Centres of Gravity and Manoeuvre: Designing and Executing Strategy to Win Peace or Market Advantage
Your competitor keeps coming back, however hard you fight it. You spend heavily, and you are always a step behind.
18 Rashtriya Rifles, Lolab, 2006–08. In 2008, stone-pelting swept the Kashmir Valley, but not Lolab. Major General V.S.S Goudar who came to check the reports found my soldiers playing cricket with the same young men rumoured to be throwing the stones.
Assam-Manipur, 2015–16. Tribal elders themselves banned illegal extortion, a movement Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat had been trying in Nagaland with some success. The peace freed 3,000 soldiers for Manipur. Seven years after I left, in 2023, the government withdrew the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from Dima Hasao District of Assam, first imposed in 1990.
Srinagar, Kashmir, 2020–22. I spent ₹6 crore of the Army’s Sadbhavana Fund, against over ₹40,000 crore a year of civil development spending. A Tricolour went up on the Lal Chowk Clock Tower, raised by Kashmiris themselves
You win without the costly fight. At my end-of-tenure debrief of 18 Rashtriya Rifles (Lolab, North Kashmir), I told my Corps Commander we had let 180 chances to fire go, to protect civilians. He was stunned that this was the number I was proudest of.
Your opponent loses what held them together. In Assam’s Leiki, villagers turned away NSCN (IM) terrorists who came to threaten them for resuming living together with Kukis. Kuki terrorists who had once attacked a train became its quiet protectors.
You get there faster and cheaper. Our convoy flags changed from red to blue. Within a year, Kashmiris were raising the Tricolour at the heart of Srinagar.
Chief executives and strategy heads facing a stubborn market challenger. Communication and brand heads facing a rival story. Security, risk and policy teams in government and public-sector undertakings. Universities, think tanks and defence institutions teaching strategy.
Workshop or masterclass for a leadership team. Book a Workshop.
Keynote on Manoeuvre Warfare and the OODA Loop, or on Information Warfare and Social Change. Book a Speaking Engagement.
Advisory retainer. Initiate an Advisory Engagement.