The Art of War for Small Business

Becky Sheetz-Runkle

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780814433829
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

Defeat the competition and dominate the market with these masterful strategies of Sun Tzu.

Over two and a half millennia ago, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu taught that size alone does not guarantee victory--strategy, positioning, planning, and leadership all play equally significant roles in overpowering the opposition. Today, this classic treatise is perfect for adapting to the world of small business, with entrepreneurs entrenched in fierce competition for customers, market share, and talent.

Featuring inspiring examples of entrepreneurial success, The Art of War for Small Business centers its 12 timeless lessons on how to:

• Choose the right ground for your battles
• Leverage strengths while overcoming limitations
• Strike competitors' weakest points and seize every opportunity
• Focus priorities and resources on conquering key challenges
• Go where the enemy is not
• Build and leverage strategic alliances

Countless military, political, and business leaders across the world and throughout time have learned how to utilize these brilliant strategies to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outstrategize their larger adversaries' seemingly overwhelming forces.

Now, it's time for the small business owner to learn how they can also capture crucial sectors, serve unmet needs, and emerge victorious.

PART ONE

SEIZE THE
ADVANTAGE WITH
SUN TZU

Within the context of an overview of Sun Tzu and The Art of War, as presented in the first two chapters, you’ll explore the critical and common advantages and disadvantages of the small business. They will be recurring factors throughout the book, building blocks toward the more advanced concepts. You’ll understand the impact of The Art of War on generations and learn how to use The Art of War for Small Business. You’ll learn about my translation methodology and receive some warnings on how not to study Sun Tzu, no matter how tempting.

1

ABOUT SUN TZU AND
THE ART OF WAR

This chapter covers fundamental background on Sun Tzu and The Art of War. It provides you an understanding of the high-level historical context that will set the stage for the lessons you can apply to your small business.

ABOUT SUN TZU

Sun Tzu was a contemporary of Confucius. He is believed to have lived from 544 to 496 BC, near the end of the spring and autumn period, during tumultuous times in China. During this period of the weak Chou dynasty, China had more than 150 states continually competing for power. These states battled one another until only thirteen major ones remained. Of these, seven had far superior troops and resources. This era set the stage for the Warring States period that would follow. ¹

Sun Tzu is the name we associate with The Art of War. His given name was Sun Wu. He was born into a noble clan with the surname Chen. A student of military theory, he traveled to the state of Wu as its military power was poised to escalate. Impressed with Sun Tzu, the king of Wu brought him into the fold to head up troop discipline and to assist General Wu Zixu in creating the state’s strategy for expansion. ²

Wu’s foremost rival was the state of Chu. Because Chu was a superpower, the king of Wu, General Wu, and Sun Tzu knew they’d need to carefully conceive and execute a strategy to defeat their stronger foe. So they split their armies into three and conducted hit-and-run attacks on the mighty Chu. For five years, Wu used this strategy. It worked like this: A division of Wu would approach Chu, and the superpower would emerge. Wu would then withdraw. Then, when Chu would withdraw, Wu would emerge. For five years, Wu did this, seeking to exhaust and agitate its foes, hopeful that they would make mistakes. ³ It worked. Chu experienced great losses. Then, in the sixth year, 506 BC, Wu launched a decisive assault, won all five battles, and took Ying, Chu’s capital. ⁴

ABOUT THE ART OF WAR

As the earliest and most enduring book on strategy, ⁵ and certainly one of the foremost works for the battlefield, The Art of War is the authoritative guide for military affairs and political activities in the Far East, and it has become a prominent and oft-studied treatise in military, political, and business settings all over the world. While The Art of War is a short and concise text of about 7,000 words, its contents are immeasurably dense and its applications infinite.

The Art of War is required reading in many business schools and military institutions and essential reading for business leaders. We have no way of knowing just how many forces over the centuries have applied Sun Tzu. The work was first translated into French in 1772, and the first complete and annotated English translation was published by Lionel Giles in 1910. The Art of War was used with considerable success by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. It’s said that it was that war that first brought Sun Tzu to the attention of the American military. General Vo Nguyen Giap successfully implemented tactics described in The Art of War during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, a turning point that ended the major French involvement. General Vo, later the military mastermind behind victories over American forces in Vietnam, was an avid student and practitioner of Sun Tzu’s ideas. The Art of War is well cited as influencing Mao Tse-tung and other communist insurgencies. Two American generals, Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, applied Sun Tzu during the first Gulf War. ⁶

But it is Sun Tzu’s enduring business context that is of greatest interest to us here.

Sun Tzu is studied in MBA courses throughout the United States and by multinational corporations. Small businesses are especially well served to use this text to understand war as a metaphor for business. Today, many companies of all sizes are basing their growth on principles such as ecosystem development, strategic alliances and networks, transparent user communities, and open innovation. Such concepts may, at first, appear contrary to military strategy. Wouldn’t Sun Tzu be better suited to the dictatorial leadership style that was more in vogue in previous generations? That assumption demonstrates a limited understanding of the sage. And certainly this manner of waging business is inadequate for the collaborative, open, dynamic ways in which small businesses are thriving today.

SUN TZU FOR SMALL BUSINESS: STRATEGY AND SERENDIPITY

There are many books that apply Sun Tzu to business, as well as other pursuits. My initial adaptation was Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business. Are authors being opportunistic? Maybe. But I can only speak for myself. Here’s the truth. Sun Tzu for Women fell into my lap, so to speak. It wasn’t my concept, but an opportunity presented itself that, upon close examination, was very attractive. As I studied The Art of War, this time with a renewed focus on its implications for women in business, I saw that application. But that wasn’t all that I saw.

As I was writing Sun Tzu for Women, I was repeatedly struck by how his principles could shape and build smaller forces into mighty organizations. I thought of all the entrepreneurs and small-business CEOs and leaders I’ve worked with and for over the years. Before writing that book, I had reread The Art of War shortly after cofounding a small agency, Q2 Marketing, which we later sold in 2011. At that time, my perspective was as a new entrepreneur entering a large but crowded space. I studied it within a competitive context. But today, I read it differently. I see it through the lens of a marketing and strategy consultant, and through my clients’ eyes. I think you’ll find that Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has profound application for your small business, too.

The Art of War has helped me to identify and seize opportunities, and it’s guided me to create favorable conditions for victory. It can help you to take advantage of every opportunity. And as you’ll see, equipping a smaller force to overtake a larger one is a central and enduring theme of Sun Tzu.

2

THE POWER OF APPLYING THE ART
OF WAR FOR SMALL BUSINESS

We take our perspectives everywhere we go. Everything we say and do is autobiographical. If you want to read The Art of War as a book on winning and keeping peace, you can. You can read it as a book of aggression. I’m a lifelong martial artist, small-business and ma...