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Sun Tzu and the Art of Business
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Sun Tzu and the Art of Business

Six Strategic Principles for Managers

Mark McNeilly
Oxford UP, 1996
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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Engaging

Recommendation

This book takes the metaphor, "business is war" as far is it can possibly go - and then pushes it a little bit farther. The writer, an amateur military historian, draws many examples of strategy and tactics from battlefield applications - none of them Chinese, interestingly enough, considering the inspiration for the book. He establishes indisputably that Sun Tzu’s observations in China, circa 400 BC, would have been equally valid in Imperial Rome or World War II. He falters somewhat when he attempts to apply these principles to business. The author struggles to make the connection and occasionally succeeds, most effectively when discussing price wars and hostile takeovers. If the premise that business is like war is questionable, the idea of using a Chinese military handbook as a business text is unusual enough to be stimulating. getAbstract.com recommends this intriguing book to business strategists and managers.

Summary

The Principles of Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu, a general whose battlefield exploits won him fame during China’s Warring States Period (approximately 400 B.C.), wrote the military classic The Art of War. The first emperor of China used Sun Tzu’s principles and, twenty-one centuries later, so did Mao Zedong. Around 760 AD, Sun Tzu’s classic made its way to Japan, where the famous samurai used its principles to subdue and unify the country. It was translated into French by a Jesuit missionary and may have been read by Napoleon.

Sun Tzu’s key principles are speed, strategic alliances, secrecy, deception, avoiding your enemy’s strengths, and attacking his weaknesses. Throughout history, successful military operations have relied on these principles. Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes, the Roman legions, even Norman Schwarzkopf’s troops in the Gulf War - all achieved battlefield success by applying Sun Tzu’s principles.

Because business is like war, Sun Tzu’s principles work in business, too. The six key principles and their business interpretations are:

  1. Win all without fighting. Capture your market without destroying it.
  2. Avoid strength, attack...

About the Author

Mark R. McNeilly is a strategist for IBM, an amateur military historian, and a former officer in the infantry and artillery.

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