29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Factoids, April 8, 2007
This review is from: The Illustrated Art of War (Hardcover)
Thought I provide some facts about this edition of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Samuel B. Griffith. The translation in this book is the same as the UNESCO edition (ISBN 0195015401,) but there are some differences in the contents.
Removes Appendix III. Sun Tzu in Western Languages
Removes Appendix IV. Brief Biographies of the Commentators
Removes the Maps
Adds seventy-five images
Pages are in a satin texture
In addition, this translation was done earlier than the findings from 1972, however, the analysis and commentary is top notch, so I would definitely recommend reading this and additional more up to date translation to complement.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitive Translation with Superb Illustrations, February 21, 2006
This review is from: The Illustrated Art of War (Hardcover)
I do not recall the first time I read Sun Tzu's The Art of War but it must have been at least 35 years ago. Frankly, during that first reading, I saw no relevance of any of his various strategies to the business world. Nor did I have any interest whatsoever in a military career. What fascinated me then were Sun Tzu insights concerning the importance of deception: when small, seem great...and vice versa; when far away, seem near...and vice versa; when exhausted, seem robust...and vice versa. Etc. Of course, I failed to realize at that time that the Viet Cong, for example, effectively used many of the same strategies based on deception to defeat superior French and then US forces in what was then Indo-China. In fact, throughout preceding military history, there are countless other examples of warfare during which numerically inferior forces prevailed by exploiting advantages created by stealth, speed, hit-and-run attacks, etc.
What we have in this volume is Samuel B. Griffith's superb translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, accompanied by elegant illustrations and supplemented by informative background material which includes biographies of Sun Tzu (in Griffith's preface) and various commentators (in Appendix II). Also, and equally important, background information which establishes a frame-of-reference within which to gain a better understanding of the age during which Sun Tzu lived. I also appreciate the reader-friendly lay-out which juxtaposes primary text with pleasing illustrations and complementary sources.
As I recently read The Illustrated Art of War, I was again reminded of statistics which Michael Gerber provides in E-Myth Mastery: "Of the 1 million U.S. small businesses started this year [2005], more than 80% of them will be out of business within 5 years and 96% will have closed their doors before their 10th birthday." These are indeed chilling statistics. I wonder how many small companies which fail could have survived, if not prospered, had their owners/CEOs read and then effectively applied the strategies which Sun Tzu recommends.
Most (if not all) of those strategies are also relevant to much larger organizations. Consider what Jack Welch once said during one of GE's annual meetings when explaining why he admires small companies: "For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy." Of course, there are other editions of The Art of War (including one also featuring the Griffith translation) but I prefer this one for reasons previously indicated.
In recent years, there has been a number of excellent books which also examine many of the same strategies within a business context, notably Paul Flowers' Underdog Advertising, Jason Jennings' Less Is More and Think Big, Act Small as well as Robert Tomasko's Bigger Isn't Always Better: The New Mindset for Real Business Growth, Bo Burlingham's Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, Gerald Michaelson's Sun Tzu: The Art of War For Managers, and Mark McNeilly's Sun Tzu and the Art of Business.
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Edition of a Timeless Classic, January 22, 2006
This review is from: The Illustrated Art of War (Hardcover)
It has to be a little strange that we are still reading Sun Tzu's book. It's been at least 2,000 years since it was written (We don't know exactly when it was written, most guesses are from 100 to 600 BCE.) and we really don't know if Sun Tzu even existed (Some say it was written by a group of unknown Chinese philosophers.)
You would think that the situations in ancient China would be so different that they would have no lesson at all to our modern times. Yet it turns out that the book is still read. It is read by military men, by atheletes, and by corporate executives.
The way it is written, the philosophies it expouses seem to have timeless meaning and when we read the words we recognize some things about our own situations, our own lives. Perhaps like the Bible, there are universal truths that do not dimish with time.
This is a beautiful edition of the book. It has the S. B. Griffith translation, combined with some 75 illustrations (mostly color). The illustrations are photographs, paintings, or art objects from China that keep in the spirit of the book and remind us of another culture as well as of another time.
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