The Art of Strategic Management
- Detailed planning
- Market Intelligence
- Choice of battleground
- Swiftness in execution of plans
- Adaptability in maneuvers
- Creation of strategic advantages through deception
- Attack, if one has to fight in the open
This book started with the contention that a systematic analysis of the analogy between
business and war would prove fruitful and illuminating. In some ways it has also proved contentious. Sun Tzu's reflections on the art of winning a
military conflict with the enemy, based no doubt on his experiences on the battlefield, have been seen to shed light on the different ways in which business life is understood and conducted around the world. Business is a kind of war and the implications for this metaphor vary according to the seriousness with which the analogy is taken. The discussion of bribery highlights the way in which some individuals, companies or cultures are able to accomodate this practice in a way that would be seen as inexcusable in others. One way of conducting a war may not be seen as acceptable by another side engaged in the actual same war.
The idea of an analogy between the world of business and that of the battlefield is not a novel one. Indeed, various studies relating the application of military strategies to business practices have been undertaken and a publication by Ries and Trout (1986), 'Marketing Warfare', chose to rely, for instance, on the works of the German general Karl von Clausewitz, which were written in 1832. Few studies, however, have given recognition and acknowledgement to the oldest known military treatise in the world, Sun Tzu's "Art of War", and yet this manual, written in China centuries before the birth of Christ, can be said to contain the foundations on which all modern military strategies are based.
It is proposed in this book that the achievement of Sun Tzu's Art of War transcends the military context and offers the basis for an insight into the nature of modern business practises. In particular, and this is an underlying thesis, a study and understanding of Sun Tzu provides a valuable platform for exploring the exact nature of the analogy between business and war and in doing so it offers a pregnant framework for interpreting one of the most startling economic trends in the late twentieth century: the relative decline of the US economy at the expense of the Japanese economy.
The trend has been well documented and more than one theory has been advanced as to its underlying cause. This book is not proposing another theory but rather suggesting that we examine some of the implications of the war and business analogy so as to better understand the nature of various business practices around the world, and specifically, the nature of the US-Japan trade situation.
The fundamental analogy is a fruitful one but it is to often taken for granted and some of the assumptions remain unexamined. If, for instance, the world of business is essentially a war situation the question can be raised as to the extent to which this is unashamedly endorsed by the opposing "armies". The word unashamedly is used because one may feel obliged to point out that there are ethical parameters that need to be taken into account. Limits to the analogy may be introduced on the grounds that war is an extreme situation, demanding exceptional responses and a suspension of normal life. War, after all, involves killing and being killed and often allows for various forms of behavior, espionage and control of the media for instance, that would not be countenanced or encouraged in peacetime. Even allowing for the notion of a "just war" one may still feel that a war mentality is not necessary or desirable for successful business life; whereas a war mentality is always likely to contribute to a successful war.
This book will attempt to unlock the nature of the analogy between war and business by attempting to examine in a systematic way the extent to h business practices are capable of being described and understood in the language of war and the implications that may arise as a result of this enquiry. The guiding framework that will allow for a systematic study is provided by Sun Tzu's Chinese classic; a work of the ancient past that reaches across two milennia and helps to clarify the debate now raging between the opponents and defenders of revisionism. A strategic management model, called Sun Tzu's Art of War model is proposed in order to illustrate the course of the argument.