William Wu Personal Blog

People that work with me over the years know that I am a big fan of The Art of War.Â

I read the Chinese version since I was a kid and have always facinated by the simple principles for the warfare.  I now keep both the English and Chinese copies of the book so I know how to translate it back and forth without loosing its original meaning. 

The Oct 30. Issue of Business Week ran an interesting report on how anicient Eastern philosophies are now applied to business management.  In particular, the Hindu Bhagavad Gita has been gaining popularity.  The Bhagavad Gita is a Hindu text more in keeping with today’s zeitgeist, contains the wisdom of Lord Krishna.Â

To Sun Tzu, author of the Art of War, victory should be the “great object.” Winning the battle is all about unyielding discipline.  The Bhagavad Gita stresses the importance of focusing on your thoughts and actions, rather than the outcome.   The special report titled “Karma Capitalism” lists the difference between The Art of War and the Bhagavad Gita:

ON FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

• Sun Tzu’s Ideas: Greed is good. Troops have to see there is “advantage from defeating the enemy” in order to be motivated. Share the booty with the rank and file, and give them shares of conquered territory.
• Krishna’s Take: Greed is bad.  “You should never engage in action only for the desire of rewards,” Krishna says. Acting on worldly desires leads to failure. Do well, and good things will come.

ON MANAGING UNDERLINGS

• Sun Tzu’s Ideas: Be tough. Sun Tzu calls for “iron discipline”: If you indulge troops with too much kindness and don’t maintain your authority, they’ll be “useless for any practical purpose.”
• Krishna’s Take: Be fair. Enlightened leaders are compassionate and selfless, and they “treat everyone as their equals.” Followers will rally around them and follow their example.

ON INITIATIVE

• Sun Tzu’s Ideas: Attack only when victory is likely. Better yet, maneuver to win without a fight. If the odds are bad, retreat and wait for another opportunity. Long campaigns strain resources and make you vulnerable.
• Krishna’s Take: Act rather than react. A leader’s actions today can become the “karma” that influences his status tomorrow. Leaders accomplish “excellence by taking action,”

ON THE ULTIMATE GOAL

• Sun Tzu’s Ideas: Beat the enemy. War is a vital fact of life that “cannot be neglected by a responsible sovereign.” Winning requires clever tactics and, in some cases, deception.
• Krishna’s Take: Seek higher consciousness. Leaders should view problems within their larger contexts. Translation: Show sensitivity to multiple stakeholders including shareholders, employees, partners, and neighbors.

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I love to collect quotes and often found inspirations from great quotes that I collected over the years. 

Here is one that has direct relevance to what my company DS-IQ is doing:

“Almost any question can be answered cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them — not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort — buyers of your products.”

- Claude Hopkins, author of “Scientific Advertising” (1923)

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I received an e-newsletter from HP a while back advising small business owners how to cope with change.  It’s somewhat a common sense article, but the advices do make a lot of sense.  Here is “The Five Laws of an Ever-changing World“:

1. Change Is Inevitable

“There is nothing permanent except change.” - Heraclitus

“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today.” - Isaac Asimov

You can’t hold back the tide, the wind, time, innovation, or the macroeconomic forces that constantly reshape the marketplace, the workplace, and society. Awareness that you cannot stop change is your first lesson, Grasshopper. That isn’t to say, however, that you can’t effect particular changes.
2. Change isn’t necessary easy, painless, or positive

“Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” -Richard Hooker, theologian

“Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.”  - Saul Alinsky, anti-poverty crusader

Bloodless revolutions are rare. And economics Law of Unintended Consequences tells us that almost all actions of people, governments, or organizations generate at least one change that wasn’t thought of.

3. Resistance to Change is Common

P”rogress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.” -Robert F. Kennedy

“The most damaging phrase in the language is: ‘It’s always been done that way.’” -Grace Hopper, computing pioneer

It is understandable and natural that people will fight change. It’s frightening to replace the status quo with an unknown. Nineteenth-century Luddites smashed the weaving machines that were taking their jobs. Don Quixote skewered windmills in his addled protest of the end of chivalry. And in industry after industry, employees try to hold off the day that a new technology or a shift in business processes will make their current jobs or skills obsolete.

4. Adapt to Change is Required for Survival

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”  -Charles Darwin

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”  -W. Edwards Deming, business and management educator

From the dinosaurs to Montgomery Ward, both nature and industry are littered with examples where resistance to change or the inability to adapt to shifting environments led to their demise. And there s a corresponding set of examples (i.e., humans, eBay) where adaptation and the embracing of change have enabled them temporarily at least to thrive.

5.Creation Arises from Changes

“We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into being without it?”  -Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor

“Change comes bearing gifts.” -Price Pritchett, change management guru

Change has its casualties, but it also presents opportunities. For example, travel agents saw a large portion of their business dry up when self-service airline booking over the Web came on the scene, and many of them went out of business. Yet several of the more adaptive agents and agencies thrived. How? They harnessed the tools of the Internet to establish relationships and partnerships, to offer their customers a broader range of information and services, to tailor complete vacation packages, and to evolve beyond the role of simply providing flight reservations.

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One of the questions that I have been asked a lot is “how do you start a company?”  For those who has never done it, it feels a sense of lost.  However, like everything else… the best way you learn how to start a company is to actually start one.  One book that I like a lot and would recommend to others is The Art of Start by Guy Kawasaki.Â

It is a facinating easy read, yet it gives you a good perspective of what is important vs. what is not.  I have listed a few of the questions that you can get answers from this book:

• Question 1: (True or False) When you’re starting a new company, you shouldn’t be afraid of polarizing people with a new product or service that flies in the face of convention?

• Question 2: (select one) The foundation of a successful brand is: (a) Effective marketing; (b) Evangelistic customers; (c) Extensive advertising; (d) Attractive packaging; (e) An excellent product or service?

• Question 3:(select one) Ultimately, who positions a product or service - establishing how customers will come to view it? (a) The company that make it; (b) The company’s advertising agency; (c) The company’s PR firm; (d) The company’s customers; (e) The press, and industry analysts;

• Question 4: (select one) If you want your company to be successful, it’s most important to strive for which objective? (a) To be the lowest cost producer; (b) To be the best known brand; (c) To be the most profitable company; (d) To be the sole provider of something people really want; (e) To have the largest customer base.

• Question 5: (select one) More than anything, you don’t want your business model to be: (a) Specific; (b) Simple; (c) Unique; (d) Scalable; (e) Proven.

• Question 6: (True or False) Many behemoth companies like Microsoft, General Electric, and 3M have broad and disparate product lines, but ironically started out with singluar focus on one specific produc

• Question 7: (select one) You’ve just met with a key potential account.  It could be a large sale and also boster your company’s credibility in the industry.  However, the account is afraid to do business with a startup.  The best way to win them over is to: (a)  Ask your world-famous VC investor to call the customer; (b) Arrange for the CEO of your company to meet with the buyer; (c) Offer to do a pilot implementation at a deep discount; (d) Tell the customer that you will contact them once your company is proven in the marketplace; (e) Have your mom provide a character reference for you.

• Question 8: (select one) In the first sixty seconds of a presenation, you should: (a) Furnish your biographical background; (b) Establish the size of the market you are addressing; (c) Provide a summary of your financial projections; (d) Summarize the technical foundation of your product or service; (e) Explain what your company does;

• Question 9: (select one) What’s the most important factor to consider when selecting the first employees at a startup? (a) The candidate’s academic background; (b) The candidate’s work experience; (c) The candidate’s love of your product and service; (d) The candidate’s willingness to work for stock options in lieu of salary; (e) The candidate’s prior personal relationship with you;

• Question 10:  (select one) The best reason to form a partnership is to: (a) Increase revenues or decrease costs; (b) Get the attention of analysts; (c) Garner press coverage; (d) Scare your competitors; (e)  Impress potential investors

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