Art of War: A Book Review

The Art of War, is a Chinese military treatise, written by Sun Tzu, the sage Strategist, Military General and Philosopher. This book is speculated to be written somewhere in the 6th century B.C though the exact date is still considered to be a matter of dispute as different historians have different takes on the same. That was the time when Mainland China was fragmented into a number of smaller nations (some Chinese historians put the number at 7) and the nations were at constant war with each other in order to conquer control over a vast expanse of fertile territory in the Eastern China. Sun Tzu was the Military General of one of the warring nations named Wu, which was very successful in not only wading off the attacks from other aggressive nations but also many wars that it fought. The book is divided into 13 chapters where Sun Tzu writes about the nuances and knittygritties of warfare at great length. In the initial chapters, he talks about the traits that a General has to possess Wisdom, Sincerity, Benevolence,Compassion and Strictness. Sun Tzu focuses on the Deception as one of the primary weapons of military warfare. Some of the quotes on deception are:

“All warfare is based on deception.” 

“Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance” 

“Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.” 

“If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.” 

If one tries to draw an analogy to the real life business scenario it is pretty evident that, the advantages that one  stands to gain out of keeping one’s opponent in the dark and mislead them are immeasurable. Here one has to remember that one can deceive or mislead someone only up to some point of time. One day the cloak of deception will fall down and may lay you bare. But it is here one needs to understand that the calculated and careful you are, the more one can extend the duration of keeping one’s opponents into believing  something that’s not true and in the process draining their resources. Sun Tzu also focuses immensely on understanding one’s enemy as much as you understand yourselves.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

“If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.”

Sun Tzu writes about knowing one‘s enemy at great length as in order to outsmart our enemy one needs to know about him inside out. He also goes on say that-

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Sun Tzu discourses about strategy by saying that the one who makes more number of calculations before the war has more number of chances of winning the war. Strategy is not all about sticking to one‘s plans but it‘s more about thinking on one‘s feet and to change it accordingly to suit to the ever changing scenario. If we try to draw a parallel with the real life business world where the situation changes faster than one could imagine, it makes all the more sense to immaculately strategize and implement it meticulously taking into consideration all the possible factors and variables involved. It goes without saying that the more holistically you look at the problem and plan accordingly the more are one‘s chances of avoiding the pitfalls of it. In this seminal work Sun Tzu also talks about the lead leadership qualities that are supposed to be possessed by a general (read as business leader) and the management of one‘s resources.

“A leader leads by example not by force.”

“Management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization.”

“Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.”

“If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders are clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.”

These are some of the quotes that one can find in this masterpiece regarding the characteristic traits that are to be possessed by a leader. He delves in depth as to how to manage one‘s resources and it is not a function of the amount of resources but it has more to do with the organization skills of the leader. These are some of the many things that the author has talked in the book. The book is as relevant today as it was when it was return speaks volumes about how farsighted the author is. This book is 7 highly recommended for Business leaders around the world because of the timeless pieces of wisdom the book provides. Such is the popularity of the book that it has seen a spin off in the form of Art of war for business, Art of war Executives, Art of war for Managers, Art of war for women, Art of war for teachers etc just to name a few. This book rightly places Strategy on the altar of business.