Sun Tzu, Peter Drucker and Steve Jobs

Sun Tzu , Peter Drucker and Steve Jobs (April 22, 2012)

If one were to google Sun Tzu, one would find that his writing is older than Christianity and though his work is principally predicated on the art and science of war, the practical applications of his writings is also applicable in business.  And after going through his works again, what strike me most are pre-conditions before one sets off and declare war on an opponent.  Accordingly, one only goes to war if the following conditions are met:

1.       You only go to war when there is no other alternative.

2.       You only go to war when there is an advantage to be gained.

3.       You only go to war when victory is assured.

4.       You only go to war when your defense is in play.

Personally, the acronym is AVAD, so that I wouldn’t forget these important elements of war.  And being an element, if one or two criterions are missing, then common sense dictates that the act of war would have to take the backseat.  As Sun Tzu was saying, the conduct of war is an art and science as well.

Peter Drucker is considered the father of modern management and among his many quotable quotations; I always recall this particular piece, “the first purpose of business is the creation of a customer”.  No business, whether in the selling of goods or services will ever thrive or survive without a customer.  So at the risk of sounding redundant, any business is best served by the function of customer creation.  He is also credited for the first writer ever to coin the word “knowledge worker”.  If there is no need for a particular goods or services than by god, you create a need and find a customer.

The application of this mantra in psychology is far-reaching.  This mindset of customer creation is palpable in the realm of business psychology, industrial psychology and consumer psychology.  Just think of a particular science dedicated to the prediction of consumer behavior, interpretation of customer, description of a particular consumer, understanding of the many needs of the customer and the manipulation of their behavior.  Now that wouldn’t be so bad for business and psychology as well.

The talent here is how to connect Sun Tzu with Peter Drucker and if we could connect this two immortal dots then the world is ours for the taking.

Prior to the untimely demise of Apple’s Steve Jobs, it was reported that Apple as a company has more cash on hand than the US government; the figure is estimated to be around 76 Billion dollars (for Apple) as opposed to the 73 Billion dollars of the US government.  Now why is this possible?  This was possible because Apple has consistently innovated and created customers from the production and selling of I-pod, to I-phone and recently, to I-pad.

Psychology as a science and as a discipline should innovate and create new customers and consumers of its outputs.

The world is full of naysayers and it is our job to prove them wrong…