CENTER OF GRAVITY AND CRITICAL VULNERABILITY: TWO SIDES TO A COIN?
Introduction
Sometimes you’re exposed to information before you are ready to effectively use it. This was the way I was when I first read Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits For Highly Effective People. I was in my twenties and while the material was OK, it didn’t really resonate for me. When I found myself rereading the book a decade later I was amazed by all the good stuff in it. I was the same way about the concepts of Center of Gravity and Critical Vulnerability. I learned about them as a young Marine Officer, and the seemed like useful ideas, but I never really “got” the their true value. Now I’m taking some courses that revisit the ideas of Center of Gravity and Critical Vulnerability and it is really “clicking” with me, how they are employed.
Terms Defined
Put briefly, a Center of Gravity is the source of power. In the 1991 Gulf War, planners decided Iraq’s Center of Gravity was Saddam Hussein. As a rule you will only have one Center of Gravity.
Conversely you can have many Critical Vulnerabilities. Critical Vulnerabilities are not your Center of Gravity, they are weaknesses you can use to get to the Center of Gravity. Looking at the Gulf War example again, if Saddam was the Center of Gravity, his ability to control and influence was a Critical Vulnerability he had. When the Coalition took out his power, telephone, and road networks, they took away his ability to influence the Iraqi people—and particularly his military.
For a non-military example, lets look at an electric utility. Its Center of Gravity is its power plant—the big generator that makes electricity for them to sell. If the utility loses its power plant, it can’t sell electricity. (I’m simplifying for this example. With the modern grid our hypothetical utility could buy power from another source.) The most obvious Critical Vulnerability for our hypothetical utility is its transmission lines. You don’t have to destroy the power plant to cripple the utility, just cut the main line that sends power out to the customers. Another one would be the fuel source. If there is no coal to burn in the generator, it can’t create electricity.
Application
So what does this mean to you? Since Saddam Hussein is dead and you probably don’t want to put a small electric utility out of business, it may not seem like this is useful information. But it is actually quite useful to apply analysis of Center of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities to your competitors. This might be most useful when you’re a major company, pitted against a handful of large competitors—Coke versus Pepsi for example.
But you can also apply analysis to yourself. Without giving away anything sensitive, when I did the second Iraq war, the Center of Gravity the unit I went with had was the ability to get liquids—particularly fuel and water—to the units that needed them. A critical vulnerability we had was that it took an awful lot of equipment to get those liquids to the people that needed them. If the Iraqi military had known about our Center of Gravity at the time, they probably could’ve figured out this critical vulnerability and seriously hampered his opponents’ ability to attack him.
A house is another way to consider the concept. The Center of Gravity of a house is that it holds all your stuff, keeps you warm and dry, and gives you a safe place to sleep. Some Critical Vulnerabilities are windows and door locks that can be broken or even left unlocked, a roof that could start to leak, or a furnace that could break—or worse, start leaking deadly gases. So by analyzing friendly Centers of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities, you can take steps to protect yourself—buying good locks for the doors on your house, having your furnace serviced regularly, etc.
A business can also apply this analysis to its customers. (With some modification. Obviously a business is trying to provide value to its customers, not destroy them.) What do Coke drinkers want? What is their “Center of Gravity”? Well, the people at Coke think it is “refresh[ment]…optimism and happiness”. Knowing this, they try to figure out what levers can be used to “attack” this “Critical Vulnerability.”
Conclusion
So there they are: Center of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities. Two very different—but closely related—concepts. By being aware of them and understanding them you can mitigate threats, identify ways to outsmart competitors, or provide value to your customers.
Tags: analysis, center of gravity, competition, critical vulnerability, marketing, planning, study
