When competing in business, there are five key indicators for success that I'm aware of.
1) Purpose : That which causes others to desire to follow you without fear and to have harmony with your goal.
2) Climate : The interaction of the business with the economic climate and common economic patterns. The conduct of operations with this in mind.
3) Situational Awareness : Understanding of the landscape and the exploitations of this to your advantage through strategic play.
4) Leadership : The ability to set a direction of travel and be followed. These include the virtues of leadership - sincerity, humanity, courage, firmness and wisdom.
5) Doctrine : The organisation itself, the mechanisms of control, the level of appropriate autonomy, the structures used, the mechanisms of governance, the different cultural forms and the methods applied.
I have yet to discover five indicators that are better. The above indicators were written about by Sun Tzu, approximately 2,500 years ago. They were called moral influence, weather, terrain, command and doctrine. I've been asked for a list of top 100 strategy books that I recommend reading. After careful consideration, I've now updated my list.
1. Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
2. Read another translation of The Art of War.
3. Read another translation of The Art of War.
4. Read another translation of The Art of War.
5. Re-read any of the above again paying even closer attention to it.
6. Read another translation of The Art of War.
7. Read another translation of The Art of War.
8. Read another translation of The Art of War.
9. Re-read any of the above again paying even closer attention to it.
....
100. Everything else.
Seriously, I do recommend reading & re-reading multiple translations of the Art of War / Warfare.
