#15 Planning Your Victory: Sun Tzu’s Timeless Strategy for Career, Business, and Life

Planning is like a general pondering over the war plan to consider every factor before choosing the decisive battle to defeat an enemy.

Whose job?

It is amusing that some corporations would hire planning managers. Isn’t planning one of the functions of management? Managers at every level should plan. Although the CEO and top management team lead and decide the strategies,

the plan requires contribution from managers at every level.

An on-going job

Planning is an on-going process. Like military generals who ponder daily over plans, we too should regard our daily enterprise like warfare so as to be alert to each change, analyze its implication and develop strategies accordingly to provide some predictions of the outcomes.

How to plan?

Planning should not be a complicated process as some academics would try to impress. All we need is some time, a pen and paper. Start with a vision as to where you want to go or what you want to be. Specify your objectives – what you wish to accomplish – in clear, simple and measurable terms. Next, consider your action plan – how to turn your vision into reality. Each step requires a time frame or schedule. Then do what you have proposed to do. If we are alert to change, we will review our plan and modify accordingly. Simple, isn’t it?

As early as 1977, I already planned to set up my company one day. Although I had visions of myself teaching and mentoring businessmen and executives, I realized I did not have the qualifications and experience. Having set the objective to be the

best, I decided to discipline myself with hardship. So, I went for tough jobs, took on and difficult assignments or projects. I volunteered to work for demanding bosses or handle fastidious customers. I wanted the opportunities to learn. I

also took up part-time studies.

After sugar king Robert Kuok agreed to turn around the ailing Multi-Purpose Holdings Berhad, I left my comfortable job as Sales & Marketing Manager at Malayan Sugar to join the turnaround team. Besides learning to identify critical problems and strategize solutions, I also learnt how to handle people softly. In 1991, after I got my MBA (with Distinction) from the University of Stirling in Scotland, I moved to Singapore. I foresaw Singapore would become the Asian financial hub as Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997 would jitter many investors.

As my vision also led me to see myself as the best in my chosen field, I decided I had to be unique. So, I wrote books and created my proprietary courses based on Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which enabled me to charge premium fees.

In 1993, PepsiCo bought out its joint-venture partner, Inno-Pacific Holdings to take full control of KFC Singapore. A year later, its myopic Asia Pacific Vice-President retrenched me as Director of Operations. That pushed me to set up Stirling Training &

Management Consultants Pte Ltd and went on to establish myself as one of the world’s few top speakers on Sun Tzu’s Art

of War.

Six years later, in 1999, I moved to the Cameron Highlands, earning Singapore Dollars albeit spending in Ringgit Malaysia.

All this proves the power of planning.

Planning for exit

 Few realize that planning for our final exit is just as important as planning for a successful career or business. Our success

demands that we also plan our final exit by having a last Will and Testament so that there shall be no dispute for our next-of-kin when it’s time to move on.