‘The Art of War’: The greatest strategy book ever written | Roger Martin

Strategy advisor Roger Martin explains how 2,000 year old military thinking is useful in modern business strategy.

Business leaders can gain valuable insights from history’s great military strategists. Roger Martin, an author and the former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, suggests examining "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

Although the text is more than 2,000 years old, Roger argues that it contains timeless philosophy that applies not only to the battlefield, but also to modern business strategy. To Roger, people often think war and business is all about numbers and hard data. But in reality, it’s often just as important to think about more qualitative aspects about your company and its competition. And that’s where philosophy and customer-focused design come into play.

0:00 Is ‘The Art of War’ as good as an MBA?
2:19 “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”
3:25 “There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare”
4:22 “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard”
5:05 “Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.”
6:28 The tripartite view of the future

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About Roger Martin:
In 2017, Roger Martin was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of the most influential global business thinkers.

Martin is a trusted strategy advisor to the CEOs of companies worldwide including Procter & Gamble, Lego, and Ford.

Martin is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, where he served as dean from 1998-2013. In 2013, he was named global Dean of the Year by the leading business school website, Poets & Quants.

His newest book is A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Managerial Effectiveness. His previous twelve books include When More is Not Better, Creating Great Choices written with Jennifer Riel, Getting Beyond Better written with Sally Osberg, and Playing to Win written with A.G. Lafley, which won the award for Best Book of 2012-13 by the Thinkers50. He has written 32 Harvard Business Review articles.

Martin received his BA from Harvard College, with a concentration in economics, in 1979 and his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1981. He lives in South Florida with his wife, Marie-Louise Skafte.

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[marcelo]

"I'm only here to read the comment section quotes"

Sun Tzu, art of war

[Flesh_Wizard]

"Your enemy can't know your next move if you don't have one"
Moon Tzu, The Art of Peace

[JayPeePee]

"If you are losing, just start winning" Sun Tzu, art of war

[mnaqvi]

“There are only two kinds of experts: those who quote Sun Tzu and those who do not.”

- Sun Tzu, Art of War

[godzillamothra]

Talking about treating customers like family, I remember my father's story. My father's shop was burned to the ground, he was practically ruined at the time. His insurance only covered for his rent of new shop, but he had no goods to sell, and he still owed his supplier for the burned goods. So my father flew to see his supplier, and told him frankly that he had no money to pay for his debts, but if the supplier still can trust my father, my father asked him for new goods to sell so that my father can pay his debts. To my father surprise, the supplier actually told my father not to worry about his debt and he gave my father, new goods to sell. My father's business recovered in a year and he paid all his debts. I wonder if in this kind of generosity can happen today.

[Cellpeg]

The good thing about this book is that apart from military strategy, it also applies in business, life and judgements.

[knowthyself]

"The Supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting"

The art of war.

[-Raylight]

*“If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight."* Sun Tzu said that!

[FlamencoDeniz]

"None of my quotes/citators are actually authentic" - sun Tzu, art of war

[Gama]

Some people avoid this book because it contains the word war. When in reality it can be applied to our everyday conflicts. That is the beauty of its wisdom.

Also there are other books similar to ‘the Art of war’ but that are considered their western equivalent.

[Frostkalt]

They pay very little attention to what you say.
They pay attention like a hawk to what you do.
So good described

[pocketsquared]

"We're in a different world. This world we live in, this is not a tough man's world; this is a thinking man's world. Tough men get hurt in this kind of world."

-Mike Tyson

[NYKIRA]

It's definitely valuable to take on these tactics, and similar strategies to see how we can apply them within our own lives. Often we stray away from 'heavier' words such as 'war', 'fighting' & 'battles' yet if we look subjectively, without emotion and just appreciate the art of the principle it will truly benefit us 🗝

[metalextras]

The point of Sun Tzu's art of war is to avoid costly mistakes, similar with defense and survival mechanism in nature...

[isaacho]

"When you pee, you don't poop. When you poop, sometimes you pee."
- Sun Tzu

[LupusMobile]

We disguise modern warfare under the guise of a different name, but business is still war. Good to know that our entire societal structure works because of controlled suffering, and not because of progress or success.

[chaulang]

Sun Tzu must be proud, his writing of The Art of War has been translated in many languages and spreading All over The world .

[ozzyistheking]

“At the end of the day, the day is over” - Sun Tzu, Art of War

[rurikmckaiser]

I love Roger L Martin. Yes on treating staff like family! Yes on putting the customer first! Yes on design thinking!

[marioyu]

A modern textbook on business management would cover those topics. Just that Sun Tzu puts it more poetically. I personally love strategic warfare stories so I'm a sucker for this. But yes, we sometimes easily loose sight of the words of wisdom when u are bogged down by daily stress.