One who studies ancient tactics and employs the army in accord with their methods is no different from someone who glues up the tuning stops and yet tries to play the zither. I have never head of anyone being successful. The acumen of strategists lies in penetrating the subtle amid unfolding change and discerning the concordant and contrary. Now whenever mobilizing you must first employ spies to investigate whether the enemy’s commanding general is talented or not. HSU TUNG, CHINA, 976-1018
Researching or studying a new organization might seem like drinking from a hose of Fire. By adopting structured learning, one can begin the investigation process – compare consistent vs. inconsistent responses. There is never any value in attacking opponents from a direction or in a way that they expect, allowing them to stiffen their resistance – that is, unless your strategy is suicide.
If instead of implementing tactics, he merely relies on courage to employ the army, you resort to ancient methods to conquer him. However, if the commanding general excels in employing ancient tactics, you should use tactics that contradict the ancient methods to defeat him. HSU TUNG, CHINA, 976-1018.
I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste. MARCEL DUCHAMP, 1887-1968
Soft Information
- Talk to people who have critical knowledge of the situation
- Technical / Culture / Politics / Strategy
- Customers – Internal / External
- How do they perceive the organization?
- How about customer service?
- Suppliers – Learn about the strengths and flaws of internal systems
- Distributors – Competitors’ practices and offering
- Logistics of product movement
- Customer service
- Outside analysis – Objective assessment of company strategy
- Front line R&D and operations – Develop and manufacture the products or delivery service
- Learn the organization’s basic processes and relationships with key external constitute
- Sales and procurement – up-to-date info about trends and imminent changes in the market
- Staff – HR / Finance / Legal
- Internal workings of the organization
- Integrators – Coordinate or facilitate cross-functional interaction (Project managers, plant managers, product managers)
- Discover political hierarchies – Identify where internal conflict lie
- Learn links within the company work
- Natural Historians – Company mythology
- Trials of the company / Key stories
Stick to the same script – a brief opening and approach about yourself, followed by questions about the other person ( Family/ background/ interests), and about the business. People may seek you out early precisely to influence you.
The Plow. The ground must be prepared. The blades of the Plow churn the earth in constant motion, bringing air into the soil. the process must go on every year, or the most pernicious weeds will take over and the clumped soil will choke off all like. From the earth, the ploughed and fertilized, the most nourishing and wondrous plants can emerge…[…] In general, in battle, one engages the enemy with the Unorthodox. The Unorthodox and the Orthodox mutually produce each other, just like an endless cycle. Who can exhaust them? Sun-Tzu ( Fourth Century B.C)