Business Before Referencing Tzu, Sun. The Art

Business Before Referencing

Tzu, Sun. The Art of War. Forward by James Clavell. New York: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.,

What does an ancient Chinese classic about the nature of a now-obsolete form of warfare have to teach us, in modernity, about how to manage others and navigate the current business environment? A great deal, The Art of War's presence in many business class syllabuses would suggest. Indeed, certain aspects of The Art of War by Sun Tzu seem even more relevant today than in the past. How to combine moral authority with fierceness and tenacity in an increasingly competitive environment is a challenging question faced by many organizations.

One of the first principles stressed by Sun Tzu is the need for a leader to follow a moral law, what we might call a vision statement in modern business vocabulary. It is not enough for a leader to command and reward, there must be some cause for which people are willing to sacrifice and dedicate their lives. Also, the commander must embody some virtues, wisdom as well as strictness and courage. In other words, a company and its founder must have a clear purpose for its existence.

It should be noted that Sun Tzu's principles do not necessarily support all of modern business theory's view of how an organization should operate. Theorists who stress the need for a 'learning' organization based upon a great deal of input from subordinates might be less interested in Tzu's stress upon the need for secrecy during times of war. Tzu's belief in the need to take an enemy by surprise may seem to have its parallels in everything from Coca-Cola's secret formula to the famously fortress-like structure of Microsoft, which guards its technological secrets with great care, before a prospective product launch. But the need for such secrecy would seem to deny the value of the new, successful, open and participative business model of Google, where even lower-level employees are valued for their ability to give a great deal of input into how things operate. Rather Sun Tzu says of a great leader: "Once war is declared, he will not waste precious time in waiting for reinforcements, nor will he turn his army back for fresh supplies, but crosses the enemy's frontier without delay."

This is not to say that Sun Tzu does not understand the nature of modern bureaucracy. When Tzu wrote, an army was divided into different subdivisions. He knew that a leader could not keep abreast of every single development transpiring at every level of the organization, and all leaders below the commander must carefully show attention to such technical details as the roads and means by which they would vanquish the enemy. Also, Sun Tzu is not a destroyer, he believes the best victory is one in which the enemy is conquered, with all of his vital resources intact, much in the way a hostile takeover will not destroy all of the good elements of the stronger company.

Additionally, competitor organization must learn from the competition and adapt its strengths and make them its own -- much in the way that Dunkin' Doughnuts adopted Starbuck's use of specialty coffee drinks and rebranded itself as a coffee giant in the 21st century, selling similar products at a much cheaper price. Although Dunkin' Doughnuts was not first, its skillful use of its unique edge as a bargain company, combined with a careful study of its rival gave it an edge. This seems to hold true to the principle: "If equally matched we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him." In other words, two equally matched but different competitors like Dunkin' Doughnuts and Starbucks can do battle in a coffee war, a smaller company can offer a unique product to a particular market segment and avoid the enemy (like In-and-Out Burger's use of wholesome fast food delivers a product McDonald's does not and avoids competing with the larger chain), and a new company may flee from a stronger entity by offering something totally different in an industry with many major competitors.