What Can We Learn from Sun-Tzu's art of War? China's Ancient Military Strategy vs. Modern Business Strategy

Abstract

In this paper, I attempted to address the problems inherent in modem business strategy

by drawing insights from an unconventional source of strategy paradigm, the oldest and very

highly revered book on military strategy, Sun-Ws Art of War. The issues I examined are

universality of strategy, conflict resolution in a game-like situation, and "real problems" of

strategy implementation. I made a systematic comparison of modem business strategy and

Sun-Ws prindples, and identifled similarities and differences between the two in the areas of

strategy formulation and implementation. From this comparative analysis, I derived a number

of implications that are expected to contribute to overcoming the defldendes of modem

business strategy, thereby laying the foundation for developing a concept of strategy that has

universal validity.