Episode 31: Chet Richards on John Boyd and applying OODA principles to the business world

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:

Certain To Win book

Chet's Blog