Small Business Advice & Practical Help

Art of War in Business : Chapter Two from The Art of War : Waging War.

“Therefore, in war, swift victory is valued, prolongation is devalued.“as Translated by Victor H Mair*1.

In Chapter One from The Art of War : Initial Assessment (strategies) we learned that you must start with a strategy.  Now we say Swift Victory?!  Read more »

Art of War in Business : Chapter One from The Art of War : Initial Assessments (Strategy).

“Warfare is a great affair of the state.  The field of life and death, the way or preservation and extinction.  It cannot be left unexamined” as Translated by Victor H Mair*1. Read more »

Sun Tzu or Sun Zi (depending on translator) was the author of what is now called The Art of War written between 345 and 272 BC.  I love this book.  If you study it and understand the principles they can be applied to almost any endeavor.  Over the course of my life I’ve used the principles in The Art of War for playing chess, football, trail running, competitive orienteering, Texas Hold Em and all manner of business.  Business is a form of warfare.

To me this is so basic.  A foundation which all other thoughts about Business Strategy and Tactics originate from.  Many people are using aspects of The Art of War without knowing it!   They do not understand the basics of the the strategies they employ.  This means that you can defeat them in business with superior strategy and tactics.   Over the next few months we will articulate how and why.

Please feel free to join the conversation.  Add your thoughts, ask questions, dispute examples.  I defy you to prove that The Art of War does not apply to modern business.

To paraphrase Sun Tzu: “A CEO must be informed about all five of these factors*, but only he who truly understand them will be victorious, while those who fail to understand them will be defeated.”

In modern business terms the five factors are a type of SWOT model or PEST analysis.

1. Moral Influence = Organizational Moral and belief in Mission
2. Weather = “Outside Forces” as found in a PEST Analysis
3. Terrain = Marketplace, think of the 4 Ps.
4. Commander = Management structure / leadership
5. Doctrine = Principles

In our next installment we will expand on these concepts and also introduce the basic format that we shall be following.

You have this great idea blast in from left field and BOOM you’re off and running.  Sound like you or not?  If not, great!  If so let me tell you why following your gut alone is never a great idea…

True innovation is iterative and never a Eureka moment, it just feels that way.  Hunches or intuition are the cornerstone of every entrepreneur’s start or next great idea.  They are critical to success.  Just don’t trust them. Be honest with yourself for 30 seconds.  Aren’t hunches like penny stocks?  Sure, one might hit big, but 99 fall by the wayside.  Meanwhile your organization is suffering from whiplash.  They become big idea immune, trying to wait it out until the next big idea.  To read more about the value of hunches and why Steven Johnson asserts they are long-term forming click here.  To be successful in making quality Business Decisions you need to employ both Rocket Science and Decision Making Framework(s).  There are many type of Decision Making Frameworks.  Some are fairly specialized or task specific and should be used more or less for their expressed purposes, such as an Activity Based Cost tool.  Others, such as as SWOT Analysis are fairly commonly known if not applied.  We will quickly walk through some of the more popular tools and when and why to use them. Read more »

Ok, Social Experiment.  I stumbled across Love a Local Business late in the game!  This is a great marketing tool from Intuit (Quickbooks).  Local businesses register and compete for grants up to $30,000.  They use Social Media to promote themselves and solicit  feedback as to why people love them!

It’s fun with  payoff!    Being a slightly competitive type I decided to enter the fray even though I have no realistic chance of winning because of time constraints.  There are a couple of different ways to vote.  First is through a Map Interface (click through box below) where you find and click on a Business local to you to vote.  The interface is a bit clumsy and awkward.  I was going to vote for a great local business that I visit traveling but the map brought me to my own backyard (scary).

Next is the SMS interface. Pretty simple. You text PhxStrat to 244326 — they ask you for your name, any ole name will do; and then why you love the business! Try it! If you read my posts you already know how fun, creative, inciteful, oops, insightful I am Or read the excerpt of my One Pager (below) for some ideas. You can keep it short. Read more »

Creativity, says Steven Johnson, is fostered by the collisions of people’s hunches (forming ideas) that then build into stronger and stronger hunches which lead eventually to a breakthrough idea.  He asserts that in  days gone by that the very Spaces were people met (salons, coffee shops, and all the Royal Societies of England) and exchanged ideas were critical for the advancement of technologies, politics, social advancements and the like.  It is an interesting idea.  Being hyper creative I both agree and disagree with Mr. Johnson’s premise.

What I can tell you though, from many personal experiences, is that Mr. Johnson is dead on when it comes to Business Creativity.  Certainly we all have had the experience of working with a team that was just kicking ass!  One idea building off of another into something truly special.  It is what all companies strive for.   But, in today’s virtual world, is it even possible to get teams together in one place?  If you get them together can you keep them focused?  Interacting with each other?  Or are they doing e-mail or surfing their Droids?  So if it is difficult to get people to meet together in the same room how can we do it online? Read more »