Strategy can be a baffling subject to a lot of people, but with the current war in Iraq, the Presidential election at stake, and business crises like Enron and Worldcom, a lot more people are taking another look at strategy and what it means.

Can a well thought out strategy prevent international crises or give a more logical perspective to electing the leader of the free world? Does a good strategy prevent business leaders from shamelessly stealing from their company?

Sun Tzu, the acknowledged ancient master of strategy and author of the classic Art of War, would definitely say "Yes"! He outlined five strategic arts that, when taken together, create a simple formula that can be applied to any situation to create win-win solutions:

Do the right thing, and then do things right.

Doing the right thing means choosing a goal that matters, a goal that makes a positive difference in the world, and then achieving that goal with impeccable leadership. When you do the right thing, you want to make a difference in the world, not just make a buck, and leads to peace of mind. It leads to people and corporations with soul, the opposite of the Enrons of the world.

Doing things right means knowing how to get to where you want to go-fast! You can't make a difference in the world if you stay ahead of your competitors. Doing things right means being ready for the future, leveraging everything in your environment, and being ready to act at even the smallest window of opportunity. Doing things right leads to success and profitability.

The modern day business "artists" featured in The Art of Business show us that Sun Tzu's five celebrated strategic arts—possibility, timing, leverage, mastery, and leadership—which are detailed in his famous book The Art of War, form the foundation for excellence. These masters demonstrate that the five arts form a high level strategic framework that can benefit any organization. Their stories illustrate that all strategies are some combination of these five basic arts, just as the eight basic musical notes (in diatonic scale) can produce an endless number of melodies, and the three primary colors can manifest an infinite number of hues.

The stories in this book demonstrate the results of wisely applying these five arts—an organization with soul. Such an organization operates under the auspices of a higher purpose, or Tao, which transforms it from a collection of working people to a community on a mission to make a difference in the world. Guided by this mission, the organization applies the arts of timing, leverage and mastery to walk in step with its destiny; using everything in its environment to achieve its mission and becoming the undisputed master and pioneer of its domain. All of these arts are coordinated by perhaps the highest and most difficult art of all, the art of leadership.

It is the magnificent leadership of these "giants" that is most envied, copied and avidly followed by others. The Art of Business offers you the opportunity to walk with these giants, to learn their secrets and delve into their minds. The Art of Business is a journey in the footsteps of these giants—an opportunity to experience these five arts as they do.

The Art of Business: In The Footsteps Of Giants by Raymond T. Yeh with Stephanie H. Yeh; Hardcover; 279 pages; $19.95; ISBN: 0-9754277-1-7

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