The history of warfare has major things to teach the world of business. First of all businesses like warfare, often do not know how to leverage a new technology. When large capital battleships first appeared, it tool time for tacticians to figure out that musket lines were best equipped to handle them. Similarly business innovations take time to be scaled up for people to use in large quantities. Instead it is second movers who often beat the initiators. An example could be of the Blitzkrieg or lightning warfare perfected by the Germans during the Second World War but actually first developed by the British during the first but hindered due to lack of quality equipment. Corporate strategy in business is often seen as paramount to success, yet it is the people on the ground who have the proper grasp of reality just as the German army’s ground personnel had during the Second World War. For all the talk of the next big thing, potential never gets realized in business if the innovators can’t scale for mass use. During the Second World War for example, while the great military strategists such as Eisenhower and Patton were celebrated, it must be understood that Henry Ford was equally responsible as by 1942, USA was producing more war material than all other major combatants combined.

Source: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/07/20/4-innovation-lessons-from-the-history-of-warfare/