Ooooooh, yesterday was a good day. Sun Tzu tells us the second best generalship is to “prevent the junction of the enemy’s forces.” Boy did I. The noisy giants were showing me off as war spoils to prospective allies in the CT-NY Creighton Axis (what’s a babysitter?) when I let go the king of all milk bombs. Shut those negotiations down quick, son!

I’ve been rethinking chapter 2 of The Art of War, and the application of logistics. It makes me wonder whether the management craze of Business Is War is right, but for the wrong reasons.

I don’t mean the military industrial complex, but rather “capital B” Business. Like any other complex undertaking, Business is a lot about logistics if you’re in the for the long run. How do I hire, train, and retain the right people? What marketing campaigns do I undertake to grow the brand my customers trust? How do I ensure the right, and evolving, financial structure to undertake all of these and everything else I need to accomplish? War as a metaphor creates unnecessary antagonism and selfishly reduces opportunities to cooperate in “expanding the pie”.

[S]upreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

Stay tuned to see if I can pull that off.