Military Reconnaissance Skills That Help Get a Project Idea Approved

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Military reconnaissance. Drones flying through darkened skies, submarines deep underwater using complex sensors to record conversations, and satellites overhead snapping crystal clear digital pictures are all mental images that I have when thinking about military reconnaissance. Military reconnaissance seeks to understand where the enemy is, is not, what their capabilities and intentions are, and what they are expected to do over the next hour to next decade. The purpose of military reconnaissance has not changed for thousands of years and probably will never change. There are great uses of employing military reconnaissance principles to see how it can get a project approved and fast tracked to completion.

What Is the Competition Planning to Do? Showing how your project will help customers remain and grow with your company considering the competitor’s plans serves two goals. First, your project plan is seen in terms of helping customers. Second, your project plan also reduces the effectiveness of the competition. Remember, military reconnaissance seeks to understand the competition so that a friendly plan can be successful by mitigating and/or moving around competitor actions. Again, the focus must be on being successful with customers and not just defeating the competition. Military reconnaissance skills need to understand the competition so your project is successful by meeting customer needs before competitors can.

How Do Your Customers Feel About the Competition? Reporting on what customers are saying about the competition is another good way to get your project approved. When your customers are discussing the value that your competitors bring, everyone in your company will take notice. This type of reporting in military reconnaissance is finding the critical “voice” and first-person evidence that will make your management take notice and realize that your project can make your customers happy.  

What Are the Greatest Unmet Needs of Your Customers? Military reconnaissance should also reveal the key terrain, namely what your customer base wants, and what critical, vital and unmet needs your customers have and how your project will help fill those needs. Looking at unmet customer needs broadens a reconnaissance away from solely looking at competitors, to looking at the goals and needs of customers and how your project can help customers succeed. 

Does Your Project Create a Strength Against Your Competitor(s)? Creating and building a sustainable competitive advantage is what both the military and businesses strive to do because it gives them strength with customers and creates vulnerabilities with your competitors. If your project is building advantages with your customers that your competitors cannot easily replicate, then you are building competitive advantages. The US military’s accuracy with almost every weapon system, from rifles to missiles, has become a competitive advantage and one that competitors cannot easily match.