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Learn from History to Achieve Victory in Modern Times

Apr 18-2013   



 

On the Site Experience of Competitive Strategy and Execution of BiMBA

By LU Shuo and WEI Ying

Introduction: An Autumn Trip to the Ancient Battlefield to Reveal the Secret of Leadership

Like an outstanding general, a successful leader must possess excellent leadership, making decisive choices and leading his men to march forward with courage. Meanwhile, a successful corporate organization must have efficient execution of a military organization to achieve victory in competition

War is the top level dynamic competition in the community of human beings and military organizations have proved to be the most efficient organizations since human being activities were recorded first. Decision making and execution in the environment of dynamic competition are displayed to the utmost on the battlefields. As a matter of fact, modern corporate management and organizations have derived from wars and military organizations. Business field resembles a battlefield and on both are numerous uncertainties and complicated competitive environment.

As China’s top business college, BiMBA has long been introducing the military organizations from which modern management derived and the top dynamic competition of wars into its study of modern business management, and BiMBA has also long noticed that top business colleges in western countries had introduced the army experience into corporate strategy, especially corporate leadership and execution. Since 2002, BiMBA has conducted profound cooperation with Academy of Military Sciences and University of National Defense and has organized senior management and military specialists to develop the Site Experience Course of Competitive Strategy, Leadership and Execution, which is oriented to top corporate managing personnel and has yielded excellent feedbacks and results. BiMBA divides the site experience course into two fronts, namely, east front and west front. The east front starts from Linyi of Shandong Province and ranges from Maling Ancient Path to Mengliang’gu Hill, focusing on competitive strategy and execution. The trainees in person experience the conditions of military command and learn how to develop and execute strategy in actual conditions. After that, the trainees will discuss about the similar decision making environment and how to solve problems in the similar environment of companies. Before conclusion, the trainees will exchange their ideas and the instructor will comment on them. The west front ranges from Erdos of Inner Mongolia and Yan’an of Shaanxi Province. By visiting the tomb of Genghis Khan and Tongwan City and analyzing the three victories in Yan’an Defense Battles, the trainees were offered chances to experience and reflect on competitive strategy and leadership.

In September, October and November of 2006, Professor HU Dayuan, Chinese Dean of BiMBA led the second batch of trainees in the BiMBA-PFIZER China Business College Project, students of BiMBA FT05 and PT04 to visit Museum of Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain and study the Maling ancient battlefield and Mengliang’gu battlefield. During the visit, they discussed strategy and tactics with many specialists while studying the thought and maneuvers in Sun Tzu’s Art of War and combining them with the operational strategy in modern business and seeking ways of corporate operation from warfare laws.

The course focused on case study and discussions. Through various forms of teaching, such as site teaching, group case analyses, experience and discussion and comprehensive reports, they analyzed the strategic process of classic battles and enlightened the trainees to consider how to solve problems in the corporate operation strategy and to improve their capability of decisions making and executing efficiently in the market competition.

Part I Strategy in Art of War and Tactics in Corporate Competition: Art of Warfare Lies in the Heart

A review of war history in China and overseas countries finds that two words are highly important whether in the battle between Sun Bin and Pang Juan on Maling Path or that between Su Yu and Zhang Lingfu on Mengliang’gu Hill, namely, cunning and risky. These two words can best explain why the art of warfare lies in the heart.

By WU Hongren, BiMBA E05

The Art of War was a military book written by Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese military master 2500 years ago. As one of the most important classic military books in human history, this 6000-word book has been highly valued by both domestic and overseas strategic masters since it was written and widely employed in military realm and realms beyond militia. Many famous entrepreneurs in modern economic community have found their initiatives in the thought of Sun Tzu to win in the competition. As WU Yuzhang, President of Volvo China, once commented, “All slogans of Volvo are more military than business-like, which can well explain why it has established itself in the fiercely competitive market in China. I have read Sun Tzu’s Art of War very carefully and have applied my understanding of the book in the corporate management.”

In the whole process of the Site Experience Course, Mr. HONG Bing from China Research Society of Art of War has given lectures titled Strategy and Leadership in the Art of War. According to Hong Bing, Sun Tzu’s Art of War reveals the laws of competition and ways of achieving victory and can help us to remain invincible in the fierce competition.

Competition is a common social phenomenon. A country or a company has to defeat its opponents in competition and to prove and reinforce its strength in competition if it is to survive and grow. Otherwise, it will be eliminated mercilessly by the wave of competition. To become the stronger one and the winner in the competition, we must understand the laws of competition and master ways of winning in the competition. In this regard, Sun Tzu’s Art of War can give us the most valuable guidance. War is a typical form of competition as well as the cruelest competition. Sun Tzu’s Art of Warhas revealed the common laws of competition by explaining profoundly the laws of wars.

Mr.Hong cited the following comments of Mr. Michaelson, a famous market sales expert who has long studied how to apply Sun Tzu’s Art of War in USA, “The basic philosophic belief of Sun Tzu is that you can win if you carefully plan your strategy. Besides, if you possess a great strategy, you can win without a battle. This oriental strategy of focusing on strategic wisdom to defeat the enemy is quite different from that in western countries, which emphasizes actions in an effort to win.” Sun Tzu’s Art of War focuses on “military means”, or ways of army maneuvers. In the Sun Tzu’s Art of War, there is one paragraph saying “The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected”. MO Dayong, a student of E05 gives the following understanding of this paragraph, “At the beginning of Art of War, Sun Tzu prioritizes strategy that is vital to death or ruin of a State. Indeed, strategy is vital to the death or ruin of a company, too. One may not necessarily succeed with a strategy, but without a strategy he is doomed to fail unless the God gives him special care. A full study and preparation will enable you to know both yourself and your enemy so that you can be sure of victory even before the competition starts. If you can tell false from true and take advantage of the enemy’s weak points and make the most of your own strong points, the victory will be well within your reach”.

After giving a detailed explanation of all 13 chapters in The Art of War, HONG Bing summarized the core logics of China’s strategy theory, “Power is the basis of victory. A forward move can be made if the power is to our advantage. Power can be reinforced by means, manifested by action, displayed by strength, employed by gentleness, executed by knowledge, gathered by concentration, balanced by degree, activated by originality and change, and concluded by accomplishment.”

The student from E05, after attending the lectures, had an unprecedented deep understanding of The Art of War.

In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, another paragraph says, “Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.” CHEN Shiwei, a student of E05 gives his understanding of this paragraph, “How to make the enemy withdraw without a warfare? How to acquire more benefits without fierce competition? Companies with foresight will always take a step ahead of others and start their business in the completely new realm where there is great potential but no rival. To explore the new resources and take the abundant business opportunities is called the ‘Blue Sea Strategy’.”

Another paragraph in The Art of War goes like this, “Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe who he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning may be called a heaven-born captain.” SHI Junrong gives his understanding of this paragraph: One key word in The Art of War is “gentleness”. With gentleness, we can conquer everything and include everything. By using water that is most commonly seen in nature, Sun Tzu explains the idea of “overcoming strength with gentleness” in Chinese culture. For modern business community where the market situation is forever changing, the only thing that remains unchanged is the change itself. Each corporate leader must always consider how to make his company grow and develop in the environment of continuous changes.

The students said that although they have read The Art of War before, this is the first time that they have read all the 13 chapters in a systematic way with the guidance of a well-known master. They said, “We must repeatedly chew and digest the contents of the book for deeper understanding. The more we read it, the more we feel the book is abstruse and related to modern business competition and that the Chinese culture is far-reaching and profound.”

In fact, the genuine wisdom only lies in human brains and is not limited by time or space. Means of victory are correlated. This explains why The Art of War has been passed on and cast the light of wisdom on competitions that happen anywhere and any time. All genuine wisdom is simple and plain. Sun Tzu’s Art of War has only 13 chapters with a little more than 5000 characters. However, it is the genuine wisdom and the essence of human civilizations. Our deep understanding of the core wisdom in The Art of War is the vital weapon that we can employ to win in all competitions.

By CHEN Yuanhong, BiMBA E05

Part II Maling Battle between Kingdom Qi and Kingdom Wei – IQ and EQ

After listening to the explanations of basic strategy theory and warfare guiding principles in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the student has learnt in a very short time the essence of traditional Chinese strategic theories and the basic principles of warfare victory. By combining their understanding with the site experience and profound analysis, the students will master the traditional Chinese strategic theories.

Preface: A Visit to the Museum of Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain

Coming out of the Linyi Airport of Shandong Province, the students visited the Museum of Han Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain in Linyi. The military books ofSun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s Art of War were unearthed from the Han Tomb. YANG Ling, Assistant Researcher of the Museum introduced to the students about the bamboo art of war books unearthed there, antiques from the Han Tomb, history of Linyi and the past competition between Kingdom of Qi and Kingdom of Wei during the Warring States Period.

Museum of Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain is located in the city of Linyi in Shandong Province and is China’s first Han tomb bamboo slips museum. Here people unearthed the bamboo books of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s Art of War, which became sensational across the world and settled the question of whether these two books really exist. Listening to the exciting explanation of Assistant Researcher YANG Ling, the students understood the military strategies of Sun Tzu and Sun Bin and had an overall knowledge of their warfare thought and tactic principles. They were all greatly enlightened. Sun Tzu’s Art of War mentioned defeating the enemy without warfare and that “Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage”, which represents the high strategic level of inner saint and outer king. The so-called inner saint means that one must strengthen his inner moral and foster himself as a saint. The so-called outer king does not necessarily mean struggling for the throne. It actually means that one must make a difference, help with social progress and achieve a great career. All of these qualities are also necessities for modern entrepreneurs.

Schedule: A Review of Past Warfares

Leaving the Museum of Bamboo Slips, we drove for 2 hours along the marching route of Maling Battle between Qi Kingdom and Wei Kingdom to the northern section of Maling Hill in Tancheng County. In Maling Battle Relics Park of Tancheng County, HAN Minglin, Deputy Head of Tancheng County introduced to the students about the background and details of Maling Battle. The Battles of Guiling and Maling are very famous battles guided by Sun Bin of Warring States Period. Sun Bin created the tactics of Saving Kingdom of Zhao by Besieging Kingdom of Wei and deceiving enemy by reducing the number of cooking furnaces. At last, Sun Bin killed his opponent Pang Juan at ancient Maling Path with arrows. The Maling Battle greatly influenced the strategic situation of the Warring States Period. By analyzing the strategic decision-making, command and maneuver employment success and failure of Sun Bin and Pang Juan in Maling Battle, BiMBA students had a deeper understanding of strategic thought in Sun Tzu’s Art of War. The site experience, together with the explanations and analyses has brought to life the famous battle in 342 B.C. between armies led respectively by Sun Bin and Pang Juan who shared the same teacher named Gui Gu Zi.

We can say that the conclusion of struggle between Sun Bin and Pang Juan has been determined before their direct conflict. The competition between them started when they began to learn the art of war from their teacher Gui Gu Zi when they were young people. Sun Bin was talented and expert in thinking over matter, quick to learn. He could employ flexibly what he learnt from his teacher. Pang Juan was arrogant and narrow-minded. Though gifted, he was not diligent enough and usually stopped after getting a little knowledge of his subjects. Defeated by Sun Bin in Guiling Battle, he felt ashamed and his confidence was severely battered. In the Maling Battle 10 years later, the result was indeed pre-determined and Pang Juan was doomed to be defeated by Sun Bin. The reason is apparent. The General has to stay calm and objective if he wants his decision to be closest to laws. This is a requisite for victory.

The students walked to the tree under which Pang Juan was killed by arrows on arriving at Pang Juan Ditch. They can personally feel his despair and shame at the recognition that he was taken in. The geographic feature of Pang Juan Ditch is called a death place in military term, meaning “no exit and never return”. The trees are dense and the path is narrow. The geographic feature helped Sun Bin to realize his trick of seducing the enemy into the death place where Pang Juan was killed by arrows.

Enlightenment: IQ and EQ

IQ: Success Comes from Careful Calculations and Vice Versa

Sun Tzu said, “Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple where the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus many calculations lead to victory and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.” Here Sun Tzu means that careful planning must be done before warfare and that excellent strategic layout comes from accurate calculations of actual tactic details.

In his youth, Sun Bin is diligent in studying the art of war. The spirit of deep learning has laid a good foundation for his future warfare experience. It really confused his enemy to put an ambush in Xinzheng of Henan Province 600 hundred kilometers away. A strategic disguise of losing 4 small-scale battles triggered Pang Juan’s uncontrollable desire to kill Sun Bin, making him more perceptual and less reasonable. At last, Sun Bin seduced Pang Juan into the ambush that he had studied for many years and killed him, leaving Sun Bin’s name in the history by the battle of Tancheng.

Thus, the leaders must have enough IQ to possess the ability of planning and devising strategies for competitions, i.e. the ability to judge the situation accurately, build up partial advantages and convert them into actual victory.

EQ: Key Quality for Leaders

Besides the enlightenment in strategy and tactics, the Maling Battle provoked our deep thought of leaders’ EQ.

In the state of war featured by tense competition, the general must keep calm and objective. Only in this way can his decision-making be closest to the laws and it is a requisite for victory. This very principle for war also applies to modern businesses competitions, where there is more room for not only the contest of team intelligence but also for that of mentality. It means we should minimize our mental fluctuation while maximize that of our enemies to seek business opportunities, for intelligence can display normally only when the mentality remains stable.

The leaders of World Top 500 Enterprises do not necessarily have higher IQ than their subordinates or common people. Why have they become CEOs? EQ might partly explain the reason. When enterprises compete against each other as a whole, their team IQs are similar, i.e. the IQ gap between teams is trivial, so the corporate leaders can transfer bulk of the IQ contest to their teams. Then it becomes a crucial factor to determine the victory of modern business warfare whether the corporate leaders themselves have sound self awareness and self restraint and know how to motivate others.

Professor John ZhuangYang, U.S.Dean of BiMBA, wrote about corporate leaders’ EQ in his thesis titled Material Capital, Social Capital and Spiritual Capital – on Various Forms of Capital Accumulation in Modern Society in China, “EQ represents personal values, moral judgment and power of will, control and dedication, and, in my view, it is the most badly needed in modern China and many other places in the world and is one of elements that need to be accumulated in a fast, stable and sustainable way.”

Part III  The Carnage of Mengliang’gu Battle – Team Execution

A Trip to the Mengliang’gu Ridge

Mengliang’gu is the name of a tall but level hill located between Mengyin and Linyi of Shandong Province. Here local people tend to call a hill with a gently sloping top “gu”, and story has it that a famous general of the Song Dynasty named Meng Liang once drilled his troops here, hence its name. To make it somewhat different from ordinary hills, the Mengliang’gu Hill is not really lofty but very hard to climb. Covered with miscellaneous trees and without any stepped path, the steep slope makes it easy to defend but hard to attack.

Before setting out for the Mengliang’gu Battlefield, Senior Colonel SONG Jitian, a drillmaster of Jinan Military Command, explained to the students the military situation at the beginning of the Liberation War, and he also analyzed the application of strategy in the Mengliang’gu Battle as well as the important strategic role it played in the Liberation War.

From May 13 through 16, 1947, East China Field Army, under the command of Chen Yi and SU Yu, launched the Mengliang’gu Battle in Yimeng Hillous Areas, which was a combination of large scale mobile warfare and positional warfare. Embodied in this battle is the tactics of concentrating superior forces to fight a campaign of annihilation, a practice long held by our army, and it set up an example of dismembering and destroying the main attacking force of the enemy from the middle of its front when heavy enemy forces advanced towards us at the same time, which CHEN Yi likened to “beheading the enemy general among his massive forces”.

The Mengliang’gu Battle between CPC and KMT played a decisive role in the stalemate stage of the Liberation War, and its commencement, development and conclusion reflected the combat strategies and tactics levels of CPC and KMT in a special historical period. The discussion of it helped to improve the student’s abilities of recognizing and solving problems in the present intricate market environment.

After the explanation of Colonel Song, the students were taken to the Mengliang’gu Battlefield for their experiences on the spot. The students were divided into several columns and followed the original attacking routes of Column VI of East China Field Army up to the main peak. Despite the mere 575 meters of altitude, The Mengliang’gu Hill is covered with wild grass and jagged rocks with no existing path, making it very hard to climb. Fifty years have elapsed since the battle, but the shell marks and bullet scars dotting the huge rocks on the slope are still clearly recognizable, which immediately brought the students amid smoke of gunpowder and hails of bullets of 1947, giving them a lifelike feeling of the bloodstained battle scene. Braving their way to the top, the students sensed bravery and tenacity of East China Field Army and admiration filled their hearts.

The Mengliang’gu Battle was a tough fight in which both parties were clear about each other’s strategic intention and tactics scheme, with both SU Yu and ZHANG Lingfu being master commanders. When comparing the forces of both parties, the KMT forces were 450,000, more than 100,000 over those of PLA forces in Shandong, and they were equipped with good and abundant ammunition as well as tanks and airplanes. However, the PLA finally won the battle and completely annihilated the KMT elite division. The fighting was extremely fierce, leaving tens of thousands of horribly mangled bodies over the 1.5 square kilometers of The Mengliang’gu Hill. And the casualty of all columns of the attacking PLA was also heavy (with the killed or wounded PLA soldiers amounting to 12,000) , and even the ammunition supply went short. Worse still, the KMT forces’ advancing towards The Mengliang’gu Hill were laying much stress on the morale of the PLA forces. In such a situation, the only factor determining victory or failure lay in the morale of both parties, especially the confidence and commanding efficiency of the commanders. Then SU Yu issued an order: NO RETREAT! Thus the battle which was originally of equal chance of failure or victory and presented almost the same opportunities of combat for either party was finally won by CHEN Yi and SU Yu and ended in ZHANG Lingfu’s bitter failure. What insight have we gained from the heroic reminiscences of Mengliang’gu Battle?

Importance of Execution

In every undertaking, strategy is a must and of extreme importance, for every success begins with strategic planning. But Strategy alone, however great it is, would go nowhere without forceful execution.

After detailed analyses of the guidelines and deployments of both parties involved in the Mengliang’gu Battle and going over the battle process, we came to realize that execution is the decisive factor in determining the victory or failure of a battle when the strategic guidelines of both parties are basically right.

In the Mengliang’gu Battle, when ZHANG Lingfu positioned his troops on Mengliang’gu, CHEN Yi and SU Yu immediately saw through Zhang’s strategic intention, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek far in Nanjing also understood his forethought and great stratagem at once. It was a pity that what determined the victory or failure of the battle was not Zhang Lingfu’s strategy. To countermine the PLA, ZHANG Lingfu set the tactics of “annihilating the enemy from the center”, which had seen successful precedents in the military history. But he made a fatal mistake here by neglecting a requisite for this type of strategic execution, namely, team cooperation or support of people. He was trying to carry out the tactics against an overall background where the KMT was divided into so many cliques, all main generals made it their uttermost aim to preserve their own strength and even Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek could do nothing with the generals defying his authority on battlefields, so how could he win the victory?

In the present fierce market competitions, many enterprise leaders are quite excellent, but the excellence of a leader does not mean team excellence. In the “red sea” of business, competitions are more concentrated on how to implement the enterprise strategy more efficiently and forcefully.

To sum up the Mengliang’gu Battle, the fundamental factors to strengthen the execution include: obtaining accurate information on both the enemy and ourselves; developing a right guideline and a thorough program, selecting competent executors; accrediting the executors to adjust the program according to actual conditions; and skillfully recognizing and working out key details.

Developing a Competent Team

To strengthen the execution of an enterprise, a competent team must be developed.

No accomplishment is possible without people. What people should be gathered to accomplish something? What is this something? How to accomplish it and how to make sure this something is good? These are all primary problems facing the enterprise, and to tackle them, it is especially crucial to develop a competent team.

Fundamentally speaking, a team is a group of people with a common goal. A group of people randomly assembled in an elevator are just a group of people rather than a team to achieve a common goal by cooperation. Should the elevator go wrong unexpectedly and the group need to escape as soon as possible, a common goal would emerge and turn the group into a team, and many dynamic team theories would begin to apply.

WANG Kai from E05 expressed his reflections as follows, “A highly efficient team must have a clear and definite common goal. Besides, an effective incentive mechanism is also to be established, and some important information should be provided so that people can closely cooperate before encouraging them to make decisions according to the information. Once such a team is formed, the enterprise execution can be easily improved.”

Summary：Generalship vs. Winning - Justice Shall Prevail

According to Chapter I of Sun Tzu's Art of War, the commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, integrity, benevolence, courage and strictness. These five words completely cover the standards and principles for selecting and assessing professional managers. The instructor HONG Bing thus interprets them: For a commander, wisdom brings about stratagem, integrity ensures well-deserved rewards and punishments, benevolence convinces the people, courage makes him determined, and strictness builds up prestige.

Righteousness and honesty are the chief qualifications for a manager. In other words, a manager must show integrity. No matter how intelligent and capable one is, he must be a righteous person at first, or he would put his own interests before those of the public and take advantage of others or the enterprise. This type of persons usually show a tendency of protecting themselves without principles, while a righteous manager would “advance without coveting fame, retreat without fearing disgrace, make it his only thought to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, and be the jewel of the kingdom” just like the general Sun Tzu described. To advance without coveting fame, the manager would owe the achievements and honors to his subordinates and never take them as his own before others, for it is the team that have made the achievements, and a manager can succeed only if the team succeed. “To retreat without fearing disgrace”, a manager should, once a problem occurs, take the lead to shoulder the responsibility instead of pointing at others and playing the blaming game. “To make it his only thought to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign”, one should put the interests of the public before his own and make that of the enterprise as his starting point and be cooperative.  For a righteous and honest professional manager, integrity lies in his mind and actions, so only integrity can ensure well-deserved rewards and punishments and convince the employees.

When Mr. Hong, Vice-President of China Research Society of Sun Tzu’s Art of War was lecturing on the topic Strategies of The Art of War and Enterprise Competitions, he also emphasized the significance of benevolence. “For a great general, the significance of benevolence can never be overvalued. Only with benevolence can you achieve wisdom and integrity and lead the army of justice. Only with benevolence can you win sincere trust from your subordinates with your moral influence.”  The war is extended politics, and an excellent strategist would never use all armed might to indulge in aggressive wars. For him, “the supreme is to attack enemies’ strategies and plans by thwarting them and next is to attack the enemies’ strategic alliances”, and only in this way can he achieve ultimate supreme strategy by “subduing the enemy without battle”.

One’s culturing of moral determines his spiritual height and state of mind, and will in turn determine the develop level of the whole enterprise. Since its establishment, the BiMBA has been devoted to cultivating advanced managers who are familiar with not only China’s process of reform and opening to the outside world but also the criteria for transnational operations, and helping them grow into entrepreneurs of high thinking, fine cultural taste and strong sense of social responsibility. Last October at the Langrunyuan of CCER, when Professor JohnYang, U.S. Dean of BiMBA, was attending the Second Chinese Business Thought Forum of 2006 co-sponsored by the BiMBA and the magazine 21st Century Business Review as the Executive Chairman of the Organizing Committee, he commented in the opening address, “We found in our long-term teaching and research that contemporary entrepreneurs should possess 4 capitals. The first is human resource capital, which means increasing knowledge and improving IQ by education. The second is social capital, which requires the conversion of competition into cooperation and the development of a relationship integrating both. The third is moral capital, the required MQ for an entrepreneur to step onto the international stage. The fourth is spiritual capital, or an entrepreneur’s world view and value system, which is the foundation of his MQ. ” Professor Yang maintained that people generally paid more attention to the former two capitals, but with the internationalization deepening, more attention should be paid to the latter two capitals. The moral capital and the spiritual capital are hard to achieve and observe, but they bear great significance and will determine the enterprise’s foundation and long term development perspective, so they are well worth our careful thinking and our efforts will be highly rewarding.

There is but one throne and not everybody can access it, so should others change their principles of conduct in their pursuit of survival and development? To resist various temptations and stick to our principles, the core is the “Tao”.  To adhere to one’s own principles of sincerity and integrity by forgetting all external gains and personal losses and living with the loneliness of being unknown or recognized by others, “Tao” must be always cherished in his mind. Only the realization that he is doing the right thing in accordance with the law and making contribution to the society can support a strategist’s adherence to integrity. And only in this way can he keep peaceful in heart and calmly observe and analyze all relevant factors when making strategic planning. Therefore, it takes a master to live calmly with loneliness, and loneliness is also a trial that a real strategist must go through. Only a real strategist can weather all temptations and frustrations and still stick to his original principle of integrity. China is a country undergoing rapid economic development, and our social elites should combine strong ambitions, grand aspirations with a firm sense of social responsibility so as to achieve a higher sublimation of our value judgments and spiritual pursuits.

The site teaching lasted only a few days and ended too soon, but BiMBA students were remarkably touched in their minds. They all agreed that it was a very fruitful strategy teaching program and it was greatly helpful to improve their strategic awareness as well as their strategic execution capabilities.

Learn from History to Achieve Victory in Modern Times

Apr 18-2013   



 

On the Site Experience of Competitive Strategy and Execution of BiMBA

By LU Shuo and WEI Ying

Introduction: An Autumn Trip to the Ancient Battlefield to Reveal the Secret of Leadership

Like an outstanding general, a successful leader must possess excellent leadership, making decisive choices and leading his men to march forward with courage. Meanwhile, a successful corporate organization must have efficient execution of a military organization to achieve victory in competition

War is the top level dynamic competition in the community of human beings and military organizations have proved to be the most efficient organizations since human being activities were recorded first. Decision making and execution in the environment of dynamic competition are displayed to the utmost on the battlefields. As a matter of fact, modern corporate management and organizations have derived from wars and military organizations. Business field resembles a battlefield and on both are numerous uncertainties and complicated competitive environment.

As China’s top business college, BiMBA has long been introducing the military organizations from which modern management derived and the top dynamic competition of wars into its study of modern business management, and BiMBA has also long noticed that top business colleges in western countries had introduced the army experience into corporate strategy, especially corporate leadership and execution. Since 2002, BiMBA has conducted profound cooperation with Academy of Military Sciences and University of National Defense and has organized senior management and military specialists to develop the Site Experience Course of Competitive Strategy, Leadership and Execution, which is oriented to top corporate managing personnel and has yielded excellent feedbacks and results. BiMBA divides the site experience course into two fronts, namely, east front and west front. The east front starts from Linyi of Shandong Province and ranges from Maling Ancient Path to Mengliang’gu Hill, focusing on competitive strategy and execution. The trainees in person experience the conditions of military command and learn how to develop and execute strategy in actual conditions. After that, the trainees will discuss about the similar decision making environment and how to solve problems in the similar environment of companies. Before conclusion, the trainees will exchange their ideas and the instructor will comment on them. The west front ranges from Erdos of Inner Mongolia and Yan’an of Shaanxi Province. By visiting the tomb of Genghis Khan and Tongwan City and analyzing the three victories in Yan’an Defense Battles, the trainees were offered chances to experience and reflect on competitive strategy and leadership.

In September, October and November of 2006, Professor HU Dayuan, Chinese Dean of BiMBA led the second batch of trainees in the BiMBA-PFIZER China Business College Project, students of BiMBA FT05 and PT04 to visit Museum of Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain and study the Maling ancient battlefield and Mengliang’gu battlefield. During the visit, they discussed strategy and tactics with many specialists while studying the thought and maneuvers in Sun Tzu’s Art of War and combining them with the operational strategy in modern business and seeking ways of corporate operation from warfare laws.

The course focused on case study and discussions. Through various forms of teaching, such as site teaching, group case analyses, experience and discussion and comprehensive reports, they analyzed the strategic process of classic battles and enlightened the trainees to consider how to solve problems in the corporate operation strategy and to improve their capability of decisions making and executing efficiently in the market competition.

Part I Strategy in Art of War and Tactics in Corporate Competition: Art of Warfare Lies in the Heart

A review of war history in China and overseas countries finds that two words are highly important whether in the battle between Sun Bin and Pang Juan on Maling Path or that between Su Yu and Zhang Lingfu on Mengliang’gu Hill, namely, cunning and risky. These two words can best explain why the art of warfare lies in the heart.

By WU Hongren, BiMBA E05

The Art of War was a military book written by Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese military master 2500 years ago. As one of the most important classic military books in human history, this 6000-word book has been highly valued by both domestic and overseas strategic masters since it was written and widely employed in military realm and realms beyond militia. Many famous entrepreneurs in modern economic community have found their initiatives in the thought of Sun Tzu to win in the competition. As WU Yuzhang, President of Volvo China, once commented, “All slogans of Volvo are more military than business-like, which can well explain why it has established itself in the fiercely competitive market in China. I have read Sun Tzu’s Art of War very carefully and have applied my understanding of the book in the corporate management.”

In the whole process of the Site Experience Course, Mr. HONG Bing from China Research Society of Art of War has given lectures titled Strategy and Leadership in the Art of War. According to Hong Bing, Sun Tzu’s Art of War reveals the laws of competition and ways of achieving victory and can help us to remain invincible in the fierce competition.

Competition is a common social phenomenon. A country or a company has to defeat its opponents in competition and to prove and reinforce its strength in competition if it is to survive and grow. Otherwise, it will be eliminated mercilessly by the wave of competition. To become the stronger one and the winner in the competition, we must understand the laws of competition and master ways of winning in the competition. In this regard, Sun Tzu’s Art of War can give us the most valuable guidance. War is a typical form of competition as well as the cruelest competition. Sun Tzu’s Art of Warhas revealed the common laws of competition by explaining profoundly the laws of wars.

Mr.Hong cited the following comments of Mr. Michaelson, a famous market sales expert who has long studied how to apply Sun Tzu’s Art of War in USA, “The basic philosophic belief of Sun Tzu is that you can win if you carefully plan your strategy. Besides, if you possess a great strategy, you can win without a battle. This oriental strategy of focusing on strategic wisdom to defeat the enemy is quite different from that in western countries, which emphasizes actions in an effort to win.” Sun Tzu’s Art of War focuses on “military means”, or ways of army maneuvers. In the Sun Tzu’s Art of War, there is one paragraph saying “The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected”. MO Dayong, a student of E05 gives the following understanding of this paragraph, “At the beginning of Art of War, Sun Tzu prioritizes strategy that is vital to death or ruin of a State. Indeed, strategy is vital to the death or ruin of a company, too. One may not necessarily succeed with a strategy, but without a strategy he is doomed to fail unless the God gives him special care. A full study and preparation will enable you to know both yourself and your enemy so that you can be sure of victory even before the competition starts. If you can tell false from true and take advantage of the enemy’s weak points and make the most of your own strong points, the victory will be well within your reach”.

After giving a detailed explanation of all 13 chapters in The Art of War, HONG Bing summarized the core logics of China’s strategy theory, “Power is the basis of victory. A forward move can be made if the power is to our advantage. Power can be reinforced by means, manifested by action, displayed by strength, employed by gentleness, executed by knowledge, gathered by concentration, balanced by degree, activated by originality and change, and concluded by accomplishment.”

The student from E05, after attending the lectures, had an unprecedented deep understanding of The Art of War.

In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, another paragraph says, “Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.” CHEN Shiwei, a student of E05 gives his understanding of this paragraph, “How to make the enemy withdraw without a warfare? How to acquire more benefits without fierce competition? Companies with foresight will always take a step ahead of others and start their business in the completely new realm where there is great potential but no rival. To explore the new resources and take the abundant business opportunities is called the ‘Blue Sea Strategy’.”

Another paragraph in The Art of War goes like this, “Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe who he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning may be called a heaven-born captain.” SHI Junrong gives his understanding of this paragraph: One key word in The Art of War is “gentleness”. With gentleness, we can conquer everything and include everything. By using water that is most commonly seen in nature, Sun Tzu explains the idea of “overcoming strength with gentleness” in Chinese culture. For modern business community where the market situation is forever changing, the only thing that remains unchanged is the change itself. Each corporate leader must always consider how to make his company grow and develop in the environment of continuous changes.

The students said that although they have read The Art of War before, this is the first time that they have read all the 13 chapters in a systematic way with the guidance of a well-known master. They said, “We must repeatedly chew and digest the contents of the book for deeper understanding. The more we read it, the more we feel the book is abstruse and related to modern business competition and that the Chinese culture is far-reaching and profound.”

In fact, the genuine wisdom only lies in human brains and is not limited by time or space. Means of victory are correlated. This explains why The Art of War has been passed on and cast the light of wisdom on competitions that happen anywhere and any time. All genuine wisdom is simple and plain. Sun Tzu’s Art of War has only 13 chapters with a little more than 5000 characters. However, it is the genuine wisdom and the essence of human civilizations. Our deep understanding of the core wisdom in The Art of War is the vital weapon that we can employ to win in all competitions.

By CHEN Yuanhong, BiMBA E05

Part II Maling Battle between Kingdom Qi and Kingdom Wei – IQ and EQ

After listening to the explanations of basic strategy theory and warfare guiding principles in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the student has learnt in a very short time the essence of traditional Chinese strategic theories and the basic principles of warfare victory. By combining their understanding with the site experience and profound analysis, the students will master the traditional Chinese strategic theories.

Preface: A Visit to the Museum of Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain

Coming out of the Linyi Airport of Shandong Province, the students visited the Museum of Han Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain in Linyi. The military books ofSun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s Art of War were unearthed from the Han Tomb. YANG Ling, Assistant Researcher of the Museum introduced to the students about the bamboo art of war books unearthed there, antiques from the Han Tomb, history of Linyi and the past competition between Kingdom of Qi and Kingdom of Wei during the Warring States Period.

Museum of Bamboo Slips from Yinque Mountain is located in the city of Linyi in Shandong Province and is China’s first Han tomb bamboo slips museum. Here people unearthed the bamboo books of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s Art of War, which became sensational across the world and settled the question of whether these two books really exist. Listening to the exciting explanation of Assistant Researcher YANG Ling, the students understood the military strategies of Sun Tzu and Sun Bin and had an overall knowledge of their warfare thought and tactic principles. They were all greatly enlightened. Sun Tzu’s Art of War mentioned defeating the enemy without warfare and that “Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage”, which represents the high strategic level of inner saint and outer king. The so-called inner saint means that one must strengthen his inner moral and foster himself as a saint. The so-called outer king does not necessarily mean struggling for the throne. It actually means that one must make a difference, help with social progress and achieve a great career. All of these qualities are also necessities for modern entrepreneurs.

Schedule: A Review of Past Warfares

Leaving the Museum of Bamboo Slips, we drove for 2 hours along the marching route of Maling Battle between Qi Kingdom and Wei Kingdom to the northern section of Maling Hill in Tancheng County. In Maling Battle Relics Park of Tancheng County, HAN Minglin, Deputy Head of Tancheng County introduced to the students about the background and details of Maling Battle. The Battles of Guiling and Maling are very famous battles guided by Sun Bin of Warring States Period. Sun Bin created the tactics of Saving Kingdom of Zhao by Besieging Kingdom of Wei and deceiving enemy by reducing the number of cooking furnaces. At last, Sun Bin killed his opponent Pang Juan at ancient Maling Path with arrows. The Maling Battle greatly influenced the strategic situation of the Warring States Period. By analyzing the strategic decision-making, command and maneuver employment success and failure of Sun Bin and Pang Juan in Maling Battle, BiMBA students had a deeper understanding of strategic thought in Sun Tzu’s Art of War. The site experience, together with the explanations and analyses has brought to life the famous battle in 342 B.C. between armies led respectively by Sun Bin and Pang Juan who shared the same teacher named Gui Gu Zi.

We can say that the conclusion of struggle between Sun Bin and Pang Juan has been determined before their direct conflict. The competition between them started when they began to learn the art of war from their teacher Gui Gu Zi when they were young people. Sun Bin was talented and expert in thinking over matter, quick to learn. He could employ flexibly what he learnt from his teacher. Pang Juan was arrogant and narrow-minded. Though gifted, he was not diligent enough and usually stopped after getting a little knowledge of his subjects. Defeated by Sun Bin in Guiling Battle, he felt ashamed and his confidence was severely battered. In the Maling Battle 10 years later, the result was indeed pre-determined and Pang Juan was doomed to be defeated by Sun Bin. The reason is apparent. The General has to stay calm and objective if he wants his decision to be closest to laws. This is a requisite for victory.

The students walked to the tree under which Pang Juan was killed by arrows on arriving at Pang Juan Ditch. They can personally feel his despair and shame at the recognition that he was taken in. The geographic feature of Pang Juan Ditch is called a death place in military term, meaning “no exit and never return”. The trees are dense and the path is narrow. The geographic feature helped Sun Bin to realize his trick of seducing the enemy into the death place where Pang Juan was killed by arrows.

Enlightenment: IQ and EQ

IQ: Success Comes from Careful Calculations and Vice Versa

Sun Tzu said, “Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple where the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus many calculations lead to victory and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.” Here Sun Tzu means that careful planning must be done before warfare and that excellent strategic layout comes from accurate calculations of actual tactic details.

In his youth, Sun Bin is diligent in studying the art of war. The spirit of deep learning has laid a good foundation for his future warfare experience. It really confused his enemy to put an ambush in Xinzheng of Henan Province 600 hundred kilometers away. A strategic disguise of losing 4 small-scale battles triggered Pang Juan’s uncontrollable desire to kill Sun Bin, making him more perceptual and less reasonable. At last, Sun Bin seduced Pang Juan into the ambush that he had studied for many years and killed him, leaving Sun Bin’s name in the history by the battle of Tancheng.

Thus, the leaders must have enough IQ to possess the ability of planning and devising strategies for competitions, i.e. the ability to judge the situation accurately, build up partial advantages and convert them into actual victory.

EQ: Key Quality for Leaders

Besides the enlightenment in strategy and tactics, the Maling Battle provoked our deep thought of leaders’ EQ.

In the state of war featured by tense competition, the general must keep calm and objective. Only in this way can his decision-making be closest to the laws and it is a requisite for victory. This very principle for war also applies to modern businesses competitions, where there is more room for not only the contest of team intelligence but also for that of mentality. It means we should minimize our mental fluctuation while maximize that of our enemies to seek business opportunities, for intelligence can display normally only when the mentality remains stable.

The leaders of World Top 500 Enterprises do not necessarily have higher IQ than their subordinates or common people. Why have they become CEOs? EQ might partly explain the reason. When enterprises compete against each other as a whole, their team IQs are similar, i.e. the IQ gap between teams is trivial, so the corporate leaders can transfer bulk of the IQ contest to their teams. Then it becomes a crucial factor to determine the victory of modern business warfare whether the corporate leaders themselves have sound self awareness and self restraint and know how to motivate others.

Professor John ZhuangYang, U.S.Dean of BiMBA, wrote about corporate leaders’ EQ in his thesis titled Material Capital, Social Capital and Spiritual Capital – on Various Forms of Capital Accumulation in Modern Society in China, “EQ represents personal values, moral judgment and power of will, control and dedication, and, in my view, it is the most badly needed in modern China and many other places in the world and is one of elements that need to be accumulated in a fast, stable and sustainable way.”

Part III  The Carnage of Mengliang’gu Battle – Team Execution

A Trip to the Mengliang’gu Ridge

Mengliang’gu is the name of a tall but level hill located between Mengyin and Linyi of Shandong Province. Here local people tend to call a hill with a gently sloping top “gu”, and story has it that a famous general of the Song Dynasty named Meng Liang once drilled his troops here, hence its name. To make it somewhat different from ordinary hills, the Mengliang’gu Hill is not really lofty but very hard to climb. Covered with miscellaneous trees and without any stepped path, the steep slope makes it easy to defend but hard to attack.

Before setting out for the Mengliang’gu Battlefield, Senior Colonel SONG Jitian, a drillmaster of Jinan Military Command, explained to the students the military situation at the beginning of the Liberation War, and he also analyzed the application of strategy in the Mengliang’gu Battle as well as the important strategic role it played in the Liberation War.

From May 13 through 16, 1947, East China Field Army, under the command of Chen Yi and SU Yu, launched the Mengliang’gu Battle in Yimeng Hillous Areas, which was a combination of large scale mobile warfare and positional warfare. Embodied in this battle is the tactics of concentrating superior forces to fight a campaign of annihilation, a practice long held by our army, and it set up an example of dismembering and destroying the main attacking force of the enemy from the middle of its front when heavy enemy forces advanced towards us at the same time, which CHEN Yi likened to “beheading the enemy general among his massive forces”.

The Mengliang’gu Battle between CPC and KMT played a decisive role in the stalemate stage of the Liberation War, and its commencement, development and conclusion reflected the combat strategies and tactics levels of CPC and KMT in a special historical period. The discussion of it helped to improve the student’s abilities of recognizing and solving problems in the present intricate market environment.

After the explanation of Colonel Song, the students were taken to the Mengliang’gu Battlefield for their experiences on the spot. The students were divided into several columns and followed the original attacking routes of Column VI of East China Field Army up to the main peak. Despite the mere 575 meters of altitude, The Mengliang’gu Hill is covered with wild grass and jagged rocks with no existing path, making it very hard to climb. Fifty years have elapsed since the battle, but the shell marks and bullet scars dotting the huge rocks on the slope are still clearly recognizable, which immediately brought the students amid smoke of gunpowder and hails of bullets of 1947, giving them a lifelike feeling of the bloodstained battle scene. Braving their way to the top, the students sensed bravery and tenacity of East China Field Army and admiration filled their hearts.

The Mengliang’gu Battle was a tough fight in which both parties were clear about each other’s strategic intention and tactics scheme, with both SU Yu and ZHANG Lingfu being master commanders. When comparing the forces of both parties, the KMT forces were 450,000, more than 100,000 over those of PLA forces in Shandong, and they were equipped with good and abundant ammunition as well as tanks and airplanes. However, the PLA finally won the battle and completely annihilated the KMT elite division. The fighting was extremely fierce, leaving tens of thousands of horribly mangled bodies over the 1.5 square kilometers of The Mengliang’gu Hill. And the casualty of all columns of the attacking PLA was also heavy (with the killed or wounded PLA soldiers amounting to 12,000) , and even the ammunition supply went short. Worse still, the KMT forces’ advancing towards The Mengliang’gu Hill were laying much stress on the morale of the PLA forces. In such a situation, the only factor determining victory or failure lay in the morale of both parties, especially the confidence and commanding efficiency of the commanders. Then SU Yu issued an order: NO RETREAT! Thus the battle which was originally of equal chance of failure or victory and presented almost the same opportunities of combat for either party was finally won by CHEN Yi and SU Yu and ended in ZHANG Lingfu’s bitter failure. What insight have we gained from the heroic reminiscences of Mengliang’gu Battle?

Importance of Execution

In every undertaking, strategy is a must and of extreme importance, for every success begins with strategic planning. But Strategy alone, however great it is, would go nowhere without forceful execution.

After detailed analyses of the guidelines and deployments of both parties involved in the Mengliang’gu Battle and going over the battle process, we came to realize that execution is the decisive factor in determining the victory or failure of a battle when the strategic guidelines of both parties are basically right.

In the Mengliang’gu Battle, when ZHANG Lingfu positioned his troops on Mengliang’gu, CHEN Yi and SU Yu immediately saw through Zhang’s strategic intention, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek far in Nanjing also understood his forethought and great stratagem at once. It was a pity that what determined the victory or failure of the battle was not Zhang Lingfu’s strategy. To countermine the PLA, ZHANG Lingfu set the tactics of “annihilating the enemy from the center”, which had seen successful precedents in the military history. But he made a fatal mistake here by neglecting a requisite for this type of strategic execution, namely, team cooperation or support of people. He was trying to carry out the tactics against an overall background where the KMT was divided into so many cliques, all main generals made it their uttermost aim to preserve their own strength and even Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek could do nothing with the generals defying his authority on battlefields, so how could he win the victory?

In the present fierce market competitions, many enterprise leaders are quite excellent, but the excellence of a leader does not mean team excellence. In the “red sea” of business, competitions are more concentrated on how to implement the enterprise strategy more efficiently and forcefully.

To sum up the Mengliang’gu Battle, the fundamental factors to strengthen the execution include: obtaining accurate information on both the enemy and ourselves; developing a right guideline and a thorough program, selecting competent executors; accrediting the executors to adjust the program according to actual conditions; and skillfully recognizing and working out key details.

Developing a Competent Team

To strengthen the execution of an enterprise, a competent team must be developed.

No accomplishment is possible without people. What people should be gathered to accomplish something? What is this something? How to accomplish it and how to make sure this something is good? These are all primary problems facing the enterprise, and to tackle them, it is especially crucial to develop a competent team.

Fundamentally speaking, a team is a group of people with a common goal. A group of people randomly assembled in an elevator are just a group of people rather than a team to achieve a common goal by cooperation. Should the elevator go wrong unexpectedly and the group need to escape as soon as possible, a common goal would emerge and turn the group into a team, and many dynamic team theories would begin to apply.

WANG Kai from E05 expressed his reflections as follows, “A highly efficient team must have a clear and definite common goal. Besides, an effective incentive mechanism is also to be established, and some important information should be provided so that people can closely cooperate before encouraging them to make decisions according to the information. Once such a team is formed, the enterprise execution can be easily improved.”

Summary：Generalship vs. Winning - Justice Shall Prevail

According to Chapter I of Sun Tzu's Art of War, the commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, integrity, benevolence, courage and strictness. These five words completely cover the standards and principles for selecting and assessing professional managers. The instructor HONG Bing thus interprets them: For a commander, wisdom brings about stratagem, integrity ensures well-deserved rewards and punishments, benevolence convinces the people, courage makes him determined, and strictness builds up prestige.

Righteousness and honesty are the chief qualifications for a manager. In other words, a manager must show integrity. No matter how intelligent and capable one is, he must be a righteous person at first, or he would put his own interests before those of the public and take advantage of others or the enterprise. This type of persons usually show a tendency of protecting themselves without principles, while a righteous manager would “advance without coveting fame, retreat without fearing disgrace, make it his only thought to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, and be the jewel of the kingdom” just like the general Sun Tzu described. To advance without coveting fame, the manager would owe the achievements and honors to his subordinates and never take them as his own before others, for it is the team that have made the achievements, and a manager can succeed only if the team succeed. “To retreat without fearing disgrace”, a manager should, once a problem occurs, take the lead to shoulder the responsibility instead of pointing at others and playing the blaming game. “To make it his only thought to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign”, one should put the interests of the public before his own and make that of the enterprise as his starting point and be cooperative.  For a righteous and honest professional manager, integrity lies in his mind and actions, so only integrity can ensure well-deserved rewards and punishments and convince the employees.

When Mr. Hong, Vice-President of China Research Society of Sun Tzu’s Art of War was lecturing on the topic Strategies of The Art of War and Enterprise Competitions, he also emphasized the significance of benevolence. “For a great general, the significance of benevolence can never be overvalued. Only with benevolence can you achieve wisdom and integrity and lead the army of justice. Only with benevolence can you win sincere trust from your subordinates with your moral influence.”  The war is extended politics, and an excellent strategist would never use all armed might to indulge in aggressive wars. For him, “the supreme is to attack enemies’ strategies and plans by thwarting them and next is to attack the enemies’ strategic alliances”, and only in this way can he achieve ultimate supreme strategy by “subduing the enemy without battle”.

One’s culturing of moral determines his spiritual height and state of mind, and will in turn determine the develop level of the whole enterprise. Since its establishment, the BiMBA has been devoted to cultivating advanced managers who are familiar with not only China’s process of reform and opening to the outside world but also the criteria for transnational operations, and helping them grow into entrepreneurs of high thinking, fine cultural taste and strong sense of social responsibility. Last October at the Langrunyuan of CCER, when Professor JohnYang, U.S. Dean of BiMBA, was attending the Second Chinese Business Thought Forum of 2006 co-sponsored by the BiMBA and the magazine 21st Century Business Review as the Executive Chairman of the Organizing Committee, he commented in the opening address, “We found in our long-term teaching and research that contemporary entrepreneurs should possess 4 capitals. The first is human resource capital, which means increasing knowledge and improving IQ by education. The second is social capital, which requires the conversion of competition into cooperation and the development of a relationship integrating both. The third is moral capital, the required MQ for an entrepreneur to step onto the international stage. The fourth is spiritual capital, or an entrepreneur’s world view and value system, which is the foundation of his MQ. ” Professor Yang maintained that people generally paid more attention to the former two capitals, but with the internationalization deepening, more attention should be paid to the latter two capitals. The moral capital and the spiritual capital are hard to achieve and observe, but they bear great significance and will determine the enterprise’s foundation and long term development perspective, so they are well worth our careful thinking and our efforts will be highly rewarding.

There is but one throne and not everybody can access it, so should others change their principles of conduct in their pursuit of survival and development? To resist various temptations and stick to our principles, the core is the “Tao”.  To adhere to one’s own principles of sincerity and integrity by forgetting all external gains and personal losses and living with the loneliness of being unknown or recognized by others, “Tao” must be always cherished in his mind. Only the realization that he is doing the right thing in accordance with the law and making contribution to the society can support a strategist’s adherence to integrity. And only in this way can he keep peaceful in heart and calmly observe and analyze all relevant factors when making strategic planning. Therefore, it takes a master to live calmly with loneliness, and loneliness is also a trial that a real strategist must go through. Only a real strategist can weather all temptations and frustrations and still stick to his original principle of integrity. China is a country undergoing rapid economic development, and our social elites should combine strong ambitions, grand aspirations with a firm sense of social responsibility so as to achieve a higher sublimation of our value judgments and spiritual pursuits.

The site teaching lasted only a few days and ended too soon, but BiMBA students were remarkably touched in their minds. They all agreed that it was a very fruitful strategy teaching program and it was greatly helpful to improve their strategic awareness as well as their strategic execution capabilities.