The Art of the Advantage

In the same spirit as the book devoted to Sun Tzu, this book is also based on a Chinese literary classic – “The 36 Stratagems.” There are no big surprises here, as each of the 36 configurations are studied in succession and illustrated with examples taken from ancient Chinese military history and contemporary business. We discover here that Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Intel and Virgin are very Chinese in their thinking!
The 36 chapters are organized around four key principles, which underlie the Chinese vision of strategy, namely that the world is composed of opposites and cycles (yin/yang), that human beings must allow themselves to go with the flow of events (wu wei), that change is continuous and inevitable (wu chang), that indirect action is preferable (shang bing wu bing). Despite the deceptive simplicity of the messages (take advantage of the misfortunes of your adversary, calm the suspicions of your adversary, seek the Achilles’ heel of your adversary, etc.), certain chapters do a particularly good job of pointing out the subtle nuances and relevance of these principles, particularly chapters 2, 12, 19, 21, 24 and 31. Scanning these chapters gives a good indication of the substance of the book.