Business 101 -The Art Of War

By Becky Sheetz

Project strategic superiority. Often a required read for business in college or required by an employer, The Art of War by Sun Tzu remains one of the most influential books of all time. Becky Sheetz, author and corporate trainer specializing in Sun Tzu’s strategies covers core principles offering the original text plus a breakdown of the business and management use of that principle within Sun Tzu's essentials for victory. Organized graphically for easy access and retention in 6 handy laminated pages, this guide can be used throughout school and your career when you want that extra edge for success. 
6 page laminated guide includes:

• About Sun Tzu
• About the Art of War
• Why it Matters
• Sun Tzu's 5 Essentials for Victory
• He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight
• He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces
• He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout its ranks
• He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared
• He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign
• Sun Tzu's Key Principles
• ​Sun Tzu for Small Business
• Notable Sun Tzu Passages

Suggested uses:
• Students/Teachers – inexpensive reference for any business student for principles everyone should know (since your competition will be using them against you)
• Personal – knowing these principles is a must and can be a strategy in itself that shows a deeper knowledge of business as it relates to people and organizations

• Language: English
• Publisher: BarCharts, Inc.
• Release date: May 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781423237495

Book preview

About Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu is best known as the author of The Art of War. His given name was Sun Wu. He was a contem­porary of Confucius and lived during a tumultuous time in China.

He is believed to have lived from 544 to 496 BC, near the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. During this time, China had more than 150 states continually competing for power. They battled until ultimately only 13 major states were left. One of those was the state of Wu.

Sun Tzu was fortunate to be born into a noble clan. A prodigy, he had the opportunity to study military theory and travel to the state of Wu as it was growing in military prominence. Impressed with the warrior, the king of Wu chose Sun Tzu to head troop discipline and to assist General Wu Zixu in their efforts to expand.

Wu’s number one rival was the superpower state of Chu. The principles and strategies utilized during these years of battle are at the center of The Art of War.

To battle this much-stronger adversary, Wu split its armies into three parts and conducted hit-and-run attacks over a period of five years.

They leveraged this strategy instead of a direct force-on-force plan that would have resulted in great loss of life and resource, and most certainly the loss of Wu.

This strategy wore down and angered the superpower, causing them to make mistakes. Chu experi­enced great losses. Then, in the sixth year, Wu launched a decisive assault and took Ying, Chu’s capital.

About The Art of War

Despite its age, or perhaps because of it, The Art of War is the authoritative military and political guide in the Far East. It has become a prominent work in military, political, and business settings all over the world.

The Art of War was translated into French in 1772, and the first complete and annotated English translation was published by Lionel Giles in 1910. It is the Giles translation that we will primarily rely upon here, though we will also use some others when they better illustrate key themes.

The Art of War is required reading in many business schools and military institutions, and essential reading for business leaders. While it’s a concise text of only about 7,000 words, its contents are dense and its applications many.

This guide explores the business applications of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War; it reviews some of