Militaryprinciplesofchineseorigin

toimprovecompetitivenes
Li Shan Florence, Ling Yean Yng George, Ofori Low Sui Pheng
National University of National University of National University of National University of
Singapore, Singapore Singapore, Singapore Singapore, Singapore Singapore, Singapore
g0600055@nus.edu.sg bdglyy@nus.edu.sg bdgofori@nus.edu.sg bdglowsp@nus.edu.sg

an old but still significant topic is that managers need to understand how to
improve competitiveness. This paper describes the contributions of the
Chinese military principles to enhance firm’s competitiveness. The re-
search method used in this paper is literature review. The contributions
obtained through four steps. First is to identify traditional Chinese mili-
tary principles. Secondly, Sun Tzu’s Art of War was identified by making
a comparison among seven Chinese military principles. Thirdly, Sun
Tzu’s Art of War was reviewed and its relevance to business competi-

Keywords tiveness was identified. Finally, a brief comparison between Sun Tzu’s
principle and Porter’s strategy for competitiveness is made. At last, this
Chinese military strategy, the
paper suggests that swiftness, adaptability and intelligence are useful
Art of War, competitiveness
principles for operating in China.

INTRODUCTION vestigated. Finally, a brief comparison

between Sun Tzu’s military principle
The growth of China’s economy and and Porter’s (1980) general strategy
paralleling that, its construction mar- for competitiveness was made. The
ket, and the improved performance of purpose of this paper is to identify use-
Chinese construction firms in interna- ful military principles that can be used
tional market make the study of Chi- in business competition in China.
nese firms’ competitiveness a worth-
while endeavor. The aim of this paper
is to review the relevance of Chinese ChineseMilitaryPrinciples
military strategies in general, and Sun
Tzu’s Art of War in particular to improve In the western context, several re-
business competitiveness. To achieve searchers have suggested that mili-
this objective, four steps were adopt- tary strategies may be applied to
ed. Firstly, traditional Chinese military marketing in a highly competitive
principles were identified. Secondly, situation. Ries and Trout (1986) at-
a comparison among seven Chinese tempted to simplify and apply the
military principles was made and one basic propositions of military works
strategy, Sun Tzu’s Art of War was iden- to modern organizational theory and
tified as representative of Chinese mili- strategy in their famous publication,
tary principles. Thirdly, Sun Tzu’s Art of marketing warfare. Based on the be-
War was reviewed in detail and its rel- lief that classical military strategy of-
evance to business competition was in- fers guidelines for marketing strate-

l . s h a n · f . l . y . y n g · g . o f o r i · l . s . p h e n g · m i l i t a r y p r i n c i p l e s o f c h i n e s e o r i g i n t o i m p r o v e c o m p e t i t i v e n e s · pp 3-9 3
 gies, researchers (Parks et.al., 1994) ditional Chinese culture by many re- sics may be regarded as the essence of
identified the contribution of Clause- searchers (rectangle in dotted line in Chinese military knowledge.
witz, a famous military strategist in the right part of Figure 1). Principle of
western, to win market share. Though “Military strategist”, which is classi- The contents of seven military clas-
marketing-as warfare is a metaphor, it fied into “subjects” linking to practic- sics are briefly summarized based on
has dominated the way researchers in es, may be utilized as a tool to analyze the knowledge from “Wu Jing Qi Shu”
marketing and business strategy think management thinking and actions in- (Pian et al., 2007). “Six Secrete Strate-
about and discuss industry competi- fluenced by culture of “unity, harmony, gic Teachings” is the original source of
tion (Rindfleisch, 1996). peace, dialectic and systemic thinking the Chinese traditional military texts,
logic” (Li, 2006 and Yuan, 2008). The contributing much to later frameworks
In China, “military strategist” is one of contribution of “Military strategist” and systems of military strategies. “Art
nine components (rectangles in single could consist of principles and actions of War” deals with strategies to win a
dash line in figure 1) of the traditional influenced by collective-interests ori- war. “The methods of Ssu-ma” is main-
Chinese Culture based on which Chi- ented, harmony-oriented dialectic-led ly about institutions and regulations to
nese management forms (Li, 2008). Li ideas. manage the soldiers. “Wu Qi’s Wu-tzu”
(2008) and Yuan (2008) classified these covers attitude to war, attitude to na-
nine areas of knowledge into two cat- tional defence, approaches to manage
egories, i.e. “subjects” and “schools” SunTzu’sArtofWar army and principles of warfare. From
(rounded rectangles in Figure 1). the contents of the texts, Wu Tzu’s
Knowledge of “Military strategist” was “Wu Jing Qi Shu” is an authoritative work might be established upon some
compatible with those ‘schools’ since collection of ancient military litera- part of Sun Tzu’s Art of War (Li, 2006;
it is usually used as evidences to prove tures (Pian et al., 2007). It includes Li, 2008). “Wei Liao-tzu” focuses on
their respective points. seven military classics, viz. “Six Secret the forms and arrangements of the
These “schools”, focusing on main Strategic Teachings”, “The Methods army. “Three Strategies of Huang Shih-
ideas and philosophies, are more aca- of the Ssu-ma”, “the Art of War”, “Wei Kung”’s goal is to identify the source of
demic and ideological. The knowledge Liao Tzu”, “Wu-tzu”, “Three Strategies prosperity and downfall of the state.
from Confucianism, which plays a sig- of Huang Shih-kung”, and “Questions “Questions and Replies between T’ang
nificant role among these “schools”, and Replies between T’ang T’ai-tsung T’ai-tsung and Li Wei-Kung” involves
is summarized as essence of the tra- and Li Wei-Kung”. These seven clas- military knowledge of military institu-

Figure1:TraditionalChineseMilitaryPrinciples(source:authors)

4 o r g a n i z a t i o n , t e c h n o l o g y a n d m a n a g e m e n t i n c o n s t r u c t i o n · a n i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l · 1(1)2009
tion, regulation, training, frontier de-
fence, and command in war. According
to the standards of classifications pro-
posed by Li (2006), Sun Tzu’s Art of War
is of better maturity, more focused and
contains more complete knowledge
on strategy of war compared to other
works.
Sun Tzu’s Art of War was set up around
400 BC when conflicts between dif-
ferent parts in China were furious and
frequent. The Art of War consists of
thirteen chapters, in general, the first
three chapters, which are laying plans,
waging war and offensive strategy deal
with war (Li, 2008). While chapters 4 to
13 contain principles to win. The infor-
mation in these thirteen chapters do
overlap. The Art of War has been trans-
lated by many writers, and one of the
earliest ones is Griffith (1963).
One of the first questions asked about
a war is “Can a war be won by other
means than engaging in battle?” Sun
Tzu advocated “subdue the enemy
without even fighting”, since “war is a
matter of vital importance to the state”
and “it concerns the lives and deaths
of the people; and affects the survival
or demise of the state”. Sun Tzu out-
lind specific strategies to overcome
conflicts while viewing the world as a
complete and interdependent system
which must be preserved (Low and
Tan, 1995) Sun Tzu also believed that
there are indirect approaches to win-
ning without direct confrontation to
win. To obtain this, Sun Tzu proposes
“the highest form of generalship is to
attack the enemy’s strategy”, the next
best policy is to disrupt his alliances;
the next best is to attack his army”,
all of which can only be accomplished
through deliberated planning (Wee et
al., 1991).
The second question about war is
“what is used to assess whether vic-
tory has been achieved on the battle-
field?” The paramount purpose in war,
l . s h a n · f . l . y . y n g · g . o f o r i · l . s . p h e n g · m i l i t a r y p r i n c i p l e s o f c h i n e s e o r i g i n t o i m p r o v e c o m p e t i t i v e n e s · pp 3-9
according to Sun Tzu, is a complete shock and flexible forces are used to
victory which means “capture the en- the best advantage”.
emy’s cities without fierce assaults;
and destroy the enemy’s nation with- From the brief review of various Chinese
out protracted operations”. Sun Tzu military strategies, it suggests that Sun
emphasized “winning a battle and Tzu’s Art of War is by far the most com-
becoming stronger” and “conquering prehensive, and used as the foundation
those enemies that are easily con- for the development by other military
quered”. Since war consumes resourc- strategists. Based on Sun Tzu’s Art of
es, protracted war means more losses, War, victory may be achieved in three
thus “it is advantageous to go for swift ways: strengthening oneself, borrow-
victory”. Because war is vital to the na- ing strengths from alliance, and utiliz-
tion, “engaging only when it is in the ing errors done by the opponent. The
interest of the state; cease when it is principles to ensure a victory should
to its detriment”. It is suggested that cover both preparation for the war and
winning, from Sun Tzu’s war strategy, execution during the war.
is assessed by “cost”, “time” and “in-
terest”.
Applications ofSunTzu’s
The third related question is “What is ArtofWar
the resource of win?” Sun Tzu proposed
that: “With much calculations, one can There are a number of studies, in Chi-
win”; “what is essential in war is vic- nese, English and other languages,
tory rather than prolonged operations”; which applied Sun Tzu’s Art of War
“Knowing the enemy and know your- strategies to business and manage-
self, a hundred battles you will never ment environments. Sun Tzu’s princi-
be in peril”, “a victorious army wins its ples have been used to explain current
victories before seeking battle”; and phenomena by attempting to “trans-
“the elements of the art of war are mea- late” military principles into business
surement, estimation, calculations, approaches. The intention is to study
comparisons and chances of victory”. how the prescriptions of Sun Tzu may
be applied to management as well as
However, according to Sun Tzu, it is to draw parallels between the prin-
possible that “one may know how to ciples advocated by Sun Tzu and the
win, but is not necessary to do so” situation of top management. For ex-
because “in the tumult and uproar ample, Lee et al. (1998) devised busi-
the battle seems chaotic”, and “army ness management strategies using
may be liken to water which, has no Sun Tzu’s Art of War. The 13 chapters
constant form, and there are in war no of Sun Tzu’s Art of War were analyzed
constant conditions”. Therefore, Sun to identify the equivalent business
Tzu stated that “one able to gain the management strategies by using ques-
victory by modifying his tactics in ac- tionnaire survey. Hawkins and Rajago-
cordance with the enemy situation”, pal (2005) constructed a framework
“control of the factor of changing cir- integrating Sun Tzu’s strategies with
cumstances”, “speedy is the essence project life cycle context to show the
of war”, “change methods and make al- correlation between the various as-
terations so that people have no knowl- pects of military strategies and the
edge of what you are doing”, “alters his fundamental building blocks of project
camp-sites and marches by devious management. Though Sun Tzu’s prin-
routes, and thus make it impossible for ciples were linked with the methods of
others to anticipate his purpose, “it is executing projects, the authors opined
by proper use of the ground that both that waging war may be simpler than
5
 some of the challenges faced in real the study of marketing strategy. Each competition and is in a stable market
projects. terrain and ground is discussed in the structure, Porter (1980) proposed that
context of its relationship to customer the ‘winning’ firm is one that occupies
Foo and Grinyer (1995) compared Sun markets, and prescriptions for deal- a superior market position compared
Tzu’s Art of War and strategic planning ing with each situation are provided. to its competitors. Porter (1980) pro-
process. They investigated the extent, Results show that Sun Tzu’s typology posed that these generic strategies,
nature and success of strategic plan- is useful for marketing and relevant i.e. cost leadership, differentiation,
ning in large ASEAN companies and for today’s business manager as it and focus can provide companies with
found widespread adoption of regular, provides a heuristic system that is abilities to achieve competitive advan-
formal and analytical strategic planning parsimonious but still broad enough tages and outperform other compa-
which substantially reflected the basic to describe a diverse set of existing nies in their industry.
precepts of Sun Tzu. McNeilly (1996) phenomenon.
set up the framework for managers to The fist generic strategy is cost lead-
design strategies and achieve last- While both ancient Chinese military ership. Porter (1980) stated that
ing success by adopting six principles strategy and general business strategy charging the lowest prices, occupy-
from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. These are: may have a similar aim of beating the ing higher market share, or receiving
capturing the market without destroy- competitor, there are some differences. higher profits than the competitor can
ing it; avoiding competitor’s strength, Foo (2007) stated that knowledge of be obtained by the companies that
and attacking their weakness; us- Chinese cultures, psychology and soci- provide services at the lowest cost in
ing foreknowledge and deception to ology is needed to obtain a deeper un- the industry. Differentiation, the sec-
maximize the power of business intel- derstanding of Sun Tzu’s ideas, which ond generic strategy, is to strive for
ligence; using speed and preparation are sometimes presented in meta- uniqueness in the industry. Finally, the
to swiftly overcome the competition; phors. Therefore, it is easy to believe focus strategy is focusing on a particu-
using alliances and strategic control that many conflicts of using Sun Tzu’s lar market segment or a geographic
points in the industry to “shape” one’s work may result from the complex im- segment where it is about to services
opponents and making opponents con- plications of Chinese words which can customers better than full-line pro-
form to one’s will; and developing one’s lead to opposite viewpoints. Besides, ducer. In employing focus strategy,
character as a leader to maximize the the difference between ancient and companies have two options, cost fo-
potential of employees. modern time is also considerable. It cus and differentiation focus. Porter
is wise in using Sun Tzu’s knowledge (1980) also claimed that companies
Krause (1996) suggested using Sun carefully, appropriately and moderately should develop one of the three gener-
Tzu’s principles to achieve business in studying business strategies. ic strategies rather than combing them
success. The major business princi- to avoid being stuck-in-the-middle re-
ples are: learn to fight; show the way; The brief literature review above shows sulting in below average performance.
do it right; know the facts; expect the that many researchers have applied the
worst; seize the day; burn the bridge; military principles proposed by Sun Several researchers have questioned
do it better; pull together; and keep Tzu to business management. It shows the use of generic strategies. Johnson
competitors guessing. According to that Sun Tzu’s military principles may and Scholes (1993) stated that the pur-
Krause (1996), these ten principles be used for strategic management and suit of more than one generic strategy
are foundation for firms to be compet- strategy formulation in business. simultaneously is viable, and Miller
itive. Based on Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and Dess (1992) showed that firms
Tan et al. (1998) proposed that the var- adopting the hybrid theory do not face
ious types of battlegrounds identified ComparisonbetweenSun the situation Porter has described. In
in the Art of War may be classified into TzuandPorter’sstrategies real competition, most companies will
three strategic dimensions: the ease not admit that their product is essen-
of entry; reversibility; and fit. Seven In the western academic area of study- tially the same as that of others (Mac-
types of markets with specific char- ing competitiveness, Porter’s (1980) millan and Tampoe, 2000). Besides,
acteristics for small and medium en- generic strategy for competitiveness is Lynch (2003) argued generic strate-
terprises (SMEs) are identified based looked as one of those that are widely gies may not provide relevant strate-
on these dimensions. Macdonald and adopted and a ‘general rule’ for study- gic routes in the case of fast growing
Neupert (2005) applied Sun Tzu’s six ing a firm’s strategy (Ormandidhi and markets.
terrains and nine ground principles to Stringa, 2008). When a firm faces stiff In this section, a comparison is made

6 o r g a n i z a t i o n , t e c h n o l o g y a n d m a n a g e m e n t i n c o n s t r u c t i o n · a n i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l · 1(1)2009
between Sun Tzu’s Art of War and
Porter’s (1980) strategy, since they
are both dealing with competition. As
ideas of strategy, they have their own
inadequacies. The intention of compar-
ison is to identify the chances to make
a combination of them.
LongTermvsOne-off
Endeavor
Strategizing to help firms achieve com-
petitiveness based on Porter’s (1980)
framework is viewed as a long term
endeavor. However, Sun Tzu’s military
strategy is for a one-time transaction,
to win a war. The strategies set up to
obtain the long term goal will be fo-
cused, precise but might be general
and impractical one because it is dis-
tant. One-time transaction emphasizes
the effective of the strategies. Howev-
er, concentration of all forces and re-
source in confrontation, suggested by
Sun Tzu, may not sustain the survival
and development of firms in current
business context. Leading by the one-
time transaction strategy, people will
be motivated all the time, but might be
lost without long term goal.
EnvironmentalContext
Porter’s (1980) frameworks appear to
be based on the assumption that the
environment is predictable (Downes,
1998), while the Art of War was drafted
in an era of chaos and almost continu-
ous warring among different groups of
people. The environment Sun Tzu was
addressing was both predictable and
variable. These different attitudes to
environment lead to different strate-
gies. When the environment is believed
can be predicted, strategist can antici-
pate the behaviors of the firm and the
results of the behaviors based on their
previous experiences. Therefore, it is
reasonable that strategy to win can
be obtained by comprehensively col-
l . s h a n · f . l . y . y n g · g . o f o r i · l . s . p h e n g · m i l i t a r y p r i n c i p l e s o f c h i n e s e o r i g i n t o i m p r o v e c o m p e t i t i v e n e s · pp 3-9
lecting elements in establishing goals concurrently, and deviation of planned
and arranging actions. Strategists who strategies is part of execution.
believe environment is dynamic and
unpredictable but still can be counted The brief comparison suggests that
will also consider elements in real ex- Porter’s (1980) competitive strategies
ecution in strategy making by updat- may not be comprehensive enough.
ing, rearranging and redesigning both It appears that certain aspects of Sun
known and new information. There- Tzu’s military strategies could be incor-
fore, the strategies from Porter may fo- porated to help firms achieve greater
cus on well-structured analysis frame- competitiveness. It is expected that
work describing and proactive moves, the combination of them may serve
while moves to respond and react to firms that operate in a complex situa-
real conditions can be extracted from tion better, and help them to analyze
Sun Tzu’s strategies. the issues they face.
ContextofWinning ArtofWar’sUnique
Contributions
With the goal to achieve a decisive win,
Sun Tzu advocated avoidance of full-
scale confrontation to obtain peace In this section, some unique features
and harmony by detour, while Porter from the Art of War which are appli-
proposed front confrontation which cable to business competition are dis-
results in either win or loss. The Art of cussed.
War contains many alternative actions
to be taken after analyzing the situa-
tion in detail and responding to diffi- Swiftness
culties that had not been anticipated.
Leading by Sun Tzu’s understanding Sun Tzu stated that: “Speed is the es-
of wining, which is a complete and un- sence of war; capitalize on the unpre-
impaired one, win-win is the outcome paredness of the enemy; travel by the
that people are pursuing. Therefore, unexpected routes; and attack those
Sun Tzu advocated being alert to find places where he does not take precau-
other chances, being adaptable to ac- tions”.
cept the new chances, and being smart
to utilize chances. The above suggests the importance of
swiftness in execution. Once the plan
is formulated and agreed upon, it has
PlanningProcess to be executed swiftly so that it will not
be leaked to the rivals. Sun Tzu’s swift-
Both Porter (1980) and Sun Tzu em- ness strategy involves three aspects
phasized the importance of planning, (Wee, et.al., 1991): timing; synergy;
however they are different in equate and speedy. First, Sun Tzu stated that
panning to the approach to win. Porter “when the strike of the falcon breaks
(1980) suggested that “proper plan- the body of its prey, it is because of
ning process” works as the link be- correct timing”. Choosing a right time
tween thinking and implementing. This to enter the market to attack the rivals
has been criticized because thinking is prerequisite for swiftness. It is quite
and action are separated (Wit, 1997). similar as Kotler’s (1997) viewpoint that
In Sun Tzu’s Art of War however, the the implementation of firm’s strategy
strategies appear to cater to unstable should be swifter than its competitor,
and unexpected factors in operations shortening the whole time by speedy
7
 execution (Arditi et al. 1985). Second, have been made for firms to create CONCLUSION
Sun Tzu’s statement that “when torren- flatter and broader adaptive struc-
tial water pushes boulders, it is because tures. Establishment of an adaptive In the western context, it is not a new
of its momentum” suggests synergy of culture helps to reduce employees’ concept to apply military strategy into
diverse actions to overwhelm the com- resistance to changes (Sun and Alas, business area. The literature review
petitor leaves no time for rivals to think, 2007). In addition, during the change suggests that among the different
respond and develop effective defense. process, strong supports from top Chinese military strategies, Sun Tzu’s
Construction firm obtaining innovative management, communication and Art of War is the one that has much
products and processes through active commitments among employees, as relevance to business competition.
collaboration (Hastak et al., 1993) is an well as compensation and incentive Porter’s (1980) generic strategies on
example of this. Third, Sun Tzu assert- system to facilitate changes are neces- competitiveness appear to be one of
ed that: “when victory is long delayed, sary to bring about change (Price and those are widely adopted in the west-
the ardor and morale of the army will be Chahal, 2006). ern. Comparisons were made between
depressed. When the siege of a city is these two strategies. One of Sun Tzu’s
prolonged, the army will be exhausted. most important war strategies is to
When the army engages in protracted obtain victory by avoiding direct con-
MarketIntelligence
campaigns, the resources of the state flict, while, strategy for competitive-
will be impoverished.” This third situ- According to Sun Tzu, fore-knowledge, ness, as posited by Porter suggests a
ation of “swiftness” related to being full and frontal attack of the rival. The
which can be obtained by systematic
“speedy” in execution. In the construc- Art of War has other useful elements
intelligence, is important to achieve
tion context, it related to completing a can may help western firms to achieve
victory. Sun Tzu’s emphasis on intel-
project within the shortest time. competitiveness when operating in
ligence can be shown in these state-
China’s construction market. These
ments: “one must not enter into any
are: swiftness, adaptability and intel-
alliance with the rulers of neighboring
Adaptability states without knowing their military
ligence. In future studies, research will
be conducted to ascertain the extent
motives and designs. On must not
While Sun Tzu advocated swiftness in to which western firms adopt some Art
move troops without being familiar
execution, he forbad blind assault and of War principles in their construction
with the conditions of mountains, for-
instead advocated adaptability. Sun business in China.
ests, passes, swamps, marshes, and
Tzu’s adaptation strategy is shown in
so on. This foreknowledge can be elic-
his principle: “Just as water shapes it-
ited from obtained from men who have
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