Volume 3

This is Volume Three (27 articles) of our Art of War Playbook. This part of the Playbook focuses on Sun Tzu's concepts for understanding the nature of opportunities in competition. Sun Tzu's unique method is to see opportunities in hidden "openings" that arise from changes in the environment. The Playbook itself is the culmination of over a decade of work breaking down Sun Tzu's principles into a series of step-by-step practical articles by the multiple award-winning author and internationally recognized Art of War expert, Gary Gagliardi. The work explains the concepts in the verses of Sun Tzu's classic on strategy in detail with examples from modern competition. While the original Art of War was originally written for military generals who understood the philosophical concepts of ancient China, our Art of War Playbook is written for today's readers and provide enough descriptive material so that Sun Tzu's ideas can actually be used in everyday life today. Because of its size and detail, the Playbook is published in nine volumes. The concepts covered in this third volume are listed below: Playbook Overview Playbook Overview About Opportunities 3.0.0 Identifying Opportunities 3.1.0 Strategic Economics 3.1.1 Resource Limitations 3.1.2 Strategic Profitability 3.1.3 Conflict Cost 3.1.4 Openings 3.1.5 Unpredictable Value 3.1.6 Time Limitations 3.2.0 Opportunity Creation 3.2.1 Environmental Dominance 3.2.2 Opportunity Invisibility 3.2.3 Complementary Opposites 3.2.4 Emptiness and Fullness 3.2.5 Dynamic Reversal 3.2.6 Opening Matrix Tool 3.3.0 Opportunity Resources 3.4.0 Dis-Economies of Scale 3.4.1 Unity Breakdown 3.4.2 Opportunity Fitness 3.4.3 Reaction Lag 3.5.0 Strength and Weakness 3.6.0 Leveraging Subjectivity 3.7.0 Redefining the Comparison 3.8.0t Strategic Matrix Analysis These articles are written in standard format including 1) the Sun Tzu verse or verses describing the concept, 2) the competitive principle in more modern terms, 3) the situations to which the rule is applied or which necessitates the rule, 4) the opportunity created or exploited by the concept, 5) the list of specific Art of War key methods breaking down the general principle into a series of actionable steps with a reference to related article, and 7) an illustration of the application of each of those steps to a specific competitive arena, i.e. sales, politics, small business, etc. Rules are written generically to apply to every competitive arena (business, personal life, career, sports, relationships, etc.) with each specific illustrations drawn from one of these areas. Articles are references by a number and title. The initial number identifies where each article appears in Playbook Structure. For example, the article 2.1.3 Strategic Deception is the third article in the first section of the second book in the nine volumes of the Strategy Playbook. The Nine Volumes of the Playbook cover the following topics: 1. Positions, 2. Perspective, 3. Opportunities, 4. Probability, 5. Mistakes, 6. Situations, 7. Momentum, 8. Rewards, and 9. Vulnerabilities.