For a CEO contemplating an acquisition or a general embarking on a campaign, the key ingredient is strategy. This is the primary quality of leadership. Technical skill, the ability to motivate, and a world of resources will all be undermined if your strategy is lacking. As Churchill said, it's very important to be right.

Yet strategy can never be rigid. The world changes, and what was brilliant yesterday may be a blunder today, so one secret to strategy is to live in a state of constant awareness. Another is the ability to see the larger picture. These are central tenets of The Art of War, the ancient Chinese text that offered advice to the “sage commander.”

By modern standards it's somewhat crude: a series of loosely joined chapters in simple language that teaches by example and metaphor. Its core teachings are ascribed to the legendary commander Sun Tzu.

Yet it's a distinctly modern book. In a recent interview with Rob Steele, the CEO of Newfoundland Capital Corporation Ltd., I asked him how he spent his time when he wasn't working. He likes to read military history, he said, citing The Art of War in particular. He's not the only one. This ancient treatise is taught in military academies and business schools around the world and studied by generals and CEOs. As Steele says, strategy is more a state of mind than anything else.
Sun Tzu lived about 2,300 years ago in China, during the chaotic years of the Warring States when the old order was dying and new ways were beginning to emerge—one reason it speaks so directly to our own time. Although the text has a military focus, it takes a broad view of strategy that translates easily to business.

In his 2001 book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare, author and former U.S. army officer Mark McNeilly distilled six principles from the book:

1. Win all without fighting: achieving  the objective without destroying it.

2. Avoid strength, attack weakness: striking where the enemy is the most vulnerable.

3. Deception and foreknowledge: winning the information war.

4. Speed and preparation: moving  swiftly to overcome resistance.

5. Shaping the enemy: preparing the battlefield.

6. Character-based leadership: leading  by example.

Reading The Art of War, you begin to see its relevance everywhere. For example, The Globe and Mail recently profiled Rick Hillier, now head of the Canadian Armed Forces. Posted in Germany as head of a tank squadron, he took part in a training

exercise. When “he avoided the danger zones and went to the outer reaches of the approved territory to avoid fire,” the move was so successful that he was accused of cheating. Yet Sun Tzu would have approved.

Also relevant, as McNeilly points out, is that as China flexes her muscles, she will be drawing on lessons from her long history, especially the teachings of Sun Tzu.

Recently I picked up a new translation by the Denma Translation Group, published by Shambhala Publications Inc. One of the authors is Jim Gimian, the publisher of the Shambhala Sun, which is based in the former offices of this magazine. A few weeks ago I had lunch with Gimian and his associate Barry Boyce to discuss the book.

The Denma version points out that, unlike in the West, where military strategy tends to be studied on its own, the Chinese view is that internal politics, military strategy, and statecraft (relations between nations) are all considered parts of the same broad theme, which is the safety and prosperity of the state. In fact, the Sun Tzu (as it's known by the cognoscenti) has a holistic world view, where everything is connected.

“The world is less about specific locations and solid things than it is about potentialities, processes, and relationships,” says Gimian. This matches our own world, which is enlaced by airplanes and the Internet and buffeted by new disruptive technologies. In such a world, conflict arises naturally from people's different perspectives.

According to the Denma translators, “the response of the Sun Tzu [to the conflicts of the time] was to emphasize that knowledge arises in the present moment. Any form could be helpful—but its application depends on insight into one's present circumstances, [knowledge] that cannot be transmitted in advance.”

At its core, the underlying principle addressed by the Sun Tzu is “shih” (pronounced “sh'r”). Shih can be thought of as natural advantage or potential energy. The sage commander recognizes and uses shih. He works with and not against the forces of the moment. He shapes the battlefield and employs deception as much as force. At all times he engages in “taking whole,” minimizing the destruction of not only his own forces but those of the enemy.

The ability to perceive shih comes when you enlarge your perspective and suddenly see patterns that weren't apparent before. To have a better view, climb a hill. Seek new information and a new perspective. This is as true for marketers seeking to uncover changing consumer trends as it is for generals caught in the “fog of war.” As Sun Tzu knew, the battle cannot be won in advance.