Is it possible, that 2500 years old rules for strategy created by one of the greatest war tacticians, could be used in modern business world?
Wu Sun, also called Sun-c is an author of a book named Art of War, which is a powerful chinese war strategy book about. He was one of the first realists for theory of international relations. At the first sight, rules are very simple and can be applied in almost any situation.
A few years ago, I got stuck on complicated business problem and I could not move on. Later on, when we had business meeting, together with my colleagues we went through all possibilities to solve this problem, but when we applied them, it still did not work. Afterwards, I was called by CEO of the company who gave me an advice: „You should read a book written by Sun-c, I tis called The Art of War. I keep it with me all the time.“ The CEO of that company was one of the best salesmen I have ever know and also a great leader. He had always a great overwiev and taught me to consider information from all different point of view. Back then, I thought he was making fun of me. How could a book help me to close a business deal? And now, I carry it with myself everywhere. It is like a pocket version of a strategy lexicon, with all knowledge which can be applied to all life aspects. Sometimes I forget about them and it brings me down…
During our lives, me must cope with all of the different situations and sometimes we do not really know what to do, what is the right decision, what is the step forward and what backwards. In these situations, best option is to pull out a book written by wise strategist, war maestro Sun-c.
Let´s do it!
Planning:
- “Art of The War has key meaning for a state. “
2. “It decides between life and death, safety and destruction. “
3. “In the art of war, 5 elements shall be considered. “
1. Order 2. Heaven 3. Earth 4. Commander 5. Method and discipline
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- Order stands for a perfect match between the peaople and a leader. People follow their leader, no matter their own lives and are not afraid of any danger.
- Heaven means exchange of day and night, warm and cold, seasons and ages.
- Earth means small and big distance, danger and safety, open fields and narrow passes, life and death.
- Commander personify knowledge, credence, kindness and hardness.
- Method and discipline mean correct division of army in military units, gradate rank of officers, provide infrastructure for supplies and rational expenses.
- Every strategist count on these five elements. Those who know them will become a winner, those who follow them, will not lose.
- “Based on this reflection, I can predict victory and defence. “
- “Commander who listen to my advices and follow them, will win. Commander who is deaf towards my advices and does not follow them, will be defeated – get rid of him. “
- “Do not build your empire based only on my advices but make use of favourable situations (but you can not always count on those). “
- “If the circumstances are favourable do not hesitate to change your plan. “
Sun-c
Previous check-points are reminding me strategic planning in easy and simple steps, which are nicely processed but still thousands of years old.
“If you know your enemy and yourself, you won´t be defeated. If you don´t know your enemy, but you know yourself, you have 50% chance for victory. But if you do not know yourself, neither you do your enemy, you will lose.“ Sun Tzu
The only real purpose of a war, is peace.
