Heaven
Sun Tzu signifies heaven as night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons. Understanding heaven is needed to know when your advantage is good. If you do not understand heaven, then you will often fight at a disadvantage and lose.
First and foremost night and day should be understood. People are bright and chipper in the morning and tired and groggy in the evening. The more alert an army is the more difficult they will be to defeat. For Sun Tzu, this meant to attack in the evening hours. You should attack when people want to retire to their beds and not when they first get ready for the day and ready to go.
In business, you should understand that you will be most effective with your people in the morning hours. If something important needs done, do it in the morning. Have people come to work eary. When they want to retire, send them home. If you want to attack a competitor, do it in the late afternoon or even on Friday evening.
Sun Tzu thought cold and heat were important because of the way that it affects the troops. The warmth would keep troops strong and cold would make them weak.
In business, the people should be treated with warmth and kindness. When people are constantly irritated with things, they make improper decisions and become weak. The strong business leader will help the people feel warmth continually. Part of that warmth is a comfortable place to work that is free of unnecessary conflict and friendly.
The times and seasons are important to understand because it helps you know when to attack. There is a time for everything. There is a time to attack and a time to stay still. The great general will only attack when things are in his favor.
In business, there are cycles of boom and bust. There are times when it is good to be in a particular business and there are also bad times. Part of being a good manager is to recognize what the season is. Is this a good time to expand operations? Is this a good time to purchase inventory? Is this a good time to pull back? The effective business leader will have a strategy of when to buy going in and an exit strategy for getting out. Some people have the erroneous idea that they can make money no matter what happens. This is simply not true. If you keep your money in a bankrupt company, you will lose money. There are lots of ways to lose money. The effective leader understands the seasons and how they work to his advantage.
| |
