Summary of
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Book Summary
Overview
Chapters on Position
Chapters on Expansion
Chapters on Situations
Chapters on Position
This part of the book explains the basic components of the
competitive world and how they work. It provides the basic framework for
comparing the strengths and weakness of competing strategic positions. The
concepts in these chapters are also briefly explained on our page on
positional strategy.
The first chapter, "Planning," explores the five key elements that define
competitive position (mission, climate, ground, leadership, and methods) and
how to evaluate your competitive strengths against those of your competition. This
discussion ends with the idea that information in a competitive environment is
limited and that perceptions are often very different from reality. This
difference between objective and subjective information is one of the principle
leverage points for the working of his strategic system.
Chapter 2, "Going to War," defines the economic nature of competition.
It explains how
success requires making winning pay, which in turn requires limiting the cost
of competition and conflict. This chapter is critical to understanding why Sun
Tzu teaches "winning without conflict." By definition, conflict is expensive.
Beating opponents and winning battles may satisfy the ego, but Sun Tzu considers
that goal a foolish one.
The final chapter, "Using Spies," focuses on the
most important topic of all: information gathering. It specifically discusses the value
and methods of developing good information
sources, specifically the five types of sources you need and the way you must
manage them. In this final chapter, Sun Tzu makes it clear that all wars
are, at their heart, information wars.
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