Art of war, Sun Tzu
"When you have understood the Art of War, there is not a single thing that you are not able to understand", and "you can see the way in all things"
ESTIMATES
• War is a matter of vital importance to the State, because the battlefield is the place of life or death, the path that leads to survival or destruction.
• Consider it based on the five fundamental factors and compare it to the seven elements below. So you can appreciate the fundamental factors.
• The first of these factors is moral influence, the second is climate; the third, the land; the fourth, command, and the fifth, doctrine.
• If the boss is gifted with wisdom, he will be able to recognize changing circumstances and act quickly. If it is fair, your men will be sure of the reward and the punishment. If you are human, you will love your neighbor, share your feelings, and appreciate your work and difficulties. If he is brave, he will achieve victory by taking advantage, without hesitation, of the most suitable moment. If he is severe, his troops will be disciplined because they fear and fear punishment.
• There is no general who has not heard about these five points. Those who dominate them succeed; those who do not are defeated.
• This is why when you are capable, pretend incapacity; if you are active, passivity.
• If you are close, make believe that you are far; if remote, you're close.
• Pretends to be in inferior conditions, stimulates his pride.
• Attack it where you are not ready; Go where you least expect it. "When thunder breaks out it is too late to cover your ears."
THE CONDUCT OF WAR
• "An attack may lack ingenuity, but it must be carried out with lightning speed"
• In this way, those who are unable to understand the dangers inherent in the use of troops are not able to understand how to use them with advantage.
• Treat prisoners well and take care of them
• This is called winning a battle and getting stronger.
THE OFFENSIVE STRATEGY
• As a general rule in war, the best policy is to take the State intact; annihilating it is not advantageous
• Indeed, getting a hundred wins in a hundred battles is not the height of the skill. Surrendering the enemy without fighting is the height of skill.
• What is, therefore, of great importance in war is to disrupt the enemy's strategy.
• "Don't let your friends get together" "Battles are dangerous business"
• The most dire policy is to attack cities. Don't attack them, unless there is no other way.
• In this way, those who are experts in the art of war subdue the enemy army without fighting.
• They conquer the cities without carrying out the assault and overthrow a State without prolonged operations.
• Your goal is to take intact “everything under heaven”. In this way your troops will be intact and your victory will be complete. This is the art of the offensive strategy.
• If the forces are similar, you can present battle.
• If you are inferior in number you must be able to understand the withdrawal. "The small one cannot, of course, equal the big one, just as the weak cannot be measured against the strong, nor what are few, with which are many."
• "The confusion of the army leads to the victory of the adversary" "He who has no clear conscience of his purposes cannot face the enemy."
• Know that there are five circumstances in which victory is predictable:
1. He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be the winner
2. He who knows how to manage a large army and a small one, will be the victor.
3. The one whose troops have unity around a common objective will be the winner.
4. He who is prudent and guards an enemy who is not, will be the winner.
5. The one who has competent generals and does not suffer the interference of the monarch, will be the winner.
• “Know the enemy and know yourself and; in a hundred battles, you will never be in danger. "
• When you don't know the enemy but you know yourself, the odds of victory or defeat are similar.
• If at the same time you ignore everything about the enemy and yourself, surely you are in danger in every battle.
PROVISIONS
• When you have insufficient means, defense is adequate, when you have abundant means, attack. - those who are experts in the art of attacking consider it essential to have the seasons and the advantages of the terrain; They use floods or fire, depending on the circumstances. They do it in such a way that the enemy does not know how to prepare. He launches his attack like lightning from the ninth sky. "
• Foreseeing a triumph that the common man can foresee is not the height of skill.
• Winning in a battle and being proclaimed “expert” by everyone is not the height of skill, because lifting the autumn fluff does not require much force; distinguishing between sun and moon is not a test of sagacity; hearing the roar of thunder does not show that you have a fine ear.
• In planning matters, never a useless movement; in terms of strategy, no wrong move.
• The elements of military art are; first, the measurement of space; second, the estimation of the quantities; third, the calculations; fourth, comparisons, and fifth, odds of victory.
ENERGY
• In general, sending many people is like sending few. It is a matter of organization.
• The conviction that an army supports an attack by the enemy without being defeated is guaranteed by the operations of the "extraordinary force" and the "normal force".
• As a general rule, in a battle use your normal strength to engage in combat, and use your extraordinary strength to succeed.
• In battle there is only extraordinary strength and normal strength, but their combinations are unlimited, there is no human being who can learn them all.
• If, in one blow, the hawk destroys the body of its prey, it is because it launches at the right time.
• In the art of war there are no fixed rules. The rules are set according to the circumstances.
• The expert commander in chief awaits the triumph of the situation, and not from his subordinates.
• “The brave knows how to fight; the prudent defense; the wise, advise. Nobody's ability is wasted. ”
• Don't order people tasks that they can't do. Make a selection and give everyone responsibilities appropriate to their ability.
• War is a matter of cunning.
WEAK POINTS AND STRONG POINTS
• As a general rule, the one who occupies the ground first and waits for the enemy has the strongest position; the one who arrives later and rushes into combat is weakened.
• Therefore, those who are experts in military art lead the enemy to the battlefield and do not allow themselves to be drawn to it.
• When the enemy is resting, you must know how to tire him, when he is well fed, starve him, when he is resting, force him to move.
• Appears in places where you must pass; move quickly to where it does not wait for you.
• The enemy must not know where I intend to fight, because if he does not know, he must be prepared in many different places. And if you stay prepared in many places, the strength that I can find in any of them will be few.
• The one with few troops must prepare against the enemy; he who has abundant troops forces the enemy to prepare himself.
• Find out, then, the enemy's plans and you will know the strategy that will be most effective for you.
• Disturb him and find out the pattern of his movements.
• Determine your disposition and thus discover where the combat will be.
Maneuvers
• There is nothing more difficult than the art of maneuvering. The difficulty in this regard is to turn a tortuous path into the most direct route and to change the disadvantage into an advantage.
• “He who wants to gain an advantage chooses a far and winding itinerary and transforms it into a short path. Take advantage of your misfortune. He tricks and tricks the enemy and makes him careless and negligent, and then he advances quickly.
• War is based on falsehood. Scroll when it suits you and create situation changes by dispersing or concentrating forces.
• Analyze the situation, and then act.
• He who knows the art of direct and indirect progression, will win. This is the art of the maneuver.
• Those who do not advance when they must advance and those who do not regress when they must regress will be beheaded.
• Very early in the morning the spirit is full of ardor; During the day, interest wanes, and at night thoughts go home.
• For this reason, experts in military art shun the fiery enemy; They attack him when he has relaxed and his soldiers are filled with nostalgia. This is called having the "moral" factor on your side.
• “The fish that lures the bait bites the hook; the troops coveting the bait will be defeated. ”
• Setting up a camp under the walls of a powerful city and attacking rebels who are determined to fight to the death is not a wise plan.
• Don't push an enemy in a hurry to the limit.
THE NINE VARIABLES
• There is no need to camp on low ground.
• In a field with communications, join your allies.
• On lonely ground, you must not lag behind.
• On closed ground, use your sagacity.
• In death ground, fight.
• There are some roads that should not be traveled, some troops that should not be attacked, some cities that should not be besieged and land that should not be disputed.
• If you find out what to do, act; don't wait for instructions.
• The five variations are the following:
1. A path, even the shortest one, should not be traveled if it is known that it is dangerous and that there is a danger of falling into an ambush.
2. An army, although it may be attacked, should not be so if its circumstances are desperate and it is willing to fight to the death.
3. A city, although isolated conducive to attack, should not be if there are reasons to believe that it is well equipped, defended by first-class troops, expertly led by a shrewd general, whose ministers are loyal and their plans, inscrutable.
4. A piece of land, even if its property is controversial, should not be the cause of a battle, if it is known that once conquered it will be difficult to defend or that no advantage of its conquest will be followed, but that it will be counterattacked and that it will be regrettable losses.
5. The sovereign's orders, although they must be executed, should not be obeyed if the general knows that they involve the danger of detrimental control of the capital over military affairs.
• Advantage and disadvantage mutually influence one another. The competent boss deliberates.
• There are five qualities that are dangerous in a general:
1. If it is risky, you can lose your life
2. If he is a coward, he will be taken prisoner. "He who values his life above all things will be paralyzed by indecision. Indecision in a general is a huge disgrace. "
3. If he is angry, he can be ridiculed. "A quality is essential in the character of a general: perseverance."
4. If you have a too sensitive sense of humor, you can be slandered.
5. If you have a compassionate spirit, you can make him suffer.
MARCHES
• Fight down the slope, never attack uphill.
• If you want to fight combat do not face the enemy on the shore. Take positions on high ground in front of the sun. Never downstream.
• When the trees are shaken, the enemy advances.
• If there are many obstacles placed between the bushes, it is a trap.
• A flutter of birds means that the enemy is hidden; If wild animals flee in terror, it is that they intend to attack you by surprise.
• If the troops are disorderly, the general has no prestige.
• In war, simple numerical superiority offers no advantage. Do not advance confident only in your military power.
• If the troops are punished before they have achieved their fidelity, they will be disobedient. If they do not obey, they will be difficult to use. If the troops are faithful, but sanctions are applied, they cannot be used.
• Therefore, politely order to infuse in everyone the same combative ardor; it can be affirmed that the triumph is certain.
• If the orders are justified on all occasions and are always carried out, relations between the commander and the troops will be good.
THE LAND
• The terrain, according to its nature, can be classified as accessible, captive, undefined, closed, rugged and "distant".
• A field can be crossed with the same ease by either of the two contenders is considered accessible. In this area, the first to occupy a position in the sun, favorable for its supply routes, can beat it with advantage.
• A terrain from which it is easy to leave, but to which it is difficult to return, is beautiful. Its nature is such that, if you break in when the enemy is not yet ready, you can achieve victory. If the enemy is prepared, victory can be achieved. If the enemy is prepared and attacked, but fails to win, it would be difficult to return. It is almost impossible to take advantage of this terrain.
• A terrain that is also unfavorable for the enemy and for us is an undefined terrain. His nature is such that, although the enemy offers me an advantage, I will not advance, but I will try to drag him away, retreating. When I've got half his strength out, I can take advantage of him.
• If I am the first to reach closed ground, I will block access and wait for the enemy.
• On rough terrain I will stand on a high sunny spot and await the enemy. If he is the first to take this ground, I will attract him by retreating. I will not follow him.
• If the troops are strong and the officers are weak, the army is prone to revolt.
• If the officers are brave and the troops ineffective, the army is in trouble, jamming as if it were sinking into a swamp.
• Because this general considers his men as his sons and they accompany him to the deepest valleys. He has them as his favorite children and they are willing to die for him.
• “Know the enemy, know yourself and your triumph will never be threatened. Know the terrain, know the weather conditions and your triumph will be total ”.
THE NINE VARIABLES OF LAND
• The terrain can be classified as “dispersal terrain, border terrain, decisive terrain, communication terrain, convergence terrain, hostile terrain, difficult terrain, fenced terrain, moral terrain”.
- If a feudal lord fights in his own territory, he is in dispersal terrain. If it penetrates slightly into enemy territory, it is in frontier terrain. A terrain that is advantageous in equal measure for two parties is a decisive terrain. An equally accessible terrain for both parties is a terrain of communication. If a State is besieged by three others, its territory is a terrain of convergence. If an army penetrates deep into enemy territory, leaving behind, at a great distance, many enemy cities and towns, they find themselves in hostile terrain. When the army passes through mountains, forests, rugged regions, or progresses through swamps, gorges, and other places that are very difficult to navigate, you are in difficult terrain.A terrain that is reached by a narrow gorge and from which it exits via winding trails, which allows a small enemy detachment to break into my own, more important forces, is called “fenced” terrain. A terrain in which an army cannot survive except by fighting desperately is called "deadly."
• For this reason I advise with: do not fight in dispersed terrain; don't stop in the border regions.
• Do not engage in combat with an enemy that occupies decisive terrain; In the field of communication, ensure that your formations do not separate.
• In convergence ground, join forces with neighboring States; on enemy ground, enter the bag.
• In difficult terrain, hurry up; on fenced ground, he invents stratagems; in deadly ground, combat.
• In dispersal terrain, I would unify the army into a single block, firmly strengthened.
• On border terrain, I would keep my forces closely related.
• On decisive ground, I would mobilize my rear.
• In the field of communication, I would pay great attention to my defense system.
• In convergence ground, it would strengthen my alliances.
• When the enemy's forces are dispersed, it prevents them from regrouping; if they are concentrated, mess them up.
• Take care of the feeding of the troops; do not impose useless tasks on them. It works in such a way that they are animated by a spirit and that their forces remain intact. Regarding the movements of the army, establish plans that the enemy cannot know.
• Prohibits superstitious practices, thus freeing the army from doubt. Then there will be no difficulty in this regard until the hour of death.
• Give rewards regardless of what is customary; issues orders without regard to precedents. In this way you can use the entire army as if it were a single man.
• Keep troops busy without communicating your plans; use them to gain an advantage without revealing the dangers faced. If you put them in a dangerous situation, they will escape; if you take them to mortal ground, they will survive. Since, when the army is in such situations, it can pluck victory from defeat.
• If the enemy offers an opportunity, take advantage of it quickly. Get ahead by seizing something that is valuable to you and take action on a secret date.
• Military doctrine teaches that you have to closely monitor the enemy's military situation to make decisions during battle.
• For this reason you have to be, at first, shy as a virgin. When the enemy makes a mistake, you must be quick as a hare, and he will be unable to resist.
THE ATTACK WITH FIRE
• There are five methods for attacking with fire. The first consists of burning people, the second, burning the warehouses, the third, burning the equipment, the fourth, burning the arsenals, the fifth, using incendiary projectiles.
• To use fire you have to use certain means. "Use traitors who are in the ranks of the enemy" "all fire attacks depend on atmospheric conditions".
• Incendiary material must always be ready.
• In the event of a fire attack, it is necessary to adapt to changing circumstances.
• When the fire starts in the enemy field, immediately coordinate all external operations, but if your troops remain calm, be patient and do not attack.
• If you can start fires outside the enemy camp, you don't have to wait for them to break out inside. It causes fires at the right time.
• When the fire is blown by the wind, do not attack the wind.
• Those who use fire to support their attacks have intelligence on their side; those who use floods, force.
• Water can isolate an enemy, but it cannot destroy your supplies or equipment.
• Do not act except in the interest of the State. If you are not in a position to succeed, do not turn to the army. If you are not in danger, don't fight.
• A sovereign cannot raise an army out of anger, nor can a general fight with grudges. For if it is possible for an irritated man to regain his serenity and for the one who suffers grievances to be cured, a state that has been annihilated cannot be remade, nor can the dead come back to life.
THE USE OF SECRET AGENTS
• The one who faces the enemy for many years to fight for victory in a decisive combat, but remains ignorant of the enemy's situation because he spares appointments, honors and a few hundred pieces of gold, is totally devoid of humanity. There is nothing general about such a man; it does not represent an aid to your sovereign; he does not own the triumph.
• Well, if the wise prince and the expert general defeat the enemy every time they take action, if their exploits go out of the ordinary, it is thanks to the previous information.
• What has been mentioned as previous information cannot be obtained from spirits, nor from divinities, neither by similarity with past events, nor from calculations. It is necessary to achieve this with men who find out the enemy's situation.
• Five classes of secret agents that can be used are listed: Indigenous, Interior, Double, Disposable, and Floating agents.
• When these five types of agents are acting at the same time without anyone knowing their procedures, they are called "the divine network" and constitute the most valuable treasure of a sovereign.
• Indigenous agents come from the enemy country.
• Internal agents are enemy officials employed by us.
• Double agents are enemy spies used by us.
• Disposable agents are those of our spies to whom we deliberately provide false information. “We let out information that is really false and we do it in such a way that our agents know it. When these, operating in enemy territory are captured, they will surely offer these false information. The enemy will give them credit and prepare accordingly, but naturally we will act very differently and the enemy will kill the spies.
• Living agents are those who report information.
• Whoever is not shrewd and prudent, human and just, will not be able to use the secret agents and whoever is not fine and subtle will not be able to get the truth out of them.
• It is essential to discover the agents of the enemy who come to spy on you and bribe them, so that they come to your service. Give them instructions and take care of them. This is the way to recruit and use double agents.
• Through double agents, indigenous and internal agents can be recruited and employed.
• “An army without secret agents is like a man without eyes and without ears.”
The art of strategic thinking
In business as in war, the objective of the strategy is to put in our favor the most favorable conditions, judging the precise moment to attack or retreat and always correctly evaluating the limits of combat.
The human brain that is the tool that we are going to use in the process is not based on linear thinking; The recipe for success in executing the strategy is to combine the analytical method with mental flexibility to accept that the logic of the strategy is paradoxical.
If we accept that analysis is the indispensable requirement to think strategically, when the strategic thinker faces a problem, a tendency, a situation or events that seem to constitute a harmonious whole or that seem to be perfectly grouped, the first thing he does is decompose that whole into its constituent parts. Then you begin to discover the meaning of each one of these parts to begin to regroup them in a calculated way in order to maximize opportunities for the benefit of your company's interests.
For the strategist, the most important thing is to locate and define the critical issue of the problem rather than discovering the solution. This means that the first step in strategic thinking is to determine what is the critical issue of the situation, that is, to get to the heart of the matter. And this will be a matter of positive attitude and method.
From the beginning you must do something that is very difficult: formulate the question of the problem in a way that facilitates the discovery of the solution. If understanding the critical issue of the problem is clear to all members of your team, creative solutions will emerge. If the problem is poorly defined or group members half understand it, minds will not work keenly and go astray. If you and your team are well trained and motivated to ask the right questions, your proposals will not be vague but practical and concrete.
Kenichi Ohmae, former director of Mckinsey & Co. In Japan and internationally renowned corporate strategist, recommends that strategists use a process of abstraction as a method; The first step in the abstraction process is to use brainstorming and opinion polls to regroup and particularize the aspects in which the company is at a disadvantage compared to its competitors. The next step is to classify these aspects according to their common factors into related sub-groups.
Once the abstraction process is complete, we must then decide on the appropriate approach to find the solution. Strategy is good only if the tactic is successful.
The strategy is an abstract plan that must be converted into an action plan and this cannot materialize overnight.
The strategy is not conceived for static scenarios where competitors do not react or where discontinuities do not exist. If so, the strategy would be a purely administrative matter.
Download the original file
