England
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"The comparison is straightforward enough. Our long-term goal is to enter and take control of a mainstream market (Western Europe) that is currently dominated by an entrenched competitor (the Axis). For our product to wrest the mainstream market from this competitor, we must assemble an invasion force comprising other products and companies (the Allies). By way of entry into this market, our immediate goal is to transition from an early market base (England) to a strategic target market segment in the mainstream (the beaches at Normandy). Separating us from our goal is the chasm (the English Channel). We are going to cross that chasm as fast as we can with an invasion force focused directly and exclusively on the point of attack (D-Day). Once we force the competitor out of our targeted niche markets (secure the beachhead), then we will move out to take over adjacent market segments (districts of France) on the way toward overall market domination (the liberation of Western Europe)."
"Occasionally, you’ll find a human being who’s so talented that he can do things that ordinary skilled mortals can’t. I would argue that Simon Marks —who was second generation in Marks & Spencer of England—was such a man. —Charlie Munger,"
"Yet Mussolini was in power. "Just like Franco let all the people who wanted to fight the good fight in England go while he was very close to Hitler, it was strange indeed. . . ", he recalls thoughtfully."
"Even at this hour, before this great day shall pass away and be lost in the ocean of eternity, your emperor must address you, and say how satisfied he is with the conduct of all those who have had the good fortune to fight in this memorable battle. Soldiers! You are the finest warriors in the world. The recollection of this day, and of your deeds, will be eternal! Thousands of ages hereafter, as long as the events of the universe continue to be related, will it be told that a Russian army of 76,000 men, hired by the gold of England, was annihilated by you on the plains of Olmütz.121"
"what my great-grandfather was trying to do was to prepare his children to lead the industrial revolution that had started in England more than half a century earlier, and which Germany was just beginning to enter at that time. In 1861, at the age of nineteen, and after his time at Karlsruhe, Grandfather August enrolled in the Higher Institute of Commerce of Antwerp, a center founded in 1852 that was prestigious worldwide. It was there that he acquired a solid education in both European and world economics, and where he specialized in business administration."
"“Your airplane fabric is unsellable,” the consulted merchants categorically opine. “We don’t wear ecru shirts. We wear white shirts or striped shirts,” they object to him. “There is going to be a crisis,” others groan. There is going to be a “boom,” Boussac thinks. After four years of privations, men and women are eager to regain comfort and extravagance. And here are three million demobilized soldiers returning from the front, ready to dress in civilian clothes again. The euphoria of peace, the movement of reconstruction, the vast needs to be met: that’s what he believes in. He draws up his plan. He starts by buying back from the State everything that was meant to become wings. Then he purchases in England all the stock of airplane fabric that his competitors, relieved to get rid of it, sell to him cheaply."
"“This will not change the outcome of the war. Hitler lost it when he faced England in 1940!”"
"The combination of Roger Douglas and the Treasury at that moment was brilliant. He wouldn’t have been purist if left to his own devices, and they wouldn’t have had much influence on their own. Then he reached out to serious businessmen to help sort out the problems like the state-owned enterprises; the sorts of roles that had traditionally been given to party hacks. It was a very exciting time for people interested in New Zealand and Roger executed many far-reaching and important reforms. The man deserves a bloody great statue; aside from Ruth Richardson, no other figure in recent New Zealand politics comes within a bull’s roar of him. Margaret Thatcher dragged England out of its socialist impasse and is now voted the most important British leader since the war. It is very slack that Roger and Ruth are not given the same regard in New Zealand."