Deception
To Sun Tzu, all warfare is based on deception.
In war, there are many ways to bait your opponent, make them do the wrong thing, or to deceive. In business, there is also much deception that must be managed to become victorious. Some managers, think that being a good manager is all about being honest. When, in reality company strategy is more similar to war. Do you call up your competitors to tell them all your trade secrets? Do you allow the competitor to strike you and do nothing back? It would be nice to live in a world where you can just be honest, but in war that doesn't work. If you not want to deceive the enemy, you will die. War is a matter of life and death. In business the stakes are also very high. To win, you must outsmart opponents. One of the ways to outsmart skilled opponents is with deception.
In business there are many ways to use deception. For example, you might test a new product on the market and yet hide the real value of the product. That way, you can market and test something that seems trivial to competitors and yet you are really testing something that could be revolutionary to the market.
Supermarkets know this technique quite well. Statistically, there is no difference in price between Smiths and Albertsons and yet both stores claim to have lower prices. They are both great at raising the prices on one thing and lowering on another item. They also have used grocery bundling to try and prove their price superiority. The truth is that statistics show that there is no difference between prices.
Another common deception technique is that a manager will make each subordinate feel as though they are the favorite. When a person feels that they are like and treated well, they produce better. A bad manager might tell one person that they are inferior to another. This will only bring discord amongst the people.
Fear and Deception
Many times countries use fear as a tool. For example, the recent financial crisis sparked fear into people. Then, media and people prey on that fear. The fear is often exaggerated in ways to promote an agenda. The wall street bankers used fear to get congress to enact the bailout plan. Many people think that George Bush used the politics of fear to go to war with Iraq. In each instance, instead of carefully studying the problem with committees and such people were told that acting right now without thinking was what was needed. People often respond to fear. The fear of losing your job is one deception some employers use to get productivity up. Sometimes the fear is for a real thing, but in many instances it is an act of deception to get you to act in a way that is favorable to those creating the fear.
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