What are Sun Tzu's principles for gaining a competitive edge in the creative strategy industry?

Sun Tzu's insights, adapted for the creative industry, advocate strategic market understanding and innovation. "Know yourself and your enemy": assess your creative strengths and weaknesses and understand competitors to identify market gaps. "Subdue the enemy without fighting": outclass traditional methods by captivating audiences with unique, groundbreaking ideas. "Opportunities multiply as they are seized": prioritize continuous innovation to leverage new opportunities and set industry standards. This approach keeps pace with market trends and actively shapes them with strategic insights, ensuring a competitive edge. It's about creating impactful content and being a trendsetter, not just a follower.

Now that you know this, can you share 1) your insights in detail and perhaps your own current strategy with us? 2) How did you come up with strategy/ies? 3) Has it been effective? 4) Do you think that probably your competitors are also not sitting still, then how ?

Applying Sun Tzu's best-seller "The Art of War" book principles can help us understand market dynamics and competitors' strategies is crucial, emphasis on knowing the enemy. In FMCG this translates to understanding consumer preferences, market trends, and competitors' brand positioning. Strategic planning helps to facilitate swift responses to changing trends. Leveraging innovation in design, materials, and marketing channels is also vital. Effective communication and collaboration across design, marketing, and production teams ensure cohesive brand messaging and product offerings. Lastly, surprising consumers with fresh ideas and unexpected collaborations can help companies stay ahead in a competitive market.

In my experience, knowing myself deeper would be the most important to start with. I was trained by a mentor to really double down on the strength that we have instead of improving on our weaknesses. This will then give a much better competitive advantage in the competition regardless. Early on in starting my agency, we doubled down on just 1 core skill which was motion graphics/animation and we were committed to focus on just one niche area to attract potential clients and partners, even some competitors that we ended up collaborating together on our own strengths to complement each other.

1) Knowing yourself and your enemy means assessing your strengths and weaknesses, as well as understanding the market trends and the competitors’ strategies. 2) Subduing the enemy without fighting means creating innovative and captivating content that outshines the traditional methods and attracts the audience’s attention. 3) Opportunities multiply as they are seized means prioritizing continuous innovation and seizing new opportunities to set industry standards and shape market trends. 4) Effective communication and collaboration across teams, as well as surprising consumers with fresh ideas and unexpected collaborations, are also important factors for success.

The creative space moves very rapidly and one of the things we've come to learn is to be nimble, flexible and to adapt quickly. - Staying informed with the current happenings not just creative trends but political and economy news to stay relevant in our strategy - Experimentation: what I always taught to my students back then was to always have personal project no matter how small or insignificant we may think of it. It gives us a competitive edge to experiment with new tools, trends or other ideas to enrich our expertise - Diverse network: Connecting with different types of professionals has given me different perspectives to apply in my own situation in order to stay relevant.

In this case, being original also could mean synthesizing our experiences, references and encounters with anything or anyone including our competitors. Original does not always mean to create something new. Being original could mean improving something and taking it to a whole new level. One example I notice is how Apple does it with their technology. They are not always the first mover, or being original. Everything that Apple launches might not always be the 'first' or being original. They have always been doing it at the right time instead of the first time. Doing it way better than competitors instead of inventing something totally new.

Subterfuge - remain neutral throughout conflict, never allow your competitors to understand your challenges, they might discover how to solve them faster than you, but if you cultivate an air of uncertainty throughout they will never be able to determine where you derive your confidence so they can’t take it away. This tactic allows you to asses your approach without revealing too much about your strategy.

Sun Tzu's timeless wisdom resonates even in the dynamic realm of creative strategy. In the symphony of innovation and competition, his principles unfurl like a strategic masterpiece. In Sun Tzu's realm of strategic brilliance, the creative strategy industry finds a sage guide. His principles, applied with finesse, illuminate the path to not just a competitive edge but a lasting legacy of innovation and influence.

Strike where it hurts: You should not waste your time and energy on irrelevant or trivial matters, but rather concentrate on the most important and valuable aspects of your project. Agree to disagree? I believe when it comes to defining strategies, no matter could be trivial, coming from experience of payments industry - its the smallest nuances that matter the most when it comes to cutting through the competition.

Being flexible and willing to adjust your approach based on market trends, client needs, and technological advancements is important for staying ahead in an ever-changing industry. The could mean experimenting with new ideas, and pushing the boundaries of traditional methods to deliver new solutions. And not being afraid to question old ways of doing things.

Sun Tzu said, "There are not more than five cardinal tastes (sour, acrid, salt, sweet, bitter), yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted." This means we need to fully understand what we have at the moment, and leverage all elements we have to create something new. This applies to almost everything that requires creativity, because a new idea can be created out of nothing, we just need to know the right combination of elements to make one.