Leadership and Strategy of Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu was born in the Chinese state of Ch'i during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history and is believed to have authored The Art of War sometime during the fourth century B.C.E. Many great Chinese philosophers lived during this time including Confucius, Mencius, and Lao Tzu. Charles Rarick explains in SAM Advanced Management Journal that the legend is that Sun Tzu's manuscript attracted the attention of King Ho-lu of Wu, who requested an audience with the author. After demonstrating his military arts, Sun Tzu gained the King's favor and began to establish himself as a great military strategist (Rarick, 38).

According to Sun Tzu, five laws of leadership are:

Intelligence: In Chapter 1, Tzu writes, "Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes too few calculations beforehand. Thus, doing many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat. In modern parlance, this idea could be seen as suggesting that success requires managers to pay attention to the big picture but never to forget the importance of the details. In Chapter 5, Tzu states, "The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim." This could be interpreted to mean the quality, and timing and speed of management decis

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Category: Foreign - L