Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Competiting in the Information Economy with the Sunzi's "Victory Temple" Model

(updated on 02.09.15)

The above chart is currently being utilized in one of our many strategic projects.  Those who understand the tangibility of the Sunzi classic, should know what the chart is about.

The Process
The time that it takes to assess and position your competition is inversely proportional to the time that it takes to influence your competition.  This guideline becomes active when a team is operating in a high risk, high reward situation. We will discussed more on this guideline in a future post. 

The Assessment 
I presumed that you are one of those up and coming strategic thinkers, who have read and understand the various strategic classics.  

You have read the Art of War and have used it as your motivator because you are a driven leader.  You make no huddle decisions faster than a NFL quarterback while throwing 100 mph fast balls into a batting cage.   Better yet, you make quick turns with the rapidity of a Formula One race driver while consuming your favorite coffee brew and your gluten-free bread toast with English butter on top of it .


You absolutely compete by the decisions that you make.  You assess. You position. You influence.  It is a quite faster process than the obsolete method of "observing, orienting, deciding and acting."  

We will touch more on that point in our future book project.

If you were not on the ground zero, calling plays, you are preparing a strategic plant that would make "The Chosen One" proud of it . Sunzi would have loved to have you as his godson or his god daughter.


The Challenge 
While studying this chart, do you think that you could employ the 13 macro concepts of Sunzi (that are listed in the above chart) to assess your competition in terms of the Big Tangible Picture?

Do you think that you can use it to find the Dao that operates within your competition?

By living in a transparent economy, it should be easy for you to find the answer?   The answer only took us 30 minutes while eating pizza and drinking Dragon Well tea.  ... 

By being the grand member of "The Masters Of The Universe" club, it should only take you about 10 minutes to answer that question while drinking Dragon Well tea. (Please, do not consume Earl Grey tea while solving this problem for the obvious TCM reason.)

Send us a note if you have deduce the singularity behind the chart.  We will send you a copy of the Essential Art of War or a copy of some strategic classic.

If you need some clues, go through the blog carefully.  They are concealed somewhere in this blog and/or in the actual copy of the Art of War and other strategic classics.

Good Luck!

Side note: At some point, we will elaborate the history and the technicalities behind this chart in a future book or in a future blog post. 


3 comments:

Alan Parker said...

Hello,

the Singularity: Definition taken from a publicly available online dictionary. The State, fact quality or condition of being singular. Synonyms = uniqueness, distinctiveness.


I think the singularity behind the chart might be awareness. Awareness that stems from Assessment in your model. I think that awareness recapitulates several of your blog's main points. Mindfulness, the interconnectedness of things, the Big Tangible Picture, being centered and many more. My understanding of this was gained by reading your site, the Seven Classics and Sawyer's Sun Pin and some unique experiences I've had in my life.


One must be aware of one's emotions and control them. One's response to the opposition must be calculated, controlled and any decision must be acted upon only after careful consideration of potential outcomes. One should also be aware of the weather; weather = heaven? and be mindful of the terrain. I think the 8 classic strategists, however, believe that one should not over-rely upon any supposedly auspicious conditions. I think they believe that one should be aware of any situation in which the opposition failed to do so; additionally I think they also believe the Enlightened strategist should be aware of whether the opposition does not fall into any discord to weather conditions or supposedly ill fated terrain. I think that is why the 8 strategists variously discuss what Man can do in certain situations.


think that awareness relates to Positioning and Influence in that one must have one's intelligence gathering resources out there to gain info on whatever it is you need to know. Only by properly knowing things (gained from Man) and not omens, astrology and so forth can one properly know how to proceed. Think that the Enlightened strategist is one who does and creates something to force the other side to make a move and ideally a poorly decided one at that. think that such a strategist should be creative.

Enjoy your discussions!

Alan Parker said...

additional comment. Think that if one unaware of any particular internal or external condition, the proper response is difficult to find. think that the proper response can be faster than Observe Orient Decide Act if it is habit based.

Compass Architect said...

Thanks for commenting. I will pass your point to the others. We will reply to it in a future post,