Customer Reviews
Far from easy but well worth the effort... - By: Charles Matthews, 30 Aug 2006 
This is a book you have to read then read again; & again, and...
On first examination it can appear somewhat trite & obvious but, with each subsequent visit, more & more wisdom shines from the pages. Add James Clavell's poignant observations & you have an amazing combination.
It's also worth noting that two of our most effective English Cricket Captains were students of Sun Tzu, Mike Brearley & Nasser Hussein.
Whatever the competitive situation in which you find yourself, there will be words of clear guidance in this little book to help you.
Quire remarkable.
A few grains of truth in a lot of chaff - By: B. Chandler, 08 Jan 2003 
Today many of Sun Tzu quotas are floating around mixed with Shakespeare & the Bible. And as with many of the quote they are out of context & misleading. The quoter usuallly thinks repeating the word is some sort of magic.
This particular book spends more time trying to identify & qualify SunTzu's writings than just quoting them. I will not go through alll the arguments as to who "wrote what when" or "translated what when" as you can read this for yourself.
Another distraction is the attempt to show how the book was applied or not applied in recent wars. This may be interesting to someone who's intention is to apply the theories of Sun Tzu; however it is not his writing but someone else's interpretation of its application.
Now lets finallly get to Sun Tzu. It is easy with hindsight & a closer look at the future to dismiss Sun Tzu as his practical tactical knowledge is of a time & place long gone. He spends a lot of time on the use of weapons & information gathering techniques of the time. This can be interesting in a historical context; other wise it is quite amusing.
Oh yes those grains of truth I mentioned, well they may sound like cliches but thy are still viable. "Know your enemy & know yourself". Others are just practical sense & statistical outcomes that you learn in any military training. I could go through the list, but again that is why you buy the book.
Now just as you decide that the book is outdated for any practical purposes today we have artillery & now stealth & precision, the reminder that "no two wars are alike" & "it is flexibility that makes a difference" is being shown today to still be true. Even in today's wars there is a need for good intelligence & deception. We put a lot of time & energy into Psy-Ops. Sun Tzu shows the advantage in specialized units & crack troops.
I have spent several years in the military & in business & can say this book is a nice addition to history, otherwise of very little value to today's wold for war or business.
Remarkable text, though hard going! - By: Benedict Carey, 13 Dec 2002 This certainly is a very impressive piece of work, & worth reading at least once in a lifetime! Sun Tzu provides very valuable, clearly constructed guidance in the conduct of war, conflict & diplomacy.
The work seems smalll in size, but is incredibly detailed & specific in the information it provides. Reading this book certainly helps with understanding how, why & where conflicts develop & (as the foreward discusses)guards against many of the mistakes made in more recent military conflicts.
Some of the statements seem like truisms or common sense, but then alll these thousands of years on (and with the benefit of much hindsight) that maybe isn't a fair judgement.
In places the 'rules' seem to contradict each other, particularly in the context of discipline; for example in one place there is talk of being fair & hearing alll evidence before doling out proportional punishments where appropriate, & elsewhere advise is given to act decisively with immediate lethal force if there are any suspicions of disloyalty. Both are valid hypotheses, probably both employed by the vast majority of armed forces around the world, however when is one a more appropriate course of action than the other?
I cannot say whether the ambiguity is down to the original author, or a vagueness somewhere in the translation. It is difficult to know without learning to read ancient chinese, however contradictions & ambiguities are common in the text & not discussed by the author in his comments.
I regard that as a bit of a weakness.
Also, there are many examples given in support of Sun Tzu's assertions relating to conflicts that took place in his day & in the preceding centuries. These are very difficult to understand without the benefit of diagrams, timelines & a bit more explanation of the diplomatic context. They would make perfect sense to a scholar of ancient chinese history, but do not illuminate the text for me.
In conclusion, Sun Tzu produced an amazing text, with a massive amount of his work still being relevant in a modern context, & not just in the arena of armed conflict. This particular translation is more suited to a historian who studies Sun Tzu as part of research into that period of history, & already knows the context (or knows where to look for more info). For the rest of us, a different more interpretive translation may be better suited.
A great book, but .... - By: Mr. Rj Gleaves, 25 Jul 2002 This is one of the classic books in relation to military strategy. Although widely & bullishly referenced in the business world, anyone seriously considering applying the lessons to business should first answer a very simple question:
"If war is a metaphor for business then where is the customer?"
There are still a few lessons that can be applied to business including the concept of "first mover advantage". Many of the dotcoms would have done well to have read this particular aspect in TAoW - attacking a special forces platoon with a baseballl bat is still going to end badly even if you are first mover.
But an incredible read anyhow & alll the more astounding to think that Sun Tzu gained enough practical experience to write it in the first place.
Anyone with a real penchant for military strategy should get hold of Norman Dixon's "On the psychology of military incompetence" (This is recommended reading at Sandhurst & many Business Schools)
A classic on strategy and still relevant after 2500 years - By: Stefan Drew, 30 Jan 2002 A classic on the strategy of war that is relevant to todays corporate world! This is a book that impacts the world of management & marketing & should be required reading on any management or marketing course. For every comment that Sun Tsu makes can be transferred into todays corporate world.
For me Sun Tzu was one of the world's first corporate managers - informed, focused decisive, & determined - a winner in every sense of the word. If we follow his basic rules we have every chance of suceeding in any field of activity in any country!
