Divided nations, divided corporations.

• Author: Hall, Robert
• Position: Marketing Solution

Exactly a year ago as our troops were going to war in Iraq, I wrote in this space about "Winning the Peace." Winning the peace has turned out to be every bit as challenging as expected--and probably more so. One major obstacle is the competition for power among Iraqi factions. We have learned that the leaders of the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are often more concerned about the interests of their own group than about some abstract concept called Iraq. So as the formal power structure is being organized, competing interests are vying to fill the power vacuum.

It is painfully ironic: While our forces work to unite these factions through a constitution, a government and a leadership selection--as we espouse to Iraqis the virtue of sacrificing partisan gains for the greater, common good--we are so divided here at home.

I am not talking about the lively, healthy debate about our strategy and how we should proceed. I am talking about the venom so harshly directed at President Clinton a few years ago and now so harshly directed at Bush. Like the factions in Iraq, the critics seem to value winning the argument and the power more than finding the truth and the common good.

The terrorist observation that "Americans love life, and terrorists love death" seems less true each day. We had hoped to make Iraq more like us--united, broad-minded, optimistic. But it appears that we are increasingly becoming more like them--divided, narrow, angry. This growing domestic hatred sure isn't doing anything for our collective "judgment."

This is not the first time we have seen the seeds of disunity grow into the potential for failure--among nations or in corporations.

Divided by strategic intention

We see Al Qaeda and a loose association of smaller, local terrorist groups in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world keep much larger, more technology-enabled and much better funded forces at bay.

Many organizations have intended to use capital to dominate in size and technology to create overpowering competitive advantage. Yet we see Southwest Airlines outmaneuvering the major carriers. Harrah's Casinos, certainly not the newest or largest casino in Las Vegas, leads the way with customer management while showing very promising growth. In banking, we see smaller, more local, less technology-invested banks more than hold their own against the larger institutions.

Executives who had hoped to win by depending on size and technology are now having to do an about-face. Yet they...