
War and Number of People?
Sun Tzu said, “ It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him. Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.”
In business the same rules would apply. If you have a lot of people that are really good, you can surround your enemy and conquer them. If you have five times as many people as your competitor you can attack and win. If you have twice as many people, you can divide the people and conquer. If you are unequal to your enemy, you should run away. If your company is really small, you can expect a larger force to eventually wipe you out even if you are a valiant warrior.
The bottom line is to run away from anyone bigger than you. You should only compete with people of your same size and scale. If you are large, you can come in and swallow up smaller companies that might compete with you.
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