The Art of War
Author: Sun Tzu
Edgy business managers will tell you to forget everything you learned in your MBA, and just read this book instead. But then they are surprised when their employees only ever talk about proper utilization of the topography for military movement, and effectively using spies.
I get it, we can apply the lessons of this book more broadly than just military procedures. Maybe don’t go too overboard though, or you’ll end up learning the same lesson as Andy Bernard when he tries to convince The Office that they are in a war, and takes them to Gettysburg.
The world will little note nor long remember the fight that Jim and I had here at Gettysburg. And that’s good, because I was basically wrong. I wanted my team to be like this army and I was their general, but I guess it’s really just more like they’re people who work in an office and I’m their manager. Yeah, that’s really probably a better analogy now that I think about it.
Andy Bernard
This short book is divided into 13 chapters:
- Laying plans
- Waging war
- Attack by strategem
- Tactical dispositions
- Use of energy
- Weak points and strong points
- Maneuvering an army
- Variation of tactics
- The army on the march
- Classification of terrain
- The nine situations
- Attack by fire
- The use of spies
I’m very curious to know how business managers have coerced the “attack by fire” chapter into business lessons. There are 5 ways to attack with fire according to Sun Tzu.
- Burn soldiers while they are in their camp.
- Burn stores, such as grain storage.
- Burn baggage trains.
- Burn arsenals and magazines.
- Hurl fire upon the enemy from above.