Science of Strategy Institute

A Strategic Principle a Day is our ongoing series of articles on the Institute's Strategic Body of Knowledge (S-BOK). Each article is public for 24 hours, after which access is restricted to SOSI Members. Numbered links references to other S-BOK articles.]

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." The Red Queen, Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

“[W]ith essentially complex phenomena, the aspects of the events to be accounted for about which we can get quantitative data are necessarily limited and may not include the important ones.”  F.A. Hayek said, accepting the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics

(The following is an interview with an HR magazine in Brazil regarding Sun Tzu and business.)

HR Mag: Why Sun Tzu call his book The Art of War?

The test of our understanding of climate and the effect of our decisions is our predictions. With that in mind, I refer you all to the great series at Innocent Bystanders comparing current unemployment to the government's predictions. The relevant chart is below. The light blue line is the prediction of unemployment without the bailout, the dark blue line was the justification for the bailout:

Dr. Gene Colombini writes:

I am reading an excellent translation of Sun Tzu Art of War, but I can not translate it or apply it to business. Are there any writings or translations of his works for business.

User bernd.schwieren asks:

Gary, in a political competition, how would you define ground and climate?

The ground is where you fight and what you fight for. It is the source of all resources.  In an election, this means that it the support of the electorate (financial and otherwise) and, in the end,  their votes.  As Sun Tzu said, the ground can be divided in an infinite number of ways and the science of strategy is probably 80% about ways of  finding leverage on the ground.

Friday 22, 2009: Cleabridge Publishing, the publishing company that publishes that Science of Strategy Institute's work, signed an agreement with Librairie du Liban Publishers in Lebanon granting them rights to translate all SOSI books into Arabic for distribution  throughout the Middle East. According to the terms of the agreements, translation will start immediately, with the goal of releasing all fifteen titles before the end of the year.

This article in PajamaMedia immediately caught by eye because the science of strategy teaches that the best way to get a good perspective on change is through "young eyes" (S-BOK 2.4.2).

Incredible, true story of the psychological power of a shared mission to give us our individual sense of purpose. Wait until after the commercial and watch till the end to find out what the word means...