Aug 28, 2020
Chet Richards was a close associate of the late US Air Force
Colonel John Boyd. He was there as the concept of the OODA Loop was
being developed and constructed the first graphics of the OODA Loop
from sketches Boyd drew. Chet is the author of the widely read
business book “Certain to Win” which was the first book to describe
Boyd’s strategy in terms familiar to business leaders and show how
the OODA Loop and associated Boyd concepts apply to today’s
business problems.
Business is not war, but in its most competitive state it is a
form of conflict, with companies seeking advantage in bringing
products and services to market better and faster than competitors.
If you dig beneath Boyd’s war-centered tactics you find a general
strategy for ensuring your business is the one that wins. This fact
is the entire reason our company, OODA, and this site,
OODAloop.com, was named as an homage to this operational
decision-making model.
Boyd never wrote a business book himself, but he read and
commented on every version of this book’s manuscript till his death
in 1997.
Chet has consulted with a number of aerospace and professional
services companies and has lectured at the Air War College and the
Army’s Command and General Staff College.
In this OODAcast Matt Devost and Bob Gourley ask the questions
they have always wondered about Boyd and Richard’s creative
processes, their interactions with other great thought leaders, the
relation of the OODA model to the writings of business strategists
and how it inspired others like Tom Peters, and the power of
building a trust-based network of peers.
Additional Reading:
