Sun Tzu’s Art of War is a Chinese military treatise that was written in the 6th century BC, during the Spring and Autumn period. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and still one of the basic texts.
This book is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy. It has had an influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu suggested the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.
Laying Plans is the first chapter of Sun Tzu’s book and it explores the five fundamental factors that defines a successful outcome and these are: (1) The Moral Law (the Way); (2) Heaven (seasons); (3) Earth (terrain); (4) The Commander (leadership); and (5) Method and discipline (management). Although we may not win a war by having plans and thinking along this line, we are surely doomed to fail if we don’t have a plan at all.
The MORAL LAW causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. This is a necessary way for business successes today. Every businesses out there depends on their employees to be in complete accord with the business objectives, to understand their corporate strategy and to put in their best in delivering the work and commitment towards meeting that business objectives. A company in chaos with disarrayed employees will fall.
HEAVEN signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and the seasons. This is the environmental factor. As with the seasons, the conditions of our economies changes and we can’t control these external factors. But having the foresight and being able to anticipate impending challenges allows us to be prepared for what is coming ahead.
EARTH comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death. The terrain which we do business in determines the level of obstacles we may face and what vantage points do we have or not have in comparison to our competitors. In every country, the terrain are different. We would ultimately face different competition, different regulations, different market needs, in each country we do businesses with. Understand this factor allows us to position our strength where we can capitalize it best.
The COMMANDER stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness. Have you ever heard this saying – when a respected leader asked his subordinates to jump, they would respond “how high?”. Leadership is having the ability to garner the respect and achieve an undivided following from your subordinates to put in their very best. The five cardinal virtues of the Chinese are (1) humanity or benevolence; (2) uprightness of mind; (3) self-respect, self-control, or “proper feeling;” (4) wisdom; (5) sincerity or good faith. Here “wisdom” and “sincerity” are put before “humanity or benevolence,” and the two military virtues of “courage” and “strictness” substituted for “uprightness of mind” and “self-respect, self-control, or ‘proper feeling.’”
By METHOD AND DISCIPLINE are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure. This is the structure, rank and discipline of the management organization.
The above five factors should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.