Sun Tzu Principles

In Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, he has six main principles and strategies. These are: to capture your enemy without destroying them, avoid your competitor’s strength and attack their weakness, use predictions and deception to maximize the power of your own intelligence, use speed and preparation to swiftly overcome the competition, use alliances and strategic control to shape your opponents and make them conform to your will, and develop your character as a leader to maximize the potential of your soldiers. Sun Tzu’s principle to capture your enemy without destroying them and avoiding their strengths to attack their weaknesses go hand in hand. Since the your goal is to survive and prosper, you must capture your opponent, but must do so in such a way that your side is not destroyed in the process. If you know the enemy well, you do not need to live in fear of future wars. “An army may be likened to water, for just as flowing water avoids the heights and hastens to the lowlands, so an army avoids strength and strikes weakness.” This quote encourages leaders to

To move with speed does not mean that you do things hastily, as he believes this speed requires a lot of preparation. Reducing the time it takes to make decisions, develop and act is critical. To think through and understand how the enemy could have potential strategical reactions to your attacks is also important. If we go back to Thucydides’ work, we could agree that Sun Tzu would be very displeased with Thucydides’ mentality of letting the war last twenty-six years, as Sun Tzu wants wars to be over as quick as possible. “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in