So, I create this Google+ page for my new business and I click on the option to post something. Before I start writing, I see the prompt on the post:

What’s new with you?

Well, everything is new. New business, new business plan (rough draft complete), calling people trying to negotiate business is new to me.

Yet, as I was working through a start-up business course provided by the Small Business Centre in Belleville ON, I couldn’t help but notice how some of the ideas in the course correlated with the key concepts of the classic Chinese text called The Art of War.

From The Art of War; On The Usage of Spies:

“Foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy.”

From Wikipedia:

“Market Research is any organized effort to gather information about target markets or customers.”

Pretty similar, Yes?

Just like the old days, you still have to have feet on the ground. Therefore, you still have meet people. You still have to negotiate. You still have to shake hands and you have to maintain relationships by being in front of people.

That will be one the aims of Martial Paths, to compile, correlate ancient texts with modern takes on Strategy, Tactics and Leadership.

–JW

Below, a picture of The Art of War made from bamboo strips found in the tomb of a Chinese Officer circa 118 BC; Han Dynasty.

The graphic on the left depicts a market research formula. Both images from Wikimedia Commons.