Art of War
- The Next Chapter
- Jun 29, 2020
- 2 min read
Book Review by Hirak Raval
Recently I read "The art of War" from Chinese author Sun Tzu. The book is written 2500 years ago about military strategy and it is really very interesting. The first question comes to our mind is how understanding military strategy helpful to anyone? So, the answer is Yes it is helpful for people who are in competitive start up business or at a strategic positions of any company. This book has 13 chapters and each chapter gives one learning which is very useful in this competitive world.
Chapter-1 : Laying Plans – Think carefully before engaging resources , Have Vision and Focus on defined goals. Make your opponent blind to your true state to gain advantage and avoid conflicts at initial level
Chapter 2: Waging Wars- Use of right resources for right job. Using money and Human resource wisely as they are finite resources.
Chapter-3: Attack by stratagem- This chapter gives direction about when to fight and when not to. It is giving clarity on importance of self-awareness and knowing opponent. I like the quote “ If you know enemy and yourself, You need not to fear of result of war”
Chapter 4: Tactical disposition- Being Patient and Being Smart is the key for success.
Chapter 5: Use of Energy – Conserve energy for right moment in right way
Chapter 6: Weak Points and Strong – Avoid What is Strong and Attack what is weak. Maintain Secret to success in your plan
Chapter 7: Maneuvering- Knowing strength of team and pushing them to the extent so that internal clash can be avoided. Force must listen to general if they don’t than it will be chaos.
Chapter 8: Variation of tactics- Reason of failure of team is dependent on General (Manager). 5 most common mistakes of Generals are described in this chapter that are Being reckless, Being Coward, Hasty Temper, Too high standards and Excessive compulsions
Chapter 9/10/11: Importance of discipline in team, importance of Situational leadership, Knowing the grounds and ways to tackle.
Chapter 12: Attack by Fire- Importance of strategy to win with available resources, sometimes strategies are made which are not feasible with available resources and it is guarantee for failure.
Chapter 13: Use of Spies- Knowing insights of situation and opponent through different types of spies i.e Local spies, Internal Spies, Double agents, Doomed spies & Live spies.
Ultimately Author has taught real strategies to win the battle and use of right resources with right attitude in any conditions. We can easily relate it to our day to day professional life for industrial learnings, Job interview, Successful execution of strategies.
Similar books of same genres are The six secret teaching on the way of Strategy(Jiyang Ziya), The 48 laws of Power(Robert Greene), The book of five Rings(Miyamoto Mushashi). I would like to rate book 4/5 for Strategist and future Leaders.
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