Winning in FastTime: Harness the Competitive Advantage of Prometheus in Business and Life Hardcover – September 1, 2001

John A. Warden III is a retired Air Force colonel. He has been called “the leading airpower theorist in the U.S. Air Force in the second half of the twentieth century.” As with famed modern strategist and fellow Air Force alumnus John Boyd, Warden’s work has been controversial. However, a number of distinguished military historians have concluded that Warden, through his “Checkmate” Warfighting Concepts Development directorate, defined the very terms of reference for the 1991 Iraq I Desert Storm strategy, thus introducing a new approach to the conduct of war. Warden retired from the Air force and started a consulting company to apply strategy in the business world. The book “Winning in FastTime” is an outgrowth of Warden’s (and his partner Leland Russell's) business venture touted as “The Prometheus Process.”Warden originally developed his “Five Rings Model” to present to General Schwarzkopf. Like a bullseye, this model prioritized targets (Leadership, System Essentials, Infrastructure, Population, and Fielded Military (Agents). For a nation-state, leadership would mean senior officials like the president, prime minister, congress, courts, financial powers, and media. For businesses, leadership would mean leaders of markets, customers, associations, politics, finance, media, brands/ideas, etc. System essentials for a nation to function would include communications, agriculture, electrical generation, etc. Systems essentials for a business would be communications, ideation, commercialization, production, purchasing, distribution, selling, financing, staffing, energy conservation. Infrastructure for a nation-state includes highways, airports, railroads, canals, etc. For businesses, infrastructure includes value networks, organization, physical facilities, installed bases, and transportation networks. Population for a nation-state includes groups of similar people whom you can affect as a group. For businesses, this would be customers, consumers, etc. Fielded military (aka Agents) for a nation-state includes the military, police, and other groups that promote or defend the nation’s agenda. For businesses, Agents include non-lead customers, non-lead competitors, supplier companies, market supplies, sales outlets, etc.The book develops the four steps to create a winning strategy:• Design The Future”: Scope environment, paint picture of the desired future, engrave (engrain) guiding precepts, and establish measure of merit.• “Target For Success”: Map relevant systems, identify centers of gravity (leverage points identified in the Five Rings), and determine desired effects.• “Campaign to Win”: Operate in parallel (attack centers of gravity simultaneously), organize to win, and orchestrate resources.• “Finish with Finesse”: Define exit points, terminate, and reconstitute.It concludes with a valuable listing of a dozen Cardinal Rules for winning. I’d list them here but for not wanting to steal too much of Warden’s "Instant Thunder."One military theorist believes Warden’s strategic theory is Jominian in that it is practical, emphasizing conflict’s physical sphere, and wants to teach warriors how to act within the principles of war. Thus, Warden’s theory of attack is form-oriented and focuses on physical paralysis. It advocates parallel (simultaneous) strikes against an enemy’s five strategic rings, with steady emphasis on the leadership bullseye, to cause the enemy’s system to fully or partially lose function. This same theorist views Warden’s fellow Air Force strategist Boyd’s theory as Clausewitzian because it is philosophical, emphasizing moral and mental paralysis, and focuses on teaching warriors how to think—i.e., teaching the “genius of war.”Overall, Warden’s and Russell’s book is a very well done transformation of warfighting strategy into business strategy. It mentions a number of concepts not commonly mentioned in the strategy literature, e.g., the Three-Echelon Rule. Developed by the Prussians, this rule required at least three organization echelons present for any serious planning or decisions. IMHO, the book could have been improved with the addition of helpful diagrams and materials found online that were published (later?) by Warden and Russell and/or their associates. Also, the book touts the success of a number of Warden’s and Russell’s clients. Unfortunately, many of these companies have faltered in the years after 2002, the book’s publication year, begging the question of why. Bottom-line, however, the book is a very nice addition to any business strategy library.Of possible interest:  Strategy Pure and Simple: Essential Moves for Winning in Competition and Cooperation

Makes aLot of sense

From a business stand point I love this book. There are many tools that I can use and many ideas worth thinking about. However, I remember that the author began critizing clausewitch in the book. Totally unfounded and disrespectful, the guy hasn't even got a oppurtunity to defend himself since he has been dead for some 200years.In my opinion the author sets his own work to highly, his ideas hasnt matured ayet but they are on a good way in doing so. As from a businessman myself his examples around business are sometimes funny and unrealistic. Maybe they were in a hurry to finish writing the book and let quality slip a bit.However, my biggest complaint about this book is his critisim of clausewitch and his ideas about Center Of gravity. The author says that there exist many Centers of Gravities while he says clausewitch only said that there were one. This is totally wrong, clauswitch never said so. Clausewitch did more work to "shoot at a persons heart" concentrating on one particular point....which is nothing wrong cause you only need to hit the most important center of gravity to kill.The author does however present an very itresting idea of system overload where you hit all the center of gravities at the same time.Overall, this book is fantastic!!!And I really hope on a sequel to this book, it would be awesome!

Winning in Fast TimeBest stretigic book I've read. Must read for any CEO or bussiness owner. A must read.

Great book. It is both motivating, and clear. One aspect that I really like is that the author provides a summary at the end of every chapter, making it much easier to keep the bigger picture in mind.

The concepts in this book are extra-ordinary. See the hardcover reviews. Be aware that all the illustrations are missing from the Kindle edition; there is no table of contents; and, in some places, the text is a confusing interleaving of fragments of several sentances, as though this book was produced by scanning the hardcover version and not correcting all the scan errors.

Great information on system change. It may not be for everyone but if you deal in international relations and development, it's chockful of useful info that helps in strategizing system change.

This book tackles the question on how to create change in a very short time span, with impact and lasting results. It provides a blueprint on how to make change happen and to plan strategically in an environment that can change in the twinkling of an eye.Furthermore it is a proven model: The desert storm air campaign (planning and plan execution) followed this model. Impressive to know is that the plan was ready for approval within 48h.The model itself is straightforward explained and ready for use. The steps itself might seem very logic (keep the end in mind, map relevant systems, pareto law in picking centers of gravity etc..) but honestly I haven't seen them used in the combination as described here.Winning in Fast Time follows 4 steps:- Design the Future: Scope the environment, paint the future picture, engrave the guiding precepts and establish the measure of merit- Target for Success: Map the relevant systems, identify the centers of gravity, and determine desired effects.- Campaign to Win: Operate in parallel, organize to win, and orchestrate resources- Finish with Finesse: Define exit points, terminate, and reconstituteThis book came as a nice surprise. I loved to read this book and it did give me a fresh look on how to create lasting change fast!Contents:Preface: Hyper-ChangePrometheus Touchstones1. The Prometheus Process2. Instant Thunder3. Changing the Game4. Centers of GravityDesign the Future5. The Environment6. The Future Picture7. Guiding Precepts8. Measures of MeritTarget for Success9. The Five Rings10. Desired EffectsCampaign to Win11. Parallel Campaigns12. Organizing for SuccessFinish with Finesse13. The Endgame14. Cardinal Rules15. Prometheus @ WorkBibliographyAcknowledgements