Art of War: Win withut a fight [Greece vs Portugal]

Ever wondered what was the winning strategy for the Hellenists against the Iberians in the Euro 2004 Finals?

The best strategy in the Art of War is to Win Without A Fight. Sun Tzu gave that advice centuries ago and those who heeded this advice prospered, whether in business or warfare. Wal-mart, for example, ventured into towns that seemed too small to support large discount stores. This is the "Go where they ain't" strategy.

The Greeks adopted the same strategy and were able to deliver knockout blows against the seemingly indestructible Czech Republic and the defending champion, France. They did the same against the Iberians in the finals. The Greeks went where none ventured, that is, go for an all out defensive game. Pauleta from the host team, Portugal, describes it as a "do nothing but defend" strategy.

In most games and business strategies, we think of a competitive strategy to overcome our competitors' efforts. It encourages you to frame your market into traditional and competitive terms. Similarly, most football teams usually play with standard line-ups. This frame anchors one to the same structure, system and markets as one’s competitors, when the best strategy is to Win without a Fight. As Pauleta aptly described, "It is a strange way to play football but we can not say we didn't know about it. They have played like that for quite a while now, with everyone behind the ball.

Why an ultra defensive strategy? It was the result of a simple SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Threat, Opportunity) analysis. The strength of Greeks lies with their defence and they capitalized on that. Their weakness was in their lack of Brazilian-like strikers. Their threat was the Portugal’s need to score for their home crowd. Their opportunity to score would, therefore, be a corner given to the Greeks. The Greeks knew their enemy and they knew themselves.

The result was, in the finals, Portugal had ten corners and did nothing. Greece had one and stole the goal. The Greeks knew that they were lacking in superior strikers and the corner given was probably their only chance to score. They realized that if they did not score, they would probably lose during the penalty shootouts where everything was left to chance. The Greeks quickly eliminated their fear by moving their defenders to the penalty area. Angelo Christeas’ header in the 57th minute from a set-piece, naturally broke Portuguese hearts.

The Greeks forgot about looking superior or beautiful against the “Brazilians of Europe”. They eliminated their fear of going into extra time and penalty shootouts. Defensive obduracy has triumphed over attacking improvisation. It did not bother the Greeks if advocates of the beautiful game may think that this is a poor and boring final. They focused on bringing home the trophy. Similarly, in developing business strategies, know yourself and your enemy. Forget about looking like the superior choice. Make yourself an excellent choice by eliminating anything that might make you a bad choice.

Needless to say, it was glory for the Hellenists.