Flypaper Theory

The military strategy of deliberately engaging the enemy in one location to fix them in place—drawing their resources and attention to a chosen battleground so they can't deploy elsewhere. In business: deliberately competing aggressively in one market or dimension to absorb a competitor's resources and prevent them from expanding into your core markets. The flypaper strategy sacrifices resources in one area to protect others by keeping the competitor's attention and budget consumed. It's a defensive strategy disguised as offense—the engagement isn't meant to win the battle but to prevent other battles from starting.

When to use it

When a competitor threatens to expand into your core markets and you need to divert their resources; when defensive strategy requires offensive-looking action; when you can absorb losses in one area to protect another; when competitive dynamics require choosing where to fight rather than whether to fight.

How it can help

When a competitor threatens multiple fronts, consider engaging them aggressively on one—preferably one where you have an advantage or where losses are acceptable. A price war in a secondary market, a talent bidding war in a non-critical area, or a feature competition in a non-core product can all function as flypaper: absorbing competitor resources and attention to protect your core business. The key: the engagement must be credible enough that the competitor can't ignore it, but in a domain you can afford to lose.