On dispersive ground, I would inspire my men with unity of purpose.Unity is a critical and recurrent theme of Sun Tzu’s Art of War, but not necessarily one that is highlighted by most authors and Sun Tzu scholars. I am absolutely convinced that this attribute is just as important for small-business practitioners to be able to survive and thrive as it was for Sun Tzu and his military forces. This chapter follows from “Focus” (Chapter 9), because for a team to be unified, its members must understand and share the organization’s focus.
This passage speaks volumes about the importance of unity to the small-business leaders who will seek to apply it. Here we see again Sun Tzu’s strategy to use the many to attack the few. This is particularly pertinent for small forces:
We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be many to the enemy’s few.
As Sun Tzu experienced in his distinguished military career, dividing the enemy is a sound way for a smaller force to see victory. Similarly, it’s essential that the small force remains united, even in the face of great adversity.
Joe Calloway has made some observations in his study of extraordinary companies. While these conclusions are important, they certainly aren’t revolutionary. It’s something we can see and experience in the companies we work for and with and follow in the media. Calloway says that each of these exceptional performers has a clear sense of who they are. They don’t define themselves by what they sell. Instead, their sense of “who they are” is measured by their impact on employees, stakeholders, and customers. They’re driven to serve, accomplish, and achieve. They also share an ability to differentiate themselves clearly and powerfully.1
A small-business leader who can develop this sense of unity would surely revolutionize that entire organization. And a unified organization is one that knows itself well enough to have clear and powerful differentiators. It’s a rare and special small business whose entire force has the same goals and objectives and is moving as one unified force. It’s much more common to see each player concerned only with her domain and not cognizant of how that work impacts the organization overall. The tolerance for silos in many small businesses is alarmingly and inexplicably high. Instead, small players who want to dominate need to collaborate, learn from each other, and put that learning into action to grow the organization.
Sun Tzu continues his direction on how a small force can divide and defeat a larger one:
And if we are able thus to attack an inferior force with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straits.
To overtake a larger adversary, be unified and seek to separate the enemy.
If his forces are united, separate them.
This passage on reading cues from the enemy doesn’t apply only to physical separation, but also to separating morale and causing confusion among the enemy’s ranks:
Those who were called skillful leaders of old knew how to drive a wedge between the enemy’s front and rear; to prevent cooperation between his large and small divisions; to hinder the good troops from rescuing the bad, the officers from rallying their men.
The consequence, says Sun Tzu, is “to keep them in disorder.”
How, then, do you apply Sun Tzu’s teachings to unite your forces?
Jim Koch was driven by a purpose: “to create a beer revolution in the United States in the same way Samuel Adams created a political revolution,” he told CNN Money.2
Leaders worth following inspire their people not just with clear direction, but with a unified purpose and passionate commitment to a cause:
Hence the experienced soldier, once in motion, is never bewildered; once he has broken camp, he is never at a loss.
When the risk and the odds are greatest, inspired unity is more critical than ever, Sun Tzu says in his direction to an invading force:
The further you penetrate into a country, the greater will be the solidarity of your troops, and thus the defenders will not prevail against you.
The greater the challenge and the mightier the adversary, the stronger the solidarity that will be required of your business.
Speed is a tremendous asset in combat, and the advantage of more nimble, flexible small businesses. But as we all know, some campaigns go on longer than we’d like. This is not ideal and can cause stagnation:
When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.
Inspiring forces to unity is an ongoing initiative, not a once and done proposition. It’s critical to ensure that your people hear a clear, consistent, positive message that unites their ranks. If they don’t, your organization will be open to risks from without and within:
When the army is restless and distrustful, trouble is sure to come from the other feudal princes.
Sun Tzu’s conclusion is clear. If dissention is allowed among the ranks, it will create opportunities for the enemy.
The following passages from the sage may, at first pass, seem difficult to transmit from a military to a business context. But only at first pass:
Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight. If they will face death, there is nothing they may not achieve. Officers and men alike will put forth their uttermost strength.
Business is serious, but it’s not that serious, at least not to most employees. But, if you are able to instill deep loyalty, you’ll build exceptional teams who will serve your customers in exceptional ways. Inspire your people to behave as if it’s not just a job, but a cause, and they’ll put forth their utmost strength—which, ultimately, will help the entire organization to weather the storms and maintain its talent. The same is true for building an exceptionally loyal customer base.
ZAPPOS
This kind of unity creates a consistent experience for the customer. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh led the online company from almost no sales to more than $1 billion in gross sales annually. Then he sold the company to Amazon in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. The key to his success has been a culture of customer service and valuing employees. His formula has been to combine profits and passion and give people an opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves. In his book, Delivering Happiness, Hsieh shares some radical concepts, including how Zappos seeks to change the world, and unify customers and employees in that crusade.3
Hsieh has said that Zappos decided a long time ago that the brand wasn’t going to be limited to the shoes and, later, clothing that the company sold. Instead, Zappos set out to build a brand that was about the very best customer service and customer experience. “We believe that customer service shouldn’t be just a department, it should be the entire company,” he has said.4
According to Hsieh, if they got the culture right, everything else—exceptional customer service, a strong long-term brand, and passionate employees and customers—would occur naturally. To this end, Zappos has turned down many very talented and promising job candidates who could probably very well have brought short-term gains to the bottom line, but who it didn’t believe were fits for Zappos culture. The price of that short-term benefit is well worth sacrificing to protect the brand in the long term, he believes.5 It looks like Amazon agrees.
DISUNITY HAS CONSEQUENCES
These passages speak to Sun Tzu’s commitment to the cause, but they also tap into something else. According to Sun Tzu:
What must unite you is the dire consequences of losing.
Small-business leaders have to be inspiring and uplifting. But should inspiring the forces be done at the risk of omitting the consequences of losing on your business battlefields? Not according to Sun Tzu. Your people must be well acquainted with the consequences of not making their numbers, not hitting deadlines, not delivering, and not accomplishing the mission. They must know what failure will look like to them personally, and to the organization in the aggregate.
Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point.
In warfare, signals show soldiers when and how to maneuver. Here’s the question from the above passage: Is there one particular point on which your people’s ears and eyes are focused? Are they poised to act based on those signals? Do they trust the source of the commands and follow accordingly?
If they are united, the bond they build will be felt across the organization:
When the men are united, the brave cannot advance alone, the cowardly cannot retreat alone. These are the principles for employing a large number of troops.6
Even with a small force, you must have a united body that advances together and doesn’t retreat. To overtake a larger adversary, unity is even more critical. Inspire your people to greatness, while keeping them cognizant of the steep price of losing. Leave mediocrity for the large organizations, while you demand commitment, loyalty, and performance from everyone on your team.
Remember Sun Tzu’s declaration that “the captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.” Keep this thought in mind in your treatment of former competitors who join your fold, either willingly or less enthusiastically, following a merger or acquisition or the collapse of a competitor.
As we saw in the discussion of the various types of ground in “Understand the Market” (Chapter 5), keeping troops moving together is Sun Tzu’s explicit direction on many types of ground:
On dispersive ground, I would inspire my men with unity of purpose.
On facile ground, I would see that there is close connection between all parts of my army.
On contentious ground, I would hurry up my rear.
On open ground, do not become separated.7
On the ground of intersecting highways, I would consolidate my alliances.
On hemmed-in ground, I would block any way of retreat.
The converse of unity is divisiveness, which can lead to a wave of insubordination that can infect the entire organization. If it’s not addressed, it won’t go away, but fester, and its ramifications can be disastrous. Sun Tzu says:
When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the enemy give battle on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the commander-in-chief can tell whether or not he is in a position to fight, the result is ruin.
WEGMANS
Leadership at the Wegmans supermarket chain understands that loyal and committed employees will foster a spirit of loyalty and commitment among customers. To that end, Wegmans offers college scholarships. Full-time employees can be eligible for four $2,200 scholarships with no restrictions on courses of study. Many employees who receive the scholarship decide to build careers with Wegmans.8
According to a company spokesperson, commenting to the Baltimore Business Journal, Wegmans has never laid off an employee. Even when sales have slumped and stores have closed, the company has always offered employees jobs in other areas. The Food Marketing Institute reports that staff, who are nonunion, have a turnover rate that’s half the industry standard.9
Wegmans’ high standards may be behind its low turnover rate. In another example of unity, cashiers may not engage with customers until they’ve completed forty hours of training. The company sends hundreds of staffers across the country, even around the world, to become experts in their products. The company’s leaders don’t just say employees are important. They show it. When they make decisions, the question is: “Is this the best thing for the employee?”10
Their premise is that thinking about employees first will carry through to the customers. A knowledgeable, highly trained, and satisfied employee creates a better experience for customers. This creates loyalty, both in workers and shoppers. The premise is working for the supermarket chain. Across the East Coast, Wegmans stores have the highest average daily sales volumes in the industry.11
The Wegmans mission isn’t to cure cancer or solve world hunger. It’s a grocery store. But, like Zappos, it won’t be limited by a definition of what the stores sell. The Wegmans brand is also about how the company does business. It encourages employee involvement in various community philanthropy programs, which empowers them to see their jobs as part of something much larger. In one philanthropic initiative, Wegmans donated 14.9 million pounds of food to community food banks.12
“It’s really about the community, not the competition,” says one Wegmans store manager.13 But as businesses with the wisdom to be involved in the community know, giving back to the people who support you, in an authentic and meaningful way, is a competitive advantage that creates a unified sense of purpose among everyone it touches.
Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com is an essential executive to include in any study of applying Sun Tzu. Protégé of self-proclaimed Sun Tzu student Larry Ellison, Benioff has applied Sun Tzu’s tenets throughout his career. He’s led Salesforce to change the face of customer relationship management (CRM), and grown it into a global cloud computing company. Benioff told the Sonshi Sun Tzu community that the concept from The Art of War that has been most impactful to him is that people can’t be united or focused unless they share a common philosophy that gives their effort a greater meaning. Salesforce believes that companies’ missions need to be bigger than making a profit. The company itself gives one percent of its equity, one percent of its profits, and one percent of its employees’ time to the community. This helps unite and focus them, and makes for more passionate, valuable employees. Benioff calls it the company’s “secret weapon that ensures we always win.”14
Benioff doesn’t seem to see any risk in bringing the weapon out of secrecy and sharing it with the world. He knows, of course, that this is the sort of commitment a competitor can’t seek to artificially emulate. It’s not like starting a new division, hiring more salespeople, or rebranding the company. No, this is a deep organizational commitment that few are willing to live out.
As with Wegmans, this spirit of unity at Salesforce has been extended to the customer community. Benioff told Sonshi it’s an example of The Art of War’s “strategic thinking rather than combative thinking.” That spirit was foundational in Salesforce’s decision to open its platform, which Benioff believes positions the business so that people want to join its mission, instead of attacking it.15 Nonetheless, there are some great creative combat stories involving Salesforce that you’ll read about in the chapter on spirit.
Think about how, on its face, this business decision to open the company’s platform sounds antithetical to Sun Tzu. Most leaders would be gripped with terror that their competitors would learn too much or be equipped to discern their moves. But not Salesforce. The company allowed customers to extend their Salesforce applications, and even create and run any type of application on demand. Here’s how Benioff characterized the consequence: “By inspiring people to join us and work with us creatively, we gathered an army of innovators who are dedicated to making us better.”16 That’s a community of unity, and it’s proved to be a powerful force for Salesforce.
It is in Salesforce’s competitive tactics, outlined in Chapter 13, “Spirit,” where this unity of purpose comes together quite extraordinarily. The company has managed to brilliantly unite a user community with its “end of software” mission. It has been fueled by a purpose to change how the software industry works, by leveraging the lower cost and more robust power of the web, which was a wholly new concept when Salesforce introduced it to the burgeoning CRM world.17