The Art of War for Business 2

Sun Tzu said:

"Warfare is the Tao of deception. Thus although you are capable, display incapability to them. When committed to employing your forces, feign inactivity. When your objective is nearby, make it appear as if distant; when far away, create the illusion of being nearby."

"Display profits to entice them. Create disorder in their forces and take them."

In business, as in warfare companies spend a lot of time, officially or not, thinking about what the other guy is doing. As with the first post interpreting Sun Tzu, the key to getting ahead lies in how we manage our affairs. If you are a small company, and your competitor is big - does it not make sense to appear just as big and capable as they are? If you want to enter a market and compete with an established rival, does it not make sense to appear as if you had been in that new business for a long time. Some of the modern word equivalents for what Sun Tzu is talking about can be applied to simple things like "brand name" or "goodwill" .

"If XYZ Corp makes that, then it must be good."

There is nothing stopping your company from outperforming a larger "better" (bigger bankroll, longer tradition) company when you can appear as if you have all the advantages in your corner.

When it comes to tactical moves, such as which real estate to buy or which market to saturate, again as I mentioned it is more important to make sure the other guy can't beat you to the deal or realize your full plan in advance. It may seem like extra effort to plan out how your strategy/tactics will fair against an opponent, but in these difficult times it is more important than ever that you economize resources and maximize planning to make sure you succeed. Unless you are favoured to get a bailout, and those companies have more than demonstrated they are not worth saving, then you must plan ahead and plan hard for your company's survival as well.