Judo Strategy

In an article in the Harvard Business Review in 1999 with the above in the title, written by Yoffie & Cusumano, very little has changed in almost the last twenty (20) years.

In summary, the authors were making a comparison between Netscape and Microsoft. They highlighting some of the strengths of a ‘small player’ (Netscape) against a ‘very large player’ (Microsoft) in a competitive market environment. See the link below for the full article;

https://hbr.org/1999/01/judo-strategy-the-competitive-dynamics-of-internet-time

In an Irish context an example of this is McDonalds versus Supermac’s. Summary information is as follows;

McDonalds have been in Ireland since 1977 and are located in all cities and urban centres with large populations bases. Supermac’s opened its first store in 1978 in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. It continued to expand in Ireland in the 1980’s and 1990's in towns around Ireland where McDonalds were not located. Once it had established itself as a ‘main player’ in the fast-food market it now is a big competitor to McDonalds.

In conclusion, Judo Strategy requires the following;

(1) Find areas to attack where your competitor cannot and will not respond

(2) Qualities such as flexibility, speed and innovation are essential