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crystallize as valid strategies. Evidence of respect for the passage of time to give veracity to lessons comes from a Chinese historian who was asked in 1925 to identify the lessons of the French Revolution. He replied, "I would love to, but it is still too early to tell." |
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The fundamental principles of strategy are the same for all men, all times, and all situations. Only the tactics changeand tactics are modified to the times. |
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Strategy can be defined as "doing the right thing." Tactics is "doing things right." Where does strategy end and tactics begin? Admiral Mahan in his work on sea power said: |
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Contact is a word which perhaps better than any other indicates the dividing line between tactics and strategy. |
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Strategy stops at the border in war and at the headquarters door in business. Tactics begins with contact with the customer. |
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Sun Tzu's The Art of War provides fundamental lessons for contemporary strategic thought and is a fertile source of ideas for tactics. |
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Because there are so few English language translations of The Art of War, the emergence of the new translation I received in Beijing at a symposium sponsored by "The Research Society of Sun Tzu's The Art of War" has special significance. Translation of Chinese ideograms into English is a complex task because each character can have many different meanings. Consequently, the personal and professional backgrounds of the translators tend to bias the translation. The Chinese language scholars who undertook the difficult task of translating from the original documents concentrated on finding the most accurate interpretations of the ideograms. |
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As author, I made an exhaustive search to locate all English language translations. Each translation has been reviewed to find areas where different interpretations would benefit the reader. |
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Eastern and Western strategic writings exist as two distinct and separate sources of information, seldom communicating with each other. Western strategists build upon the strengths of previous Western strategists; Eastern strategists similarly reinforce each other. Neither build on the strength of the other. This book provides a conceptual linkage between the fundamental lessons of the two. By analyzing key concepts from both Eastern and Western |
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