Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Its Rules for Winning without Conflict

Competition exists everywhere that comparisons take place. Competition and production work together but they demand very different skill sets. Production works by transforming resources into more valuable objects. Competition works by winning people's support in a comparison among alternatives. The more efficiently we produce objects, the more value we can potentially create in competition with others. The better our competitive skills, the more likely it is that our productive skills will be recognized as more valuable than the alternatives.

Complementary But Opposite Skill Sets

2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu described these two opposite but complementary parts of life as the realms of the nation and the army. The nation, run by the ruler and his administrators, was the productive half of the equation, farming the land and making objects. The army, run by a general and his commanders, was its competitive counterpart, defending the land and influencing people. Survival depends on both components working together, understanding each other's role, and using very different rules. Managing production and internal operations is very different than decisions about competition and external maneuvers.

The secret is knowing when to use the methods of production (linear thinking, process planning, problems solving by division) and when to use the methods of competition (adaptive thinking, expert decision-making, and problems solving by innovation). We go into this in more detail in discussing our training, but the chart below offers a quick summary of the differences

The Critical Differences
Competition	Production
Advancing Positions	Shaping objects
Exploring and experimenting	Designing and organizing
Adaptive thinking	Linear thinking.
Networked relationships	Hierarchical structure
External, chaotic environments	Internal, controlled environments
People competing	People cooperating
Most people making decisions	Most people following procedures
Anonymous, unattained resources	Known, available resources
Event-based responses	Predetermined steps
Factors details into larger picture	Breaks processes into finer details
Unique, custom solutions	Duplicate, standard products
Adjusts to environment as a whole	Controls part of environment
General improvement in position	Well-specified end result

Creating Resources for Each Other

Productive and competitive methods create the resources for each other in a constant cycle. The better our competitive skills, the more resources we capture to use productively. The better our production, the more resource we produce for use in external competition. Competition and production are closely tied to each other, but they require different skill sets. In the Sun Tzu's strategy, they are defined as "complementary opposites." Both are necessary. They work together. But you must understand how they are different.

The problem in recent decades is that our knowledge of production and training in linear thinking have greatly overshadowed our competitive skills and we receive. Fortunately, there is a growing interest in the types of strategic skills that people need on the front lines of competition. Fortunately, we have the Sun Tzu's strategy of Sun Tzu to guide us in building our competitive perspective and sharpening our decision-making reflexes.