The Art of War

Sun Tzu's Art of War: Application to Strategic Management and Thinking

January 1990

By: Wee Chow Hou Intersect Magazine

BUSINESS AND WAR

THE USE OF MILITARY STRATEGIES IN BUSINESS has gained increasing prominence in recent years. Not surprisingly, with competition getting more intense, and at times. even ruthless, it has a very receptive audience in the boardrooms of many companies. To capitalize on this surging interest writings on the subject have also begun to appear. For example, in their 1985 book on The New Competition, Philip Kotler, Liam Fahey and S. Jatusripitak likened the Japanese economic conquest of the world to a military campaign. However, much of the literature on applying war strategies to business has been premised on Western military thought, and on the writings of Western generals, and few gave recognition to the oldest known military treatise in the world, Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Written between 400 and 320 B.C.,/\rt of War is today a "must read" text in many military schools. It was introduced to Japan around 716 A.D. The first French translation was published in 1772. and a British military officer in Japan made an English translation •in 1905. Today, there are also translations in Russian and German, but most are in Japanese, and Sun Tzu's works have been known to influence Japanese military strategy for centuries. For example, Takeda Shin-gen, one of Japan's most famous warriors in the 16th century, had his battle banners embroidered with the following phrases:

"Swift as the wind, Calmly majestic,as the forest Plundering like fire Steady as the mountains."

The descriptions were actually copied from Sun Tzu's Art of War:

"In movement, be as swift as the wind: In slow marches, be as majestic as the forest: In raiding and plundering,' he as fierce as fire; In defence, be as firm as mountains: In camouflage, he as impenetrable as darkness; And when striking, be as overwhelming as thunderbolts."

There are several reasons why Sun...