Six Timeless Lessons from Sun Tzu on the Art of War

25 years ago I created a marketing plan for a new product rollout in which I borrowed practical wisdom from Sun Tzu's The Art of War. It was fun, creative and (best of all) successful. 

This week I've been revisiting the book for the first time in a while. This time around I've been noticing something. So much of the advice Sun Tzu gives has been utterly ignored in so many of the conflicts that have taken place during my lifetime.

Here are a handful of statements from Sun Tzu's masterwork, with examples of how they were carried out or disregarded. My comments are in blue.

"Victory is the main object in war. If this is long delayed, weapons are blunted and morale depressed."
The Vietnam War illustrates this vividly. Not only was morale depressed amongst the troops, the entire country seemed to become weary with these years of conflict. The Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan suffered a similar fate, a lesson the U.S. evidently failed to pay attention to as we proceeded to later make the same mistake there.

"Generally in war the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this."
Apparently Vladimir Putin missed this passage in Sun Tzu's manual. Our carpet bombing of North Vietnam likewise reveals our own generals' ignorance in these matters. 

"To win one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."
If you were to study the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, you'd see how much of Sun Tzu's wisdom Napoleon took to heart. He once said, "Read and meditate upon the wars of the great captains. This is the only means of learning the art of war." This passage can be illustrated in several of Napoleon's remarkable victories, battles that were won without ever firing a shot.

"Treat your captives well and care for them."
Our shameful behavior at Abu Grahib illustrates once more how far we've veered from being moral leaders of the free world, though this hardly compares to many past regimes in history. Genghis Khan's brutality in the 13th century was legendary. The Spanish Conquistadors route of the Aztec and Inca empires was likewise cruel and brutal.

"He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign will be  victorious."
The Granada invasion is a perfect example of this principle, or rather, what happens when this principle is violated. Norman Schwarzkopf, in his memoir, describes the rapid success their surprise invasion achieved with no loss of a single American life. Unfortunately, there was a phone call from the White House requesting that the troops check on the students at a university in another part of the island. The unplanned additional mission led to a helicopter collision that took the lives of 24 GIs. When Schwarzkopf was asked to take the lead in Desert Storm, he replied, "Yes, under one condition." That condition was that he would be in charge and there would be no phone calls from the White House asking for favors or telling him what to do. Lesson learned.

"There are occasions when the commands of the sovereign need not be obeyed."

It was General Grant who masterminded the Vicksburg Campaign that broke the back of the Confederacy during the Civil War. After crossing the Mississippi below Vicksburg, he broke his army off from Union supply lines and led a zigzag encirclement of the city from behind. His commanding officer, General Halleck, had sent orders to Grant to turn back, but it took 30 days to find Grant because his army was forraging while fighting a number of other battles to get in position for a siege. When Grant saw Halleck's orders, he sent back a reply: "If you knew where we were and what was happening here, you would not have sent these orders." Halleck's orders were not obeyed, which made Halleck furious. If I remember correctly, Halleck tried to court-martial Grant, but President Lincoln would have none of it. Rather, Lincoln was thrilled to find a general who was bold and would do whatever it took to get the job done, selecting Grant to head the Union armies and press the war to its conclusion.

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Steve Jobs Film Leads To Dylan Insights for CEOs in New Forbes Article

Walter Isaacson's book Steve Jobs was a compelling read when it came out in 2011. I wrote at the time, "Just when you thought you knew everything important that there was to know about the passionate founder of Apple, you discover through this incredible biography how little you really knew." But it's the silver screen that reaches the masses, hence the new film about Steve Jobs is creating more than just a ripple effect.

Dylan receiving the Medal of Freedom.

This past week Forbes published a contribution by Grant Feller* titled Bob Dylan's Guide To Being A Better CEO. Feller opens the piece with a great opening line that will magnetize any Dylan fan: The best reason for going to see Danny Boyle’s new film on Steve Jobs is, as far as I can see, not to indulge in some Apple gadgetry porn but to understand the influence Bob Dylan had on him. 

He immediately follows with this disclaimer:
I’m a huge fan of the latter and have, at various moments, felt just as inspired by Dylan’s moving, incisive and often unique lyrics. By all accounts, so was Jobs.

It's a perfect setup.

According to Isaacson, Steve Jobs was indeed a huge fan of both Dylan and the Beatles. In fact, he was so much of a Dylan fan he pursued and maintained a two year romantic relationship with Joan Baez who had herself been romantically entwined with Bob. Jobs gave it up when he came to realize he didn't really love her but loved the idea of being involved with his idol's woman.

When the iPod came out, a brilliant Steve Jobs concept that revolutionized the way we listen to music, Jobs was asked the question that Apple's TV commercials were asking: "What's on your iPod?" The interviewer then asked, if you had to choose between the Beatles and the Stones, who would you keep? Jobs replied that that was easy, The Beatles. "But if you asked me to decide between the Beatles and Bob Dylan, that would be a much harder question."

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Feller's article is an good example of a basic article structure. If you picture of line of railroad cars, the intro is your engine. It's aim is to hook the reader, and Feller does this effectively. The transition must follow. Like a highway billboard it has to be quick and clear. The writer offers up this:

After all, if CEOs can be inspired by lines from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, why can’t content marketers find similar truth in the lyrics of Dylan…

From here we get a string of boxcars which stretch out to the end of the story. No time to argue or to judge the merits of his premise. If the reader has travelled this far he or she will just go with the flow. It's an easy, breezy ride. Here's that link again.

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I can't leave off without commenting on the author's name. Grant Feller. Grant is a family name that one of my brothers, an uncle and a grandfather carried, among others. I've personally found U.S. Grant to be an inspirational hero for my own life and maintain a photo of him on my office wall.

But I've also found strong inspiration in a man named Feller, specifically the Hall of Fame Cleveland Indians pitcher of the 40's and 50's. When I was born my teddy bears were named after the starting rotation of the Cleveland Indians, and for some reason Feller became my favorite. (I carried Lemon around with me for a long time, too, though.)

Thank you, Mr. Feller, for this fun little excursion through the Dylan catalogue.

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Meantime, life goes on all around you, within you and without you. Get into it.