Strategy Fundamentals

Five Fundamentals of Triumphant Strategy

By Rom Antony Day

Tuesday, September 18, 2007; Tuesday, August 21, 2007

As described by R.L. wing, the author of The Art of Strategy, Sun Tzu (The Chinese Strategist) said there are five fundamentals in designing a strategy or plan. The five strategies, he believed key to consider when calculating a winning plan are:

1) “Tao (page 21)“: The smoothness of the strategy or plan. The word used in Chinese is Tao. Sun Tzu emphasized “those who win 100 triumphs in 100 conflicts do not have supreme skill. Those who have supreme skill use strategy to bend (influence, persuade, change their minds peacefully, convince) others without coming to conflict” (The Art of Strategy Copy right 1988 by Immedia, page 12). Although he was a war strategist, he preferred to win without having to go to war; he preferred to avoid conflict by influencing others differently using the five fundamentals.

2) “Nature: Nature is the dark or light; the cold or hot and the systems of time. (page 21)“

3) “Situation”: It “is the distant or immediate, the obstructed or easy, the broad or narrow, and the chances of life or death” (page 21.)

4) “Leadership: is intelligence, credibility, humanity, courage and discipline (pp. 21).”

5) “The Art: is a flexible system” (pp. 21.)v

In other words flexibility as opposed to rigidity. This is similar to the American proverb which goes something like this “a flexible tree will bend and not break with the winds, but a rigid tree will break” “Wherein the view and its officials employ the tao or the principle of smoothness (page 21).”

Sun Tzu further said “leaders should not be unfamiliar with these five. Those who understand them will triumph. Those who do not understand them will be defeated” (page 21.)

Rom Antony Day, B.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and a Minor in Business Administration