In banging out the new Rescue Memo for Jeff Immelt on how GE's CNBC should deal with Fox Business News, Jack Flack knew he needed to understand FBN's strategy. The architect of that strategy is Rogers Ailes, and so Jack Flack assumes a classic challenger strategy will be employed.

And because Ailes is highly intuitive, and likes to preserve the option to change his mind, the FBN strategy has probably not been written down anywhere. Jack Flack thought he would take a crack at it, and here is the "Fox Business News 6-Point Strategy to Win."

1. Create a binary fight. CNBC owns the segment, and has far more to lose than gain. FNB starts with a zero-share, and thus its fastest route to a meaningful share position is to explicitly compare itself with the dominant leader, which offers four big benefits to the challenger.

It establishes immediate credibility. By explicitly drawing CNBC into every public conversation, FBN instantly presents itself as the leader's peer.

It exploits the leader's established position. The challenger proclaims, "The leader is that, but we're this." Because everyone already knows what the "that" is, it's much easier to appreciate what the "this" might be.

It locks other smaller competitors out of the conversation. Bloomberg TV, which still reaches more homes than FBN, will never get a mention.

It draws attention. Explicitly challenging the leader highlights conflict, which inherently produces greater hype, and gives the new player a better opportunity attract followers.

Thus, CNBC should assume that they'll see an endless series of tactics designed to lure them into awkward skirmishes they can't really win.

2. Hype symbolic victories. FNB will frequently set off firecrackers to make CNBC think cannonballs are coming through the hull. That was the primary objective of shutting down the CNBC ads with Dow Jones, which the media covered as a cannonball.

(Ailes loves Stonewall Jackson, who was famous for paralyzing his opponents by giving them the impression that his forces were much stronger than they actually were. In a world of corporate caution, this approach has always served Ailes well.)

3. Deliver a similar product with better Q-scores. Ailes designed the stock-market-focused positioning of today's CNBC. He knows that positioning is completely formidable, which is why he drug his feet for so long in acting on Murdoch's directive to create a business channel. Despite that trepidation, Ailes believes that talent is the X-factor, and that his knack for picking prompter readers will ultimately enable him to beat the other guys.

4. Occupy an open flank, and then push to the center. With Fox News, Ailes chose a populist approach to attract critical mass. He then redefined the middle ground by incessantly insisting Fox was "fair and balanced," effectively painting CNN as the loony-left.

Because CNBC's Wall Street-centric positioning does not leave Ailes much attractive turf, he has defaulted to Fox's traditional strength by half-pursuing a "main street" angle. Ailes knows that this will likely fail, as business news does not have much natural pull outside its core business viewers. But that approach allows him to get the network operable, while probing for a better strategy. Almost certainly, he will come to the conclusion that the best route to success will be to swing hard to the other flank, and attempt to out-Wall Street CNBC.

One big, obvious variable will drive the timing of that move, and that's when Ailes will mash on point 5.

5. Maximize the WSJ swing. Whenever it comes, FBN will make huge noise when the rights to the Wall Street Journal's stories and reporters shift over. In fact, Ailes should be disappointed if it does not swing at least 10 share points in the first month.

6. Exploit the next big event. Ailes knows that every great advance in cable news has ridden on the back of a sustained, compelling news event, usually a war. Those are the times when viewer habits genuinely change. When that event comes, expect FBN to radically over-commit to exploit the zeitgeist.

So, that's the FBN challenger strategy. And remember, a boldly executed challenger strategy is harder to stop than a healthy Tim Tebow. Challenger strategy harnesses the physics of life, which insist on a balance that is almost always bad news for the dominant player.

So, how do you beat a challenger strategy? You move early, and you move hard. And if you're with CNBC, you check out the Rescue Memo.