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Part - IV

Sun Tzu’s stratagem supports the idea of deception in a war situation as it is more a psychological and calculated move and leads to minimum blood-shed. A remarkable point he makes is that it is not always necessary to physically kill or destroy an enemy.

General Patton says:
‘The acme of skill is in defeating your enemy without even fighting’.

It is said that "truth is the first casualty of war," but a more astute observation is that truth and lies are both weapons of war. Where the truth is more likely to deceive the enemy, the truth is presented; but where a falsehood is more likely to deceive the enemy, a falsehood is given. Either way, the point is to make the enemy believe what you want them to believe.

‘It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.’

His warring principles and strategies are well adopted in marketing warfare strategies like the frontal attack, the guerrilla warfare, the flanking attack, etc.

Napoleon suggests four key innovations for business strategists. They are: -

• Increasing army’s marching rate
• Organizing army into self-contained units
• Living-off country
• Attacking the opponent’s lines of supply

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* Contributed by: -
Minu Batish,
PGP 2003-05,
TAPMI, Manipal,
Published in Bi-annual Journal of TAPMI - 'Amartya'.