Sun Tzu was wrong

As this teacher, a greeting from Ecuador, I will allow me to make a comment about your article that certainly seems very interesting. From a business point of view has a fairly realistic applicability, however, I think that this conflicting dynamics, to know how clear is this the operating environment (market), there is a variable that many of us minimize or consider it as a variable useless, "uncertainty", that uncertainty, the military call it the "Cloud War" can be translated as the lack of information Commanders / decision makers need to make decisions; It is necessary to satisfy those gaps. To dispel these doubts, these information gaps or clear the cloud of uncertainty in the operating environment (market), both are concerned with decision makers, it is necessary to close these information gaps as soon as possible, so they allows make timely and accurate decisions in good business. Therefore we must be clear that the presence of uncertainty, as an integral part of the decision-making process is realistic, and having a specific gravity, in solving a business problem where conflicts of interest arises. While it is true, Case Sun Tzu, has been applied for many centuries to express what would be the most optimal condition that must exist in decision-making; it expresses us; in prose a way to observe the battlefield and see the effects of not adequately consider the lack of information in this field, therefore, if you know your enemy and you know yourself you need not fear the result of a hundred battles, has an irrefutable truth, because if we know the enemy, know their capabilities, weaknesses, their strengths and know how to face, just as in competitor / adversary, could also knowing or not something from us , that is where the uncertainty is present variable. In the next sentence If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory they will also suffer a defeat; if we do not know everything about the enemy, surely we can not always win, but what if the enemy if you know all of us, what would be the scenario, it is resubmitted uncertainty. Finally, If you do not know the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb sure in every battle, this sentence itself, the entire analysis is summarized. In any case, Case Sun Tzu, remains in force over time, and left us two tasks 1. try to meet the information needs for our decision makers make wise and timely decisions and 2. That we are responsible for implementing actions to minimize the "uncertainty" always present.

I'd like to add: in a perfect scenario, if the result is predictable and the prediction is defeat, the battle will not happen.

Hallo my friend! I agree on your thesis that if we all knew the basics; know yourself and your enemy all players should stay equal chances to win. However my favorite part of Sun Tzu is the part of deception. A CI unit should be combined with a strategic strike team to make the best out of the gathered information. A competitor is best beaten off guard. "When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near".

I'm sorry to say this, Adrian, but I'm afraid you have misunderstood Sun Tzu’s statement. By saying “know your enemy”, he actually meant how you should study well your enemy (his behavior, desire, strength, weakness and so on) so you can predict his strategy and the most likely next movements. By saying this, knowing your enemy has nothing to do with reading Sun Tzu and even you have read thousand times “The Art of War”, it will not rise your knowledge concern your enemies unless you jump out the book and start doing an effective fieldwork. People can do great intelligence works even they don’t know Sun Tzu. Moreover, having a Competitive Intelligence department per se will not make a company perform better. The best sales performance is provided by a conjoined effort among very departments in the company and not only a CI department.