Chapter 1 Part II

Have been doing a lot of reading, have been reading Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy and also the former CEO of IBM, Louis V. Gerstner Who says elephants can’t dance? (For those who have read my other blog would know why I am reading two books at a time.) Both of these books are excellent so I would really recommend anyone who is interested in venturing into business to read these books. I am halfway through and I hope I will have time to put my thoughts on these books in this blog, as well.

Ok, I shall talk more about the first three areas of the 7 sub areas I was talking about in my previous blog.

1) Unity: Employer or top management ability to unite the company or department behind a vision or to achieve certain goals

As the heading says, political leadership in war is equivalent to the ability of the top management of the company to unite behind certain goals and vision.
Easier said than done? Sure but I think there are certain guidelines we can follow, first of all, the idea and purpose of the goals and vision should be made as clear as possible to the whole company. How do you do that? Quite easy, in my opinion, involve the whole company in crafting the goals and painting the vision. For those of you who has seen the recent episode of Apprentice 3, in the graffiti competition, the leader of Magna Corp, was able to consult some of the kids from the street to provide some input to the graffiti that they were painting. In the end, because the focus group that determines the winner was able to identify with the graffiti, (the kids and the focus group came from the same neighborhood), the Magna Corp won the competition.

For those of you from big companies, it is definitely very difficult to involve the whole company. So the top management could decide some macro goals and vision, pass it down to the middle management and get them to craft out the goals of their department according to the goals or vision crafted by the top management and so on. What is important is the whole company can relate to the macro goals and vision painted by the top management.

Another important factor is the hiring process. Michael Dell, from Dell Computers stresses that it is important to hire people who is completely in sync with the company’s philosophy and objectives. This person’s thinking must be compatible with company’s value and belief. (Pls read Direct From Dell by Michael Dell).

2) Capability of Generals: Capability of Manager or Team Leader (Leadership)

This is more straightforward than the previous sub-area. This is one area that is quite important in my opinion. The reason why I say that is because firstly, a good leader would have been able to unite and command the respect of his army and people of the nation. A wise general would not be leading his army to attack when weather conditions are bad or terrain is unfavorable. Even if he is forced to do so, his wisdom (one of the characteristics for mentioned comparison) would be able make his troops avoid engaging his enemies or turn disadvantages into advantages. Good generals would be able to create a strong organization structure and control in his army through the other four characteristic mentioned for comparison.

The five capabilities that are advocated by Sun Zi are Wisdom, Benevolence, Courage, Discipline and Trustworthiness. Just these five characteristics are definitely not and exhaustive list of the characteristic of a good leader, but in my opinion these five are the most important so that an army, or in business, the project team or department to function properly. And from these five words, there are a lot of things to look out for, which I shall not write here or I would be writing a whole chapter. For those who are interested in discussing the five characteristics can drop me a mail. I would love to discuss such works with like-minded people.

3) Advantage of provided by Weather and Terrain: Different Aspects of Market like the culture of people, government set rules and regulation

This is something that is not straightforward, not a lot of people can relate from weather and terrain with respect to which area of business. After reading some books and some thoughts, I would like many to take note of the difference.

For weather, we know that in war, the advantages and disadvantages presented by it can be tremendous and influence is wide ranging. It is one of the factors that we cannot control at all. For business, these could be the trends that are happening in the broad industry. Like certain consumer trends, e.g. Consumers are going for healthier food. Grey-ing market, Current Technology is going the convergent route and so on.

So what about terrain? Well after much thought I think it can be comparable to the market you are battling or catering to. Depending on the market and your strategic focus, the barriers of entry and exit are determined. If you have looked through Sun Zi Art of War, you would have known that when Sun Zi mentioned about terrain, it is most of the time, how easy or difficult one can enter the terrain. For a comprehensive list of barriers of entry or exit, I would recommend Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy which I am still reading.

So there you have it, very long, but I thoroughly enjoy writing these out for all those out there to help in your business. This is just a very short summary of the thoughts I have on Sun Zi Art of War. If you want more info, just drop me an email, I will contact you asap.

And also I am interested in meeting more people who share the same interest as me, so drop me a mail!

Cheers!