Chapter 1: Part VIII - Strike where Rival Least Expect

攻其不备，出其不意

Sun Zi said to attack places where your enemy is not well prepared or least expects an attack. It is not difficult to know the reason behind for saying such a statement. Only by attacking in such places would you have a greater chance of victory and at smaller costs because these are the places that have the least resistance.

BUSINESS APPLICATION (1): If you are a small business owner and fretting about the competition from big businesses or corporate. Why not look at how the big companies carry out their businesses. Ask their customers how they find the big companies’ services. Find the weaknesses in their services. This is the place where you can ‘attack’ and provide better services. For all you know, it may be because of the size of these big companies which is why such weaknesses appear. This is where you can actually work together with big companies to provide a more comprehensive service to customers, carving a niche for yourself.

LIFE AND BUSINESS APPLICATION (2): Remember in the first section of the commentary, where we say that initial planning and assessment are of vital importance. Looking from another point of view for this section’s header, have you overlook anything that you have planned recently, is there anything you have left out of your consideration in your initial planning? In this world of fast changing environment, some details that you once considered to be obsolete and some new details that require your attention could surface. Please note that the more details you look at and consider, the less chance that a crisis may hit you where you least expected. So the more details you expect, the more prepared you are. To quote from Rudolph W. Giuliani, PREPARE RELENTLESSLY.

Chapter 1: Part VII - Deception

兵者，诡道也。

Sun Zi mentioned that deception is also part of war. The reason is, as Sun Zi mentioned in the first line of the chapter, war can determine the survival of the nation and its people. So it is of great importance to gain as much advantages over the enemies as possible. Deception would be able to achieve that. Thus the wisdom of the generals comes into play. He must be able to execute his deception well so that the enemy will be completely taken into it and gain advantages or attack the enemies where he least expect it. Note that your enemies can also use deception on you as well.

From my opinion, the deciding factor whether a deception is well executed is the wisdom of the general. Wise generals would be able to come up with a fool proof plan, avoid being deceived by enemies and change his plan accordingly when the enemies are not deceived at all.

BUSINESS APPLICATION: In business, deceptions can also be used but I am not going to go into that. But what we can use here for business is the word ‘secrecy’. As we all know, corporate strategies must be kept secret in order to reap the full benefits after execution of it. If these strategies are leaked out, your business rivals would be able to at least prevent damage or in a worse case scenario, come up with a counter strategy and all your effort would be loss.

With the proliferation of computers and internet, companies should have a computer security policy that employees strongly adhere to. All employees should be informed of any breach of security and how the breach is made as well so precautions can be set up ASAP.

There used to be a study where most of the breach actually comes from employees. They are unknowing victims of corporate spies, providing them passwords that they can use. (Cannot remember where I read it though).

So secrecy and security is very impt to a company, please take note of it.