THE CHINESE ART OF BUSINESS

The Application of Sun Tzu's Art of War in the Marketplace. 

The 2,500 year old art of war treatise has become the most popular business book worldwide. Why is it transferable from the battlefield to the marketplace? Sun Tzu's Art of War is about winning through the understanding of human relationship, rather than having the troops go at each other.

The Five Essential Elements of Winning:

1. TAO: moral standing, ethics, righteousness.
2. TIEN: timing.
3. DI: geographic conditions, assets and liabilities
4. JIAN: leadership
5. FA: execution of plan.

Strategic thinking is about how your products, team, customers, and your suppliers' relationships interweave into the Five Elements:

1. TAO: the product and the company culture need to be in line with Tao; righteousness. Without Tao, a short-term profit is attainable, but long-term success is not possible.

2. TIEN: the timing of your products and your marketing strategy needs to be in line with the social timing and the universal timing.

3. DI: how you utilize your company's assets and liabilities, including how each individual understands the turning of his/her liabilities into assets by relating them to everyday work and accelerating the quality of one's life.

4. JIAN: how your leaders relate to their staff, customers and suppliers according to the following five qualities: wisdom, trustworthiness, benevolence, courage and discipline.

5. FA: an effective executive’s actions will result in keeping the revenue coming in rapidly. Sun Tzu practiced swift victory through "Eat what you kill" and "Reward results".

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