Two Essential Factors in Exploiting Forces

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Two Essential Factors in Exploiting Forces

As seen in the section "Exploiting Forces" in Chapter 5 in Sun Zi Art of War, there are two elements that the adept at warfare should note. He should first be able to exploit battle circumstances and next is to command his troops like rolling logs and boulders.

In the same |section, it is mentioned that when logs and boulders are square, it does not move but when it is round, it has devastating effects. Another factor that is neglected is, boulders and logs can be round but if it is placed in a flat horizontal terrain, it is not able to roll using gravity, thus no destructive effects.

So the adept at warfare, has to make his soldiers like round logs and boulders first (create the advantage over enemy’s troops), and then used the terrain to create momentum, complementing his troops advantage

Business Application

Let us have a look at how we can apply the above paragraph to business.

Mountain Terrain

'Terrain' or the industry that your employees work in is an uncontrollable factor. First essential factor would be to know when we have reached a 'slope' or opportunity, and released our 'boulders' and 'logs' which is our employees in this case, down the 'slope'.

ROUND Logs and Boulders

As mentioned in the section, have you turn your 'boulders' and 'logs' which is your employees into ROUND 'logs' and 'boulders'? What do I mean when I asked have you turned your employees into round 'logs' and 'boulders'? It means that have you equipped them with the skills and knowledge that will allow you to tap the momentum created by the economic or industry circumstances. So the second essential factor is have you make your employees as 'round' as possible?

Set aside a budget for training, train your staff, make them as 'round' as possible. Now, a lot of employers do not want to foot the training bills for his employees because they fear that after they finish the training, these employees may leave the company and used the skills learned to benefit that of his rivals.

Let’s take a look from another point of view, if your employees are not 'round' enough to take advantage of the momentum to gain or worse, to protect your market share, you could lose even more.

The crutch of the problem is, have you created a conducive environment for your staff. If both the physical and human environment is positive in your company, it is very likely, your company will have lower turnover, greater staff loyalty thus enhancing the benefits of training your employees. Now, it is impossible to reduce staff turnover to zero, because no matter what there would be people who wants to leave your company because the values they hold could be different from what your company’s are or there maybe changing circumstance in their families and many reasons. The only thing within your area of control is the environment in your company. So how is your company working environment good?