SUN TZU in 36 Stratagems

Book excerpt: “The art of war is like water which flows clear of heights and fills the hollows”! So what else Master Sun Tzu? How can one translate your metaphorical phrasing into practical fruitful advice for Westerners? Though it was written 25 centuries ago, your master-piece is currently the most read and used world-wide by strategists whatever fields they belong to. Its main guidelines recommend molding with circumstances and identifying the potential in any situation, cultivating change, avoiding conflicts as far as possible, and transforming opponents into unwitting allies! Why have so many contemporaries chosen it as their bedside book? How does such a classic from ancient rural and feudal China provide a successful answer to our modern personal and professional preoccupations? To take up such a challenge and make understandable and applicable the precepts of Sun Tzu, the author develops and adapts one by one the 36 traditional Chinese stratagems and enriches them by resorting to the major Asian and Western thinkers of strategy. By telling stories and assuming a deliberate purpose of popularization, he provides keys to conceive creative strategies based on three major principles: efficiency, harmony and paradox.