Stratagems #4 and #5: Surprise, deception and deceit (Sun Tzu Series)

This is fourth installment of my Sun Tzu Stratagems series.

Boy, do these stratagems ever get a lot of love from Sun Tzu. Where to start, right? The Art of War is full of strategies and insights that include elements of surprise, deception and deceit. From doing battle and planning a siege to maneuvering armies, surprise and deception appear everywhere in Sun Tzu’s thinking.

We’ll look into some of the insights from Sun Tzu and visit how Japanese automakers played hardball with the Big Three automakers of Detroit.

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Stratagem #2: Foreknowledge (Sun Tzu Series)

This is second post in my Sun Tzu Stratagems series.
Stratagem #2: Foreknowledge
In the last post, I talked about shaping the opponent and acting according to the enemy. One of the core components of this principle is foreknowledge – foresight and intelligence that helps us to better orient to the situation, environment and the opponent.
Sun Tzu [...]

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Stratagem #1: According to the enemy (Sun Tzu Series)

This is the first post in my Sun Tzu Stratagems series.
Stratagem #1: According to the enemy
As I noted in the prefacing post of this series, John Boyd was heavily influenced by Eastern cultures, especially classical Taoism and Zen. In Chinese philosophy, there’s well-known concept of yin yang and it is used to describe how [...]

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Sun Tzu’s Stratagems

Recently I’ve started researching Frans P.B. Osinga’s excellent book Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd. John Boyd was a USAF fighter pilot and military strategist, whose theories have been highly influential in the military and in business, although very few people (seem to) have heard about Boyd. I’ll be writing a [...]

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