In wartime, the two sides try to get the upper hand or into the thoughts of the leaders. Both sides try to figure out what the other side is thinking or will do often by monitoring the logistics of the other side. If there is going to be an invasion of people, they will need support vehicles for generally people need to eat; in a war battle there will be those who are injured or die; or there are logistics. In addition, the other side tries to tap into the other side with intelligence. In wartime, people feeding their bellies can be more of an incentive than feeding their conscious. With war there are many books and one of the more interesting ones is Fall from Grace by Larry Collins published by Signet Publishing, NY, 1985. The setting is the second world war leading up to D-day. The big question is where will the troops land? and equally important will it be a two place assault or one? If it is two then the Germans have to have troops in two places; if it is one then the British would send it to the weaker German troops.

Strategic deception falls into two basic categories. The simpler of the two is ambiguous deception. The idea is to assault your enemy with a blizzard of misinformation, multiplying the options he has got to consider. In the end, the action your deception forces him to take is in fact inaction. You paralyze his ability to move decisively.

The second is more subtle it is called misleading deception. The idea in this case is to give your enemy a helping hand by reducing the ambiguity he faces. Instead of spattering him with a wide range of disinformation, you attempt to very subtly build up for him one attractive alternative. Except, of course, it is the wrong one, but he is very decisive.

The trick is to be sure that our lies, our deceptions are accepted long enough to get the result we are after. The aim was to influence the decision makers to make a precise mistake that will lead him to the fall into the trap we have set out for him.

Linking to dividend paying companies, part of success of a profitable company is coming up with the correct strategy. There are many competing views from experts (consultants) as well as the competition. In business the victory is an increase in market share or maintaining a constant profitable market share. As you examine the President’s letter to shareholders you need to ask is this the correct strategy? if it is and the company is great at execution of strategy, then holding on to the shares can be a good thing.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.