The Art of War for Managers

“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on”.

Today’s strategic environment, whether government or corporate, is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) often times characterized by “wicked problems” or unsolvable problems. Compiled during the early 19th century, Clausewitz’s manuscript “On War” arguably posited the same conclusion in relation to the strategic level of war. He described war as uncertain, unpredictable, and marked by chance. The more the scale moved from the tactical realm to the strategic realm, the more complex war became due to the aforementioned variables. Society today must contend with the impacts of globalization, which has led to significant changes in economic, social, and cultural norms. These changes have resulted in compressed timelines and reduced decision space. With so much information available, the risk of information overload has presented challenges to how individuals approach problem solving. As a result, society has become over reliant on what Guy Claxton defines as deliberate mode (d-mode), “a way of knowing that relies on reason and logic.” (Claxton, p2)

The Art of War in the 17th and 18th Centuries is a history course book whose author's are United States Military Academy history instructors Lieutenant Colonel Dave Richard Palmer and Major Albert Sidney Britt III. The textbook gives an insight into the military tactics and the political reasons when they were brought about in the 17th and 18th centuries. The text was published in West Point, New York in 1969. The book contains 9 chapters and 185 pages. There is no additional information on the authors.

The concept of war as a static and unchanging occurrence is an outdated and dangerous miscalculation. More accurately, war is a fluidic, evolving and shifting phenomenon constantly reinventing itself, rendering stagnant, inflexible principles potentially disastrous. Consequently, as students of war and future players in this transforming theatre, the study of eras of significant development is an extremely relevant pursuit. Recognizing the need for adaptation and the creation of doctrine is now a prerequisite for any effective modern commander. War is unpredictable in nature and particularly so in current theatres of operation, in which change is rapid

Sun Zi’s Art of War was written by Sun Wu since 2500 years ago. In Sun Zi’s Art of War, chapter 4 there is a military formation or strategy used by the generals that is those who are skillful in warfare can ensure that they will not be defeated by the enemy, but will not be able to ensure victory over the enemy. This mean that people who had been trained for long time and become an expert with full knowledge or skill in that field then it will help them to protect themselves not be defeated by the competitors in any time, this only can help them stay in an invincible position but not to take over the place of competitors. Therefore, it said that one you may know how to win but not necessarily to win the competitors. In the past, the strategy

Clausewitz’s attack of enemy centers of gravity and Sun Tzu’s prioritization of attack of important elements of national power provide contrasting approaches to the development of effective strategy. These contrasts are reflections of each author’s perspective on how war should be waged, the proper use of force, their definitions of the ideal victory and how best to achieve that victory as well as their methodologies,

The ideas described in The Art of War are also applied in many aspect, including business,

Today warfare is used for several different reasons. Whether if you are fighting for resources, the protection of people’s rights, or in defense of your own country. “And if your Magnificence, high up at the summit as you are, should occasionally glance down…of undeserved ill fortune” (509). This book was written for Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of Florence on how to conquer and rule effectively. While Machiavelli takes a lot of shots at the ruler, his philosophies are still used in today’s society but has altered a few of his ideas to correspond with the Geneva Convention, the fundamentals of war can still be found today.

For this book report, we will be reviewing “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene. We will mainly focus on the laws that has the most to do with military strategy. These will be the fifth, eleventh, twenty second, forty second, and forty eighth law. While going through these laws, we will analysis the author’s premise and the purpose for these laws.

The notion of an American way of war informs how scholars, policymakers, and strategists understand how Americans fight. A way of war—defined as a society’s cultural preferences for waging war—is not static. Change can occur as a result of important cultural events, often in the form of traumatic experiences or major social transformations. A way of war is therefore the malleable product of culturally significant past experiences. Reflecting several underlying cultural ideals, the current American way of war consists of three primary tenets—the desire for moral clarity, the primacy of technology, and the centrality of scientific management systems—which combine to create a preference for decisive, large-scale conventional wars with clear objectives and an aversion to morally ambiguous low-intensity conflicts that is relevant to planners because it helps them address American strategic vulnerabilities.

Handel compares The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and On War by Clausewitz. Both literary works derive from before the industrial age. Handel expresses, “…the role of intelligence-the insights of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz identify to immutable “human” dimensions of warfare so essential for victory” (The Art of War and On War Compared, 5). The emphasis Handel places on human dimensions extends to the reader the notion that the human act of spying, or gathering intelligence, is essential to victory. Handel notes that “…appreciation for and the continuous use of intelligence are essential, for good intelligence work can provide more accurate insights into the enemy’s mind, intentions, and capabilities…dispositions and plans” (46). The accumulation of all these ultimately leads to victory, according to Sun Tzu. Essentially, knowing the enemy’s intention, a military leader can come up with the best overall strategy, or best course of action, to take advantage of an opponent’s flaw or

Strategy is a must in every war to win and it cannot be denied. Among other war strategies, Sun Tzu has his own different and unique strategy to win. Even though his strategy is very old, yet it used to be applied in many aspects such as military, politics, and even business. Sun Tzu's war strategy recorded in 13 chapter of his book which is ‘The Art of War’ that still exist today as one of the required reading for military officers in the world.

A general's military approach differs based on his education, experience, and mindset towards a given military scenario. In the Chinese work of literature, The Art of War Sun-Tzu, the author writes his keys to success in war including, strategy, tough generals, loyal men, strength, and mindset. The Roman written war guide: Vegetius, focuses on the warrior more than the strategy of war as an essential to victory. Throughout Vegetius the perfect warrior is described, the author portrays the best fighter as one from the countryside, a strong but not big man, a discipline and well-behaved character, all these attributes create the best warriors. No matter what an armies reason for success is the fact that they were successful implies their style generates victory. China and Rome both succeed because of their war guided texts, following their styles made them successful and dominate over others; however, their reason behind their styles for success are different in many ways. The Chinese focused on the broad view of war such as the strategy and necessities; on the other hand, the Romans focused on the specifics such as the fighter and his necessities. Although, both the Romans and Chinese focused on very different aspects to war their outcomes were the same: victory.

The history of strategy could be traced back to ancient China. At that time, strategy was applied to the battle field, helping the generals analyze the situation, set the operational plans and win military victories. Chinese famous strategist Sun Tzu even wrote a book called ‘The Art of the War’ to clarify different kinds of military tactics. Logistics, which came after the strategy, dated back to the cold weapon area in Greece in Rome. Donald Engels (1980) said that ‘Supply was the basis for Alexander’s strategy.’ This is the primitive relationship of strategy and logistics in the battleground. Logistics served the tactics, providing the sufficient army provisions for the front and solving internal frictions. As time passed, the exploitation of petrol, oil and lubricants (POL) changed the role of logistics to the strategy which consequently fueled the war. World War II (WWII) saw the rise of the logistics, from

It is critically important to gain all benefits of the military history lessons to abstract the aspects of war, which enhance our leadership and capabilities to take the right decision. Therefore, I am going to start with war definition. “War is an act of force to compel our enemy to do our Will”. During the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, a series of conflicts dominated Europe. These conflicts had its influence on the Europe at that time, but the Napoleonic wars had the most lasting impact on western warfare. The explosion of the French revolution in 1789 is regarded today as an important event in modern history. Different aspects of the French revolution influenced the world affairs today. Therefore, war is an action has a principle to guide the force supported by sustainment, and to compel your enemy you should have the superiority, which comes from the innovation of organization, technology and tactics. Then, from my point of view, the desire of the people “nationalism”, which remain the only significant factor, drives the societies to war. Thus, Most of military aspects of western ways warfare have been remain constant since the 17th and 18th century, but the most important aspects that characterize ware fare in the age of Napoleon are innovation, principles of war, and from my point of view, I will add nationalism.