The Priority is Victory

Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Chapter 10, Section 3, Stanzas 4-6

This post continues our project explaining each stanza of Sun Tzu’s work. The English translation and Chinese transliterations are from my award-winning book, The Art of War and The Ancient Chinese Revealed.

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This article discusses the third section of Chapter 10 of The Art of War. This chapter’s general topic is the six types of terrain on which we compete. This stanza’s general topic is the need to use our positions in order to win rewards. These fourth, fifth, and sixth stanzas of this section how winning or losing is the basis for choosing whether or not we understand a competitive battle, i.e. comparison.

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The Prime Directive: Victory

The first line below gives us Sun Tzu’s prime directive: successful comparisons are all that matter. A “battle” is a comparison among competitors. We only seek these comparisons when we will win them.

<Make> <battle> <philosophy> <must> <win>
You must provoke battle when you will certainly win.

The surer we are that our position will win, the more frequently we must look for opportunities for comparison.

<Ruler> <say>
It doesn’t matter what you are ordered.

While our CEOs”determine the mission of our organization, and that mission determines our goals, chief executive managers, who are not skilled in directing competition, cannot determine which comparisons we will win. Those not responsible for competition are simply not close enough to the competitive ground. The larger the organization, the less likely chief executives are to pick the right battles.

<Without> <battle>
The government may order you not to fight.

The “government” here refers to those in charge of the productive parts of the organization. Those responsible for production can also be afraid of losing resources, so they avoid fights. It is such weaknesses that tend to undermine a competitive force. We must understand the weaknesses of our managers, the topic of the previous section of this chapter to understand which battles they will avoid and why.

<Must> <battle> <can> <also>
Despite that, you must always fight when you will win.

Avoiding a battle can save us resources, but we must not worry about using resources when a comparison will allow us to improve our rewards. A better position will always result in more resources over time.

Avoiding Loss

<Battle> <philosophy> <no> <victory,
Sometimes provoking a battle will lead to a loss.

We must make sure that the success of a comparison supports our mission. Comparisons that do not support our mission must be avoided.

<Ruler> <Say> <must> <battle>
The government may order you to fight.

The fact that an executive says that we must avoid a comparison doesn’t effect this rule. Again, success in competitive comparison is a matter of winning comparisons that will be rewarded, not avoiding challenges.

<Without> <battle> <can> <also>
Despite that, you must avoid battle when you will lose.

We can also lose a comparison simply by avoiding it. Giving our opponent default victories makes them stronger while making us weaker in future comparisons.

Wrong Priorities

There are other reasons why the leaders of competitive forces seek winning comparisons even when it doesn’t improve their competitive position.

<Make> <advance> <no> <seek> <fame>
You must advance without desiring praise.

In Sun Tzu’s strategic system, we must hold to a very narrow definition of “winning.” Winning makes making victory pay. We can come out better in a comparison with a competitor, but it that comparison doesn’t give us a better position and that position doesn’t grant us more rewards, we have not achieved true “victory.”

<Retreat> <no> <evade> <crime>
You must retreat without fearing shame.

The same is true for avoiding battle. If there is nothing for us to win in terms of rewards, we must avoid comparisons. coming out on top of such comparisons simply doesn’t matter.

<Only> <people> <correct> <preserve>
The only correct move is to preserve your troops.

If we cannot win more rewards, we must conserve our resources, especially the skills of our people that allow us to win comparisons.

<And> <yet> <advantage> <to> <ruler>
This is how you serve your country.

Conserving our competitive resources for the comparisons that can win us more rewards is how we serve our organizations.

>Nation> <’s> <treasure> <also>
This is how you reward your nation.

This is how the competitive half of an organization and its leader makes its organization strong: by winning more and more resources over time.

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