Natesh watched the runway scene through the window as men in protective eyewear and helmets jumped down from a retractable ramp on the rear of the aircraft. The men rolled off crates near one of the taxiways and then immediately hopped back on board. Within minutes, the plane had taken off. As soon as it had, the Asian stewards that cooked their food and made up their rooms each day scurried out to the crates and brought them back to the cafeteria building. What was this place?

Everyone was seated. Natesh walked over and stood up in front of the podium. He looked at his watch. 8:01 a.m. “Good morning. I hope you all have been able to sleep better than I have.”

He got a few tired smiles in reply.

“Well...at least we all know why we’re here. Let’s do the best that we possibly can at this. The better job we do at planning out possible Chinese attack strategies and tactics, the better our nation will be able to prepare.”

“Amen.” someone said in the back. There were several nods of approval at that. Most of the group had progressed from the frantic denials and arguments of last night into a patriotic eagerness to contribute.

“So...” He looked at everyone in the room. He saw Lena in the back of the room, standing by the window. She had an encouraging smile and gave him a polite nod, as if to prod him along.

Natesh cleared his throat. He said, “Let’s look at the facts. We started to examine some of the numbers yesterday. On everyone’s desk is an official report that compares China and the US. It’s a threat assessment conducted jointly by the CIA and the Pentagon last year that essentially does what we’re going to do today. It’s a SWOT analysis. For those of you that aren’t familiar, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. But what took the CIA and the Pentagon over six months to conclude, I can sum up in two sentences. One: China is really big. And two: the United States has a military technology advantage. Let me ask you all a question. If you all have ten men and I have just one...but my one has a gun where as your ten men have swords...how would you attack me?”

“I’d rush you,” said a young man in the front row.

“Alright. So, rushing the man with a gun, that would be an example of a tactic we could use. We, if we were the Chinese, could gather as many troops as possible and start ramping up production of military assets. We could start massing troops on US beachheads and overcome the American military with overwhelming force. But I can tell you from my experience in business strategy, that this may not be the best tactic to use if it is not accompanied by other strong initiatives. For our strategy must also take into account our long-term goals. Our strategy will help us to identify the best tactical options. We can then make a series of tactical choices with our end goal in mind.”