneuver and attrition almost always mix.
It also says
A successful maneuver is not a permanent state. As soon as the other side catches up, everything starts over.
The explanationHow the principle works and what matters

A maneuver demands strength, knowledge of the situation and supplies, and it works only until the other side catches up.

The question

Where are you pushing head-on right now against a strength you could go around?

The signs3 signs when you heed it · 3 when you overlook it
When you heed it
  • Before you increase the pressure, you ask where the other side is not strong.
  • You change the place, the timing or the topic when a dispute has become deadlocked.
  • You hold the other side’s attention in one place and move in another.
When you overlook it
  • You do more of the same because it worked last time.
  • You get into a price war with a bigger rival.
  • You consider a success secure and don’t notice that the other side has long since been catching up.
The backgroundFrom William S. Lind’s “Maneuver Warfare Handbook” (1985), based on John Boyd. · T3 Indirect Strategy and Maneuver
  1. 1985
    OriginWilliam S. Lind

    Maneuver Warfare Handbook

  2. 2022
    SupplementedU.S. Army

    Operations

  3. Tradition T3
    TraditionIndirect Strategy and Maneuver

    Basil Henry Liddell Hart, John Richard Boyd, Edward N. Luttwak, André Beaufre

    See the tradition on the Origin page
Read more: the full background

From William S. Lind’s “Maneuver Warfare Handbook” (1985), based on John Boyd. Supplemented by the U.S. Army’s Field Manual 3-0 and by the older idea of going around the opponent in Sun Tzu.

The research3 sources: 2 theories, 1 review · 1985–2022 · with limitations of the research
3 sources1985–2022 period2 theories1 review
Strength of evidence
  1. weak
  2. moderate
  3. strong

Maneuver warfare is military doctrine drawn from experience and military history; the sources cite no measurements, and the contrast with attrition is disputed.

  1. 1985
    Theory
    William S. Lind

    “Maneuver Warfare Handbook”: the opponent is to be defeated by disrupting its ability to react, not by destroying its forces; based on John Boyd’s decision cycle.

  2. 2005
    Theory
    W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

    “Blue Ocean Strategy”: open up a new, uncontested market instead of competing against the strengths of others in a contested market.

  3. 2022
    Review
    U.S. Army

    Field Manual 3-0, “Operations”: lists maneuver among the principles of war: placing the enemy in a position of disadvantage through the flexible application of combat power.

Where the research reaches its limits
  • The contrast between maneuver and attrition is disputed among experts.
  • Critics object that the two almost always mix in real conflicts and that maneuver without the capacity for hard fighting remains empty.
  • In confined space, against a well-informed opponent or without mobility of your own, there is often no way around the front.
  • Transferring the idea to companies, families and churches is an argument by analogy.
Read more: what research shows

Thinking in maneuvers is old: Sun Tzu describes going around the enemy, and Napoleon Bonaparte demonstrated it at Ulm in 1805. Maneuver warfare took shape as a fully developed doctrine in the 20th century. In 1985, William S. Lind published the “Maneuver Warfare Handbook,” drawing on John Boyd, who described conflict as a race for faster decisions. The aim is to disrupt the opponent’s ability to respond to the situation and so to break its cohesion, instead of destroying its forces piece by piece. The U.S. Marine Corps made maneuver warfare its basic doctrine in the late 1980s; the U.S. Army’s Field Manual 3-0 counts maneuver among the principles of war. In business, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne describe a related idea: opening up a new market instead of holding your own in a contested one.

The related principles15 Logistics · 25 OODA Loop · 31 Indirect Approach · 41 Speed
Indirect ApproachOODA Loop

To go deeper, see 31 Indirect Approach (maneuver is its practical form) and 25 OODA Loop (if you observe and decide faster, you move before the other side reacts)

Speed

41 Speed keeps the opponent from closing the gap

Logistics

15 Logistics sets the limit: every movement ends where the supplies end

Read more: the full text

To go deeper, see 31 Indirect Approach (maneuver is its practical form) and 25 OODA Loop (if you observe and decide faster, you move before the other side reacts); 41 Speed keeps the opponent from closing the gap. 15 Logistics sets the limit: every movement ends where the supplies end.

The action steps5 action steps: Describe the other side’s strength precisely and ask which direction it faces.
  1. Describe the other side’s strength precisely and ask which direction it faces. Where is it unprepared?
  2. If resistance has held twice against a head-on approach, don’t try it the same way a third time. Change the situation the resistance rests on.

  3. Start where people are already open, and let visible success make the case for you.

  4. Before every move, be clear about what you need to hold out where you want to go: knowledge, people, money.

  5. Plan your next move before the other side catches up.

The reflection questions3 questions: Against which resistance are you once again using the same means right now?
  1. Against which resistance are you once again using the same means right now?
  2. Which direction does the other side’s strength face, and where is it unprepared?
  3. What would you have to change about the situation so that the resistance loses its grounds?

Take your time with one question. Write down your answer – or talk it over with someone you trust.

To finish
The picture to rememberThe animation once more, with an explanation
  1. Two blocks of dots face each other, a large teal one and a smaller golden one
  2. The golden block crashes into the other head-on, both lose dots, and then the picture rewinds
  3. In the second run, part of the gold stays put while the rest flows past the side in an arc
  4. A dashed line shows the severed connection to the rear, and the teal block breaks up into single mist-blue dots without any collision
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In context

Group 5: Position and Space

Guiding question: Where do you stand, and how much room do you have to move?

Stage 2 of 5: Understand the situation

Where the 92 principles come from: eight traditions of strategy, from classical war theory to dealing with uncertainty.

More about the origin

Background: WEGVISOR’s own selection from the strategy literature · More about the origin

Examples

The principle in practice

From the different spheres of society.

Government

Napoleon, Ulm 1805 and Maneuver

In October 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte forces an entire Austrian army to surrender without fighting a major battle. He wins not through greater force in combat but through marches that take the enemy from behind.

Maneuver
Business

Nintendo, the Wii and Maneuver

In the mid-2000s, Sony and Microsoft are racing to build the most powerful game console. Nintendo does not join the race; instead it moves onto a field its competitors have not occupied: people who don’t play video games at all.

Maneuver
MediaBusiness

Daniel Ek, Spotify and Maneuver

In the 2000s, the music industry fights illegal downloads with lawsuits and still loses its customers. Daniel Ek chooses a different path: he builds a service that is more convenient than piracy and so brings listeners back onto legal ground.

Maneuver
Government

Movie: Patton

The 1970 film portrays General George S. Patton as a commander for whom movement is everything. His thrusts go around the enemy instead of hitting it head-on, and his willfulness also shows what a maneuver depends on.

Maneuver
FAQ

Questions about Maneuver

What does the principle of Maneuver say?

You often do better in a conflict by moving into a favorable position than by applying force head-on. You make the opponent’s strength irrelevant instead of surpassing it.

Where does the principle of Maneuver come from?

The idea is as old as the art of war and can already be found in Sun Tzu and in Napoleon’s campaigns. It was developed into a doctrine in the 20th century, above all by William S. Lind; today maneuver is listed among the principles of war in the U.S. Army’s field manual.

What are some examples of Maneuver?

In 1805, at Ulm, Napoleon forced an entire army to surrender without a decisive battle. With the Wii, Nintendo sidestepped its competitors’ arms race, and Spotify made piracy superfluous with a more convenient offering.

How well is Maneuver supported by research?

Evidence: weak – maneuver warfare is military doctrine drawn from experience and military history; the sources cite no measurements, and the contrast with attrition is disputed.

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