Since the beginning of the business administration science its theories were entangled with war analogies. One of the most mentioned books of the past decades, in fact, was “The Art of War”, written more than 2000 years ago by the Chinese general Sun Tzu.
I have always been fascinated by war stories, ancient battles and military strategies. This is also part of the reason that led me to start working inside the corporate world. During the Roman empire one could join the army, advance gradually and become a general who would then have its own war standard, its commanders and use cleverly crafted strategies to defeat its enemies.
In our modern society things have changed, but not completely. You can still join a corporation (or even create yours), advance gradually and become the CEO. Once you arrive there you will also have your own war standard (the company logo) your commanders (managers) and while you will not be able to kill the enemies, if you are smart enough you will drive them out of business.
Some people, however, are starting to claim that the “The Art of War” inside the business world is dead. Over the last years the book “Bhagavad Gita”, which represents the base of the modern Hinduism, gained a lot attention from managers around the world. This book, as opposed to Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, defends cooperative and altruistic ideals.
Do you think that in the future the business world will cease to behave similarly to the warfare?
Comments are closed.