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Mark McNeilly Sun Tzu and the Art of Business Buy this title or join our Management
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Business Nugget by Robert Morris In recent years, a great deal of nonsense has been published concerning similarities between the military battlefield and the business world. Authors frequently invoke military terms such as “attack”, “ambush”, “pre-emptive strike”, “blitzkrieg” (or “blitz”), “no man’s land”, “chain of command”, “firepower”, “guerrilla”, “kamikazi”, “overkill”, and “scorched-earth policy.” Amidst all the other books in which forced comparisons are made, Mark McNeilly has written Sun Tzu and the Art of Business (published by Oxford University Press). He includes in his book the original (and superb) translation of The Art of War by Samuel B. Griffith. In McNeilly’s opinion, Sun Tzu was among the first (if not the first) to formulate “an holistic approach to strategy that was powerful yet succinctly communicated.” He focuses on six specific principles and examines each in light of situations in the contemporary business world to which they seem relevant. None of his analogies is forced. He allows his reader to determine the nature and extent of relevance of the six principles to the reader’s own circumstances. Here they are: 1. Win All Without Fighting (i.e. Capturing Your Market Without Destroying It) 2. Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness (Striking Where They Least Expect It) 3. Deception and Foreknowledge (Maximizing the Power of Market Information) 4. Speed and Preparation (Moving Swiftly to Overcome Your Competitors) 5. Shape Your Opponent (Employing Strategy to Master the Competition) 6. Character-Based Leadership (Providing Effective Leadership in Turbulent Times) In Chapter 7, the final chapter, McNeilly shifts his attention to “Putting the Art of Business into Practice.” He explains how Sun Tzu’s ideas can help to prioritize markets and to determine competitive focus; how to exploit a competitor’s weakness; how to develop an action plan (“wargame”) which will confuse competitors; how to integrate initiatives so as to unbalance those competitors; how to prepare and then launch effective initiatives; and finally, how values-based leadership nourishes and sustains success while “starving” failure. Throughout Sun Tzu and the Art of Business, McNeilly quotes Sun Tzu when analyzing the successes and failures of various industries and individual companies. In Chapter 1, he asserts that “you should follow the philosophy of Go rather than chess” because in, the ancient game of Go, success is achieved by “capturing and holding the greatest amount of territory with the smallest investment of pieces” whereas, in chess, “the object is to destroy the opponent’s pieces in an effort to ‘take’ his King. In fact, the saying ‘checkmate’ is derived from the original Persian shah mat, meaning ‘the king is dead.’” In Chapter 6, McNeilly offers a wealth of information and insights with regard to “Providing Effective Leadership in Turbulent Times.” For example, the most effective leaders are those who:
Time and again, McNeilly stresses (as does Sun Tzu) the absolute importance of personal character. Respect and trust are earned, not conferred by title or decree. It remains for leaders to formulate the correct strategies as well as those tactics needed to implement them. It remains for leaders to allocate resources only where they will achieve the greatest possible success at the lowest acceptable cost. Whether the competition is on a battlefield or in a marketplace, the six principles are appropriate to whatever strategy or strategies may be needed. Historically, the most successful armies and the most successful companies have shared much in common:
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