This is Volume One (34 articles) of the Sun Tzu's Art of War Rule Book. This first part of the Rule Book focuses on Sun Tzu's concepts for understanding and evaluating strategic positions.
The Rule Book itself is the culmination of over a decade of work breaking down Sun Tzuís principles into a series of step-by-step practical articles by the Instituteís multiple award-winning author and internationally recognized Art of War expert, Gary Gagliardi. The work explains the concepts in the verses of Sun Tzu's classic on strategy in detail, explaining the situations to which they apply the steps in Sun Tzu's system for using them with examples from modern competition. While the original Art of War was originally written for military generals who understood the philosophical concepts of ancient China, our Art of War Rule Book is written for todayís readers and provide enough descriptive material so that Sun Tzu's ideas can actually be used in everyday life. The Art of War Rule Book puts Sun Tzuís ideas into everyday, practical language as a book of instruction. Because of its size and detail, the Rule Book is published in nine volumes.
This is the first volume. The topics covered in this volume are listed below:
Rule Book Overview
About Comparing Positions
1.0 Strategic Positioning
1.1 Position Paths
1.1.1 Position Dynamics
1.1.2 Defending Positions
1.2 Subobjective Positions
1.2.1 Competitive Landscapes
1.2.3 Position Complexity
1.3 Elemental Analysis
1.3.1 Competitive Comparison
1.3.2 Element Scalability
1.4 The External Environment
1.4.1 Climate Shift
1.4.2 Ground Features
1.5 Competing Agents
1.5.1 Command Leadership
1.5.2. Group Methods
1.6 Mission Values
1.6.1 Shared Mission
1.6.2 Types of Motivations
1.6.3 Shifting Priorities
1.7 Competitive Power
1.7.1 Team Unity
1.7.2 Goal Focus
1.8 Progress Cycle
1.8.1 Creation and Destruction
1.8.2 The Adaptive Loop
1.8.3 Cycle Time
1.8.4 Probabilistic Process
1.9 Competition and Production
1.9.1 Production Comparisons
1.9.2 Span of Control
Except for review and overview articles, each articles is written in standard format including the original text discussed, the general principle in more modern terms, the situation to which the rule is applied or which necessitates the rule, the opportunity created or exploited by the concept, the list of specific Art of War Rules breaking down the general principle into a series of actionable steps with references to related concepts in the Rule Book, and illustrations of the application of each of those step to a specific competitive arena, i.e. sales, politics, small business, etc. Rules are written generically to apply to every competitive arena (business, personal life, career, sports, relationships, etc.) with each specific illustrations drawn from one of these areas.
The initial number identifies where each article appears in Rule Book Structure. For example, the article 2.1.3 Strategic Deception is the third article in the first section of the second book in the nine volumes of the Strategy Rule Book. In our on-line version, this links are live, clicking on them brings you to the article itself. We provide them because the interconnection of concepts is useful important in learning Sun Tzuís system.
The Nine Parts of the Rule Book cover the following topics:
1. Comparing Positions,
2. Developing Perspective,
3. Identifying Opportunities,
4. Leveraging Probability,
5. Minimizing Mistakes,
6. Responding To Situations,
7. Creating Momentum,
8. Winning Rewards, and
9. Defending Vulnerabilities.
