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The Art of War 3: The Canons of Commerce

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Business like war requires strategy, intelligence, etc., as exemplified brilliantly by David Goldenberg in The Art of War 3: The Cannons of Commerce. This book has a foreword, 13 chapters, an afterword, three appendices, a detailed bibliography and an index. Besides its timeliness, this well-written book offers great depth and experience-based knowledge. Different people will find a specific chapter(s) particularly appealing as their circumstances change. Dr. Goldenberg has provided a concise background about Sun-tzu. Those readers not familiar with Sun-tzu's classic will find this a pioneering interpretation of one of the rare books to have survived over 2,500 years. It is one of the leading books on strategic thinking and is widely embraced book by leaders and others. The author has brought to public attention many simple but usually missed vital points such as "consumers dominate the world of commerce. Those ignorant of this harsh fact mistakenly rely on a series of fallacies." Anyone who has called the customer service for help of major organization would appreciate the quote above. The author clarifies other crucial nuances, such as "invention is not innovation. Innovation commercializes a discovery or invention." The book brings well thought out and insightful attention to bear on many important topics; among them are leadership, weaknesses and strengths, and contingencies. Decision-makers at all levels of business and government would benefit greatly by reading this book carefully, rereading it regularly and seeing that their subordinates do so as well.

For two and a half millenia, business and military leaders alike have relied on the timeless wisdom of "The Art of War," by Sun-tzu, a Chinese military strategist.

What would Sun-tzu advise corporate directors and executives if he were alive today? While Dr. Goldenberg is not the first to ask this question, he may be the first to answer it usefully.
His modern-day "translation" of Sun-tzu's sage advice brings to life timeless wisdom for an everchanging world.

Art 3 offers sound guidance on strategy, citing important legal precedent: Paramount Communications v. Time Inc. (1989)--a case outlining the traits essential for "bone fide" strategic planning, including connection to long-term mission, assessment of threats and opportunities, and ongoing monitoring of progress against plan.

But topics covered here don't all hover at the 30,000+ strategy realm. Some zoom down to earth--to shed light on operational topics such as resource allocation and markets. Innovation and competitive intelligence also receive insightful attention. Extras include appendices, including a superb one on avoiding catastrophic failure.

Corporate directors serious about their oversight duties, as well as executives desiring to steer clear of trouble, will not want to face the future without this inspired guide.

Written in a crisp style with profound depth and knowledge, Dr. Goldenberg has made a significant contribution to business strategy. There is genuine wisdom here for corporate leaders, in a radical departure from traditional Sun-tzu analyses.

For this reader the very best of this fine work is in Appendix One - Shareholder Value Debunked. If one accepts that the concept of shareholder value led to the spurious inflation of share value to increase the value of management's stock options, then our current corporate scandals may have been avoided.

Dr. Goldenberg, thank you for sharing your abundant intellectual capital!

O. Lee Duff
Anova Inc.

This book was very easy to read. I thought it was very insightful to how to do business. I have read many of the Art of War books and this one really was a positive look at business and commerce. Well done.

"The Art of War 3: The Canons of Commerce is written in the style of Sun-tzu Wu himself: terse, brisk language that simplifies today's world of business complexity, a world burdened by 2,500 years of commerce since the general uttered his declarative instructions to his warriors. I feel like I am reading Hemingway.

"The Three Appendices alone are worth the price of a trip to your favorite bookstore. There, among other highlights, David Goldenberg's brilliant analysis boils down the University of Chicago's contributions to economic literature to something less than two paragraphs." David W. Crain, Ph.D., Adunct Professor of Strategy, Pepperdine University and the University of Southern California.

Based in part on the cover endorsement by Nobel laureate Harry Markowitz, I read Dr. Goldenberg's 102 page book - a modern business application of the ageless military genius, Sun-tzu.

Goldenberg uses the 2500 year old Ping fa as a jumping off point for guiding the reader through the planning and decision-making process.

Short in pages, but long in substance, this book condenses the wisdom of an ancient Chinese warrior and combines it with the author's own keen commercial insights.

There are no "ten ways to better planning" checklists, contrived buzz phrases,or references to cheese movement in this book.

Instead, what you get is a serious guide to building a business through strategic advantage.

Bravo, Dr. Goldenberg!

Goldenberg's The Art of War 3: The Canons of Commerce seeks to translate the tenets of Suntzu's classic Art of War to today's business world. He succeeds in creating his own classic.
Each short 3 to 8 page chapter makes the reader rethink all the management guru mumbo-jumbo circulating today and forces one back to the essentials of good business management. Sets a standard for investors to require from companies. Perfect for airplane reading -provided you can take staring the truth in the face.

Martin J Cooper,
Martin J Cooper & Associates
Business Strategies for Industrial Technologies.

In The Art of War 3: The Canons of Commerce, David I. Goldenberg, a recognized authority on strategic management and a long-time student of Sun-tzu, updates this sixth-century B.C. sage's master work, Ping Fa (or The Art of War) and transforms it into a field manual for today's business executives. In doing so he applies Sun-tzu's thirteen essential topics to the art of business rather than war. Essays on these topics are preceded by a foreword that discusses strategic planning within the framework of modern corporate governance.

If it is surprising that observations made two-and-a-half millenia ago apply to an 1989 Delaware Chancery Court decision (Time-Warner), it is even more astonishing to note how recent business successes and failures have derived from strategies that were sound or flawed according to the age-old principles of Ping Fa. Each of the thirteen topics is expilcated in separate chapters, on basic principles, planning, development strategy, allocation, leadership, weaknesses and strengths, investment, contingencies, operations, market traits, the nine market clusters, innovation, and intelligence.

This field manual is a veritable tour de force, dense, of necessity didactic, and seamless in its weaving together of Sun-tzu's ancient writings and Goldenberg's running commentary. The latter includes generous servings of modern examples that enrich the fare.

In some ways Goldenberg's Canons resemble a Chinese feast. While the reader is unlikely to be hungry for more an hour after having partaked of them, appendices provide three additional courses, each a complete essay on its own. Goldenberg provides a useful summary: "One can win without planning at all. But, one must plan constantly and thoroughly to insure always winning easily... A sound plan will tolerate mediocre execution, but dazzingly brilliant tactics only postpone disaster a little when the strategic plan is unsound or nonexistent."

The leaders of a number of companies recently racked by scandal would have done well to follow this book's precepts, rather than those of Michiavelli's The Prince, as some appear to have done.

Together, Sun-tzu and Goldenberg provide ample guidance not just to avoid catastrophe but to ensure success.