Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of calculations (算) for winning wars. To him, success is straightforward. The more one calculates, the better chance one will win. The calculations are based on seven areas: (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law? (2) Which of the two generals has most ability? (3)…
Category: Strategy
The Test of Sun Tzu’s Art of War On Concubines
The following is a short biography of Sun Tzu written by Sima Qian, one of the famous historians of China. While it’s authenticity has been debated, it serves as a great story on leadership. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Sun Tzu Wu was a native of the Ch`i State. His ART OF WAR brought him to the notice of He Lu,…
Sun Tzu’s Five Characteristics of Leaders
Many have written about Sun Tzu’s Art of War for business strategies and some even go beyond to apply these strategies to parenting, education and others. The Art of War was originally written more than two thousand five hundred years ago for the purpose of winning wars. While i am not sure if the concepts…
Don’t Let Strategy Become Planning – Roger Martin – Harvard Business Review
Don’t Let Strategy Become Planning by Roger Martin I must have heard the words “we need to create a strategic plan” at least an order of magnitude more times than I have heard “we need to create a strategy.” This is because most people see strategy as an exercise in producing a planning document. In…
Why Good Spreadsheets Make Bad Strategies
We live in a world obsessed with science, preoccupied with predictability and control, and enraptured with quantitative analysis. Economic forecasters crank out precision predictions of economic growth with their massive econometric models. CEOs give to-the-penny guidance to capital markets on next quarter’s predicted earnings. We live by adages like: “Show me the numbers” and truisms…
Yahoo’s Turnaround Efforts Straight from Steve Jobs’ Playbook
Carol Bartz, the still new CEO of Yahoo, convened her first meeting for Wall Street analysts a few weeks ago. Forget the specifics for a moment. She could have been talking about another iconic Silicon Valley company that had gone astray under experienced but ineffectual leaders who had been brought in from other industries to…
Everyone A Leader 