I’m sure many of you have read The Art of War. Many of us had this as required text in college. I schedule to re-read this at least once a year. I always pick up something new to think about. My choice in this book is paperback. I’ve worn out 5 copies so far.
Sun Tzu’s leadership philosophy of war entailed winning without going into battle. He wanted to defeat an enemy before the war started. He wrote,” No Country has ever benefited from a protracted war.”
The business ideal is to present “win-win” in such a way that the other party is anxious to adopt our end goal. To immediately start discussing implementation steps to move forward. Instead of spending endless hours trying to convince.
With all “new and improved” it’s easy to forget that basic principles of business and war have not changed in last 2000 years.
Sun Tzu talks about the moral, emotional, and intellectual qualities of a good general. What the relationship between country leader and general in charge should be. Last the importance of planning, organization, and the use of spies to enable the general to out think the opponent. “Spies” for most of us in the business world entails understanding the goals, strategy and methods of our competitors…and then providing better options, products and/or services and better customer service…then continuously improving all.
Re-reading The Art of War I always spot strategic steps I have forgotten, overlooked, or am not implement as effectively as needed. When new ventures our companies have started fell short, I can always go back to these basic principles and see what I missed or under-estimated.
This is great book to help strategic critical thinking.
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