Corporate Insurgency is the use of unconventional tactics by smaller organisations to increase their market share against larger corporations. Corporate Insurgency techniques are employed by 'new to market' competitors use to make stealth attacks on established larger companies, and are also employed by big business to counteract these new 'threats'. The umbrella term describes how businesses must adapt to the pressures of globalisation and information inter-connectivity in the changing business environment.

The term was coined by business thought leader

Thought leader

Thought leader is business jargon for an entity that is recognized for having innovative ideas.The term was coined in 1994 by Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of the Booz Allen Hamilton magazine, Strategy & Business. "Thought leader" was used to designate interview subjects for that magazine who had...

 and journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 Luke Manning

Luke Manning

Luke Andrew Manning is a British businessman, journalist and musician. He is the co-founder of the independent record label Mostar Records, is the founder of the branding and communications house Rolling Thunder and established the online magazine The Smoke Room...

, Professor David James of Henley Business School and former Lieutenant Colonel for the Royal Marines

Royal Marines

The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...

, Paul Kearney.

The core thesis of Corporate Insurgency is that large bureaucracies, be it anything from banks to the US Military, are all beginning to fail to smaller more agile organisations that simply refuse to follow the existing 'rules', analogous to asymmetric warfare

Asymmetric warfare

Asymmetric warfare is war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly....

, with insurgents avoiding the symmetry required for larger armies to bring their greater strength to bear. Most modern business success stories involve an asymmetric element.