Battling The Corporate Giants: The Ultimate David & Goliath Story

By Daniel L. Lowery

How did an inexperienced shepherd boy defeat a giant, veteran warrior with superior weapons? How did Bill Gates, a twenty something Harvard dropout, best his rivals in the software industry? How did a young Rupert Murdock outbid his competitor with only half the resources to launch his career as a media kingpin? What enabled Lee Iacocca to take a company on the brink of ruin to solvancy in a few short years? The answer isn't much different than what allowed David to defeat Goliath over 3,000 years ago in ancient Israel.

Nearly 80% of businesses fail in the first four years. A great many of these failures are due to corporate competition. Does it have to be this way? Is there some way their little guy can win over their giant adversaries? Entrepreneur and author Daniel L. Lowery says the answer is "Yes! Yes! Yes!" His book, "Battling The Corporate Giants: The Ultimate David and Goliath Story" taps the timeless wisdom of the bible's most famous underdog and shows entrepreneurs how to apply it to their businesses. He spent over seven years researching the greatest underdog sales techniques in history.

Readers will learn how to baffle opponents with different weapons, diversions and quick responses. They will outsmart by turning their rivals strength into weakness, taking the least expected route or calling the shots. They will also learn to avoid corporate traps such as attritional battles, monopolies and abitration to name just a few.

Everyone is an underdog at some point in their career. When you find yourself in that role make the most of it by using the secrets of David, the world's most famous underdog, and start winning today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel L. Lowery
• Release date: Jan 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458065902

Daniel L. Lowery

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Daniel L. Lowery writes books that challenge the status quo. While looking for solutions to his own David and Goliath struggle, Lowery noticed very few management books geared to the independent business owner. CEO’s, vice-presidents and other executives could draw on the acumen of Churchill, Robert E. Lee, Sun-Tzu and a host of other historical figures for their problems, but the issues of the smaller entrepreneur were scarcely mentioned. Puzzled by the lack of material on this subject, Lowery spent the next seven years researching the best methods for smaller businesses to compete against their giant adversaries. From that research came Battling The Corporate Giants: The Ultimate David and Goliath Story: a book truly written from the trenches of corporate warfare.Recently Lowery has spoofed the Creationist movement with Paradox Lost. A book that evokes such literary masterpieces as Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy, Faust and more to satirize the false idol of Intelligent Design.Now Lowery explores the narcissistic world of contemporary romance with his provocative collection of short stories and poetry, The Reflections of a Narcissist. A book that holds a mirror up to modern love and reveals a society laughing at its own narcissism.Daniel L. Lowery resides in Ramona, California with his wife Claudia, son Ryan and daughter Larissa. He is always looking for a good opportunity.

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What others are saying about Battling The Corporate Giants

Thoughtfully and beautifully written, this book contains valuable truths and should not be missed.

--Ken Blanchard, Co-author of The One Minute Manager

Entertaining and informative…it's an insightful read for meeting today's challenges.

--Charles C. Manz, author of The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus

An excellent book for the small business person. Battling the Corporate Giants is easy to read, easy to understand, insightful and highly recommended.

--Harold MacFarland, Midwest Book Review & Amazon Top 50 Reviewer

BATTLING THE CORPORATE GIANTS:

The Ultimate David and Goliath Story

By Daniel L. Lowery

Copyright 2006 Daniel L. Lowery

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Three Modern Davids—Three modern businessmen compete with large corporations

Chapter 2 – David and Goliath—An edited version of David and Goliath

Chapter 3 – The Relevance of David and Goliath—Explanation of the strategies and tactics that enabled David to defeat Goliath

Chapter 4 – There Was a Valley between Them (Price War)—Removing smaller businesses by lowering prices

Chapter 5 – Whose Height Was Nine-and-a-Half-Feet (Superstructures)—Using superior resources to eliminate competition

Chapter 6 – There Was No Smith Found (Controlling Supply—Monopolizing resources to strangle small companies

Chapter 7 – All of Israel Came down (Policies)—Creating procedures for the corporation’s benefit

Chapter 8 – Let Him Come Down to Me (Inventing Your Own Game)—Developing games that are not winnable for their competition

Chapter 9 – We Will Be Your Servants (Rule Changes)—Altering rules to always have the edge

Chapter 10 – You Will Be Our Servants (Hijacking Employees)—Taking small companies’ best employees

Chapter 11 – Give Me a Man (The Invitation)—Weakening small businesses’ legal power by offering contracts with arbitration clauses

Chapter 12 – Words of the Philistine (Propaganda)—Overwhelming small businesses with an advertising blitz

Chapter 13 – For Forty Days (The Slow Reply)—Take advantage of corporations’ slow bureaucratic processes by quick decisions and actions

Chapter 14 – This Man That Has Come up (What’s Yours Is Mine)—Seizing a smaller competitor’s property then negotiating its return

Chapter 15 – The King Will Enrich (The Coat Holder)—Get others to do your bidding for you

Chapter 16 – You Are Not Able (Definition Game)—Changing the meaning of words to gain an unfair advantage.

Chapter 17 – Saul Gave David His Armor (The Conventional Response)—Large organizations can’t cope with the unexpected

Chapter 18 – There Came up the Champion (Spying)—Gather important information your competition gives you

Chapter 19 – Sheep in the Wilderness (Slander)—Silence critics through action not words

Chapter 20 – He Was Unable To Go Forward (The Least Expectation)—Attacking competitors’ points of low resistance

Chapter 21 – I Cannot Go With These (Different Weapons)—Baffle competition with new products, different selling techniques, and innovations

Chapter 22 – And His Sling Was in Hand (Preparation)—Win by default

Chapter 23 – The Philistine Came on (Turn Strength Into Weakness)—Every strong point can be turned into weakness

Chapter 24 – When the Philistine Looked about (The Lull)—Best your competitors by working when they are closed

Chapter 25 – Am I A Dog? (The Diversion) —Make your opponent lose focus

Chapter 26 – With a Sword, Spear and Shield (The Achilles Heel)—Look for your opponent’s fatal flaw

Chapter 27 – I Will Defeat You (Call the Shots)—Win by keeping the opposition on the defensive

Chapter 28 – The Stone Sunk Deep in His Forehead (The Head Shot)—Pursue areas that inflict the most damage

Chapter 29 – There Was No Sword (The Surprise)—Catch competitors off guard

Chapter 30 – Their Champion Was Dead (Legal Preparation)—Avoid lawsuits by always being prepared for one

Chapter 31 – Whose Son Are You? (Extraordinary From the Ordinary)—Bring out the extraordinary from the ordinary

Chapter 32 – Epilogue: It's a Small World

PART ONE:

DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH

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CHAPTER 1: THREE MODERN DAVIDS

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"Seeth thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings."

Proverbs 22: 29

I

Andrea Garcia’s business was failing. After 25 years of selling groceries, her little corner store stood on the verge of closing. A large supermarket chain store had opened around the block and its prices were substantially lower. It advertised in the newspaper, radio, and TV everyday. It also kept longer hours. Mrs. Garcia noticed that even some of her most loyal customers were going over there. Several times she cut prices to

Match those at the chain store, but it always responded by cutting prices even further.

Now her prices were so low she barely made a profit.

Mrs. Garcia’s store was more than a good business; it was practically a neighborhood institution. People came there not only to shop but also to have meaningful conversations about friends and family. She and her husband Ruben knew most of their customers by their first names. Her store was a way of life for her; now all the work of 25 years was vanishing before her eyes.

Is Mrs. Garcia’s story a unique one? Not at all. Before the 1950s most grocery stores were so-called Mom and Pop operations. Why did this once-dominant method of selling foods disappear? Was it simply lower prices?

II

Like Andrea Garcia, Mark Kim also faced competition from a huge corporation. In his situation, however, he was working with the corporation. Or at least that is what he had understood at the outset.

Shortly after graduating from college, Mark had a business opportunity with a major telecommunications firm that seemed too good to be true. The corporation paid two-thirds of his rent, allowed him to use their office equipment, issued a line of credit, and sold him supplies well below the normal market value. In return, Mark invested some capital and put his efforts into introducing the corporation’s cellular phones.

At first everything went well for Mark. With a lot of hard work, he managed to get his business running just before Christmas. The holiday season was good that year

and within four months his company showed a profit. Then some rather odd things happened that didn’t make sense.

First, a corporate executive hired away one of Mark’s managers. This left him short on skilled personnel. When he phoned the corporation for an explanation, the executive involved replied that he just didn’t perceive it as a problem.

Then more strange things occurred. Suddenly, there was al selling ways a shortage of cellular phones. Every time there was a great promotion or a good holiday weekend, Mark never had enough product in stock.

He then noticed competitors buying supplies far below his cost from the same telecommunications firm. This allowed his opposition to sell their mobile phones at a far lower price than Mark’s company.

While Mark pursued the corporation about this cost disparity, they turned around and announced they were no longer selling equipment. Now he had to find a new source of supplies and raise the capital to purchase it. When he complained about this to the corporation, their response was to forbid him from using the office equipment anymore.

Furthermore, they restricted his use of the office to the hours of 9 a.m. through 6 p.m. Even though he paid a third of the rent and demonstrated their actions were illegal, the telecommunications firm didn’t rescind their decision. Instead they changed the locks on the doors and told Mark to pursue the matter through the courts.

In the meantime, Mark’s business suffered. When he did seek legal remedies, he discovered all sorts of arbitration clauses in his contract that prevented him from collecting damages. Just a brief while ago everything had looked so promising for his business. Now it seemed certain to fail.

Is there anything Mark Kim and Andrea Garcia can do in the immediate future to save their businesses?

III

While taking on the corporate titans of the grocery and telecommunications industries may seem like a formidable task, it is not an impossible one. During the 1920s, an ingenious businessman named Alfred Sloan took on a corporation that had an incredible 50 percent share of its market. In comparison, Sloan’s company had only a 10 percent share. Yet by the end of the decade his company dominated the industry while the once-mighty corporation was floundering. How Alfred Sloan accomplished this is one of the most amazing stories in all of business.

At the beginning of the 1920s, five out of every ten vehicles sold in the United States was a Ford Model T. As production of the Tin Lizzie reached its height, Alfred

Sloan took over as president of General Motors. He recognized that the Model T was a great car, but he knew it wasn’t for everybody. Over the advice of his top managers, Ford refused to manufacture any other automobile. This meant Ford wasn’t making any effort to appeal to different buyers’ tastes and income. It also meant all their factories were designed to produce just one car.

Sloan took advantage of these factors. He recognized that GM, with fewer factories than Ford, would have a much easier job of converting them to manufacture different cars while Ford would incur a tremendous expense to achieve this. If his plan worked and there was a need for more factories, the implementation would be even simpler. The only way Ford could compete with this was by increasing sales of the Model T.

To combat this possibility, Sloan aimed at Ford’s weakest areas. His new cars targeted the luxury, the semi-luxury, mid-range, and lower mid-range buyers that Ford ignored. In the low-end market where Ford was strongest, Sloan chose an innovative method to compete. The Model T was an open vehicle. The automobile GM put against it, the K Model, had both an opened and a closed version. When GM decreased its price on the K Model to the same as the Model T, Ford could no longer contend on quality or price. As a result, Ford shut down production completely to refit its factories to make other automobiles. Since then, GM has always been the leading car manufacturer.

What did Alfred Sloan do that Andrea Garcia and Mark Kim didn’t do?

For one, he stayed away from his opponent’s strengths. Mrs. Garcia’s decision to drop her prices played into her competitor’s strong points as did Mr. Kim’s decision to go to court. Sloan deliberately went after his rival’s weaknesses and kept away from its strengths. Had he just brought out a model similar to the Model T, he too would have played into his opponent’s strengths and ended up with a comparable result. But Sloan knew better. He recognized what David demonstrated over 3,000 years ago in

ancient Israel—giants can be defeated if you use the right approach. Which is why we shall re-examine this biblical tale.

The following version was created to provide the easiest possible reading. To add clarity a many of the words and phases have been modernized. It is here for the reader’s reference. Many may feel they already know the story and rereading it isn’t necessary. If that is your case, you may want to skip ahead to chapter 3. You can always refer back to chapter 2 to refresh your memory.

CHAPTER 2: DAVID AND GOLIATH

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"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."

Psalms 23:4

The Philistine Challenge

The Philistines, occupying the western seacoast, bring their armies to battle in Judah to the east, roughly the southern portion of modern-day Israel. King Saul and the