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...

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…