The Art of War

Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War around 500 BC, and it remains the most important book on strategy ever written — not because war has not changed, but because the principles of strategic thinking have not. Every concept in modern competitive strategy — first-mover advantage, concentration of force, deception, terrain analysis, intelligence gathering — originates here.

The book is organized into 13 chapters covering planning, waging war, strategy, tactics, energy, opportunities, maneuvering, variation of tactics, the army on the march, terrain, the nine situations, fire attacks, and intelligence. Each chapter is dense with aphorisms that apply directly to business competition: 'All warfare is based on deception.' 'Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.' 'Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.'

Every serious business strategist has read The Art of War. It is short (under 100 pages in most translations), infinitely re-readable, and applicable to everything from market entry to negotiation to organizational design. The fact that it has been continuously studied for 2,500 years is the only endorsement it needs.