Think Wits Win: How to Use Sun Zi's Art of War for Success

Why is Sun Zi’s Art of War still studied all over the world today? It’s because many great words of wisdom lie between its pages — ideas that are applicable in our business world today.

This book focuses on the power behind Sun Zi’s written word and his thoughts on dialectical thinking and ambidextrous strategic leadership. Centuries ago, these helped Sun Zi transform a weak army into a formidable force and he continuously achieved victory in an era of great Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA). Among the areas of warfare he studied and wrote about were leadership, strategy, terrain (地, Dì) and the weather (天, Tian).

In the VUCA marketplace of today, it also takes holistic and systemic approaches like dialectical thinking and ambidextrous leadership to make a difference. And just like the leaders of old, business leaders today also have to understand leadership, “terrain” i.e markets and industries, the “weather” i.e. trends and patterns of change, and more.

The author, who has years of experience as a corporate warrior in companies such as Hewlett-Packard and 3Com Technologies, shows how Sun Zi’s principles can help leaders learn about strategic capabilities, intelligence-gathering, being a first mover, rallying the troops and the use of deception — essentially, how to win without engaging in costly battles.

He also adds to the book numerous examples and analyses of the business strategies of companies, including Apple, HP and OSIM, which will interest the general reader, as well as diagrams and charts that will be particularly useful to business leaders.