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Strategy and competition

Sun Tzu

Win first, then fight

Sun Tzu (Spring and Autumn · c. 500 BC) — Win first, then fight.

Strategy and competitionPre-Qin and classicalWin first, then fight

What actually happened?

The king of Wu wanted a demonstration, so he handed Sun Tzu the palace women to drill. Sun Tzu made the king's two favourite concubines the company commanders, explained the drill, and beat the drum. They laughed and did not move. If the orders are not clear, he said, that is the commander's fault — and explained again. They laughed again. If the orders are clear and still not followed, he said, that is the officers' fault, and he had both women executed. The king was appalled. The army that came out of it did not lose.

Win first, then fight

The famous line is that the victorious army wins first and seeks battle afterwards; the defeated army fights first and looks for the win afterwards. It is a claim about where the work happens — in the conditions, not in the courage.

The launch that went well had the pricing, the support load and the two biggest customers settled before anyone wrote a line of the announcement.

The best fight is the one nobody has

Attacking the enemy's plan comes first, his alliances second, his army third, and his walled cities last. Every step down that list costs more and returns less. Winning the fight is not the top of the ladder; not needing it is.

The competitor didn't enter the category, not because they lost a price war, but because the integration work would have taken them two years to match.

Know both, and know what you don't

Know the other side and yourself and you are never in danger; know only yourself and you win half; know neither and you lose every time. Most people read this as reconnaissance. Half of it is about you.

He had the competitor's roadmap and no honest number for how long his own team actually takes. That is the half that loses.

How do I use it today?

Before the next thing you are about to launch, argue, or confront, write down what would have to be true for it to be already won. If none of it is true yet, you are not ready to start — you are ready to prepare.

Deep read

Win first, then fightThe work happens before the clashThe winner had already won when the fighting startedKnow both, and know which is harderYour own numbers are the flattered onesTheirs is outside and findable. Yours has been through peopleThe best fight is the one nobody hasWinning a hundred times is not the top of the listEvery win you take spends people, money, time and trustThe flank only works if the front holdsA clever move on its own is a donationUsed once, the surprise becomes the thing they expectTake the shape of what you meetAvoiding the strong part is the hard halfWater has no shape of its own. That is the whole point

Read alongside

John BoydBoth put the decision before the clash. Sun Tzu settles it in preparation, Boyd in speed of turning. On WarThe two halves of the subject: Sun Tzu on how to win, Clausewitz on why the plan deforms. One assumes the count can be completed, the other that it never is. Strategies of the Warring StatesOne states principles that can be taught in public; the other records what was actually said to one man on one day to change his mind. Finite and Infinite GamesSun Tzu solves competition entirely as a finite game and every technique serves the win; Carse asks why you assumed this round had to end at all. Thinking, Fast and SlowReckoning in the temple is a forced start-up of the slow system: settle the count before deciding whether to fight at all.

Further

Han Feizi John Boyd Fan Li Peter Thiel Cao Cao Guan Zhong Zhuge Liang Mao Zedong Guo Jia The I Ching Han Xin Huo Qubing Miyamoto Musashi Napoleon On War Thomas Schelling Sima Yi Strategies of the Warring States Su Yu Xiang Yu Machiavelli Nassim Taleb Sapiens

Lines to keep

Winning a hundred battles is not the height of skill. Subduing the enemy without fighting is.

Know the other side and know yourself, and you will not be in danger in a hundred battles.