What are the six classic tactics used in a competitive (economic) context?

Initiative, cooperation, reserve-building, agility, information superiority, and surprise/deception — the recurring "moves" used to advance a strategy.

* The six recurring tactical "moves" that serve a strategy. *

Where strategy sets the long-term goal, these are the means repeatedly used to pursue it:

• Initiative — whoever makes the first move sets the direction.
• Cooperation — you need alliances; few win alone.
• Reserve-building — conserve and build up resources for hard times.
• Agility — stay light-footed and adaptable.
• Information superiority — whoever knows more holds power.
• Surprise / deception — outwit the opponent.

Before picking any of these, you analyze the situation first: Who are the actors? How hostile or favorable is the climate? Who are adversaries vs. allies?

Tip: Notice how cleanly these map onto cyber: information superiority ≈ threat intelligence, agility ≈ rapid patching/response, reserve-building ≈ backups and incident-response capacity, deception ≈ honeypots.

Go deeper:

• Principles of war (Wikipedia) — the military doctrine (offensive/initiative, manoeuvre, surprise, security/intelligence) these business "tactics" descend from.