Another chapter on terrain. This leaves us with two more reading chapters until we are done with this book. I will wrap it up with one more opinion on the whole book and then moving on to something else. I am thinking that I might give book reviews a rest until the new year since we are so close to the end of the year. Don’t worry I will announce what it is to give you a chance to start.

The thing that makes this different the last chapter is that this one talks about the tactics on the different types of terrain. I am not going to rehash the types and responses, you can read that for yourselves. But the general idea is the deeper the army goes into enemy territory the different name it has. As a result, the different strategy and tactics to put to use.

I have to say that I am struggling with relating this outside of war again. I mean, I suppose that you can change tactics on any campaign when the situation dictates it. There is a time in a business when even though things seem like they are going well, trouble is just around the corner despite things look rosy right now.

There was a time that I was working at a small company. The company was making money hand over fist. We, the workers were killing ourselves working 80 hour work weeks. I am not begrudging the owners by any means, this is a story about tactics. The company scored a huge job and they pulled out all the stops to make it worth the effort.

But, something was not quite right underneath. Even though the owners were buying boats and vacation homes, deep down they were worried that this couldn’t be repeated or sustained. It was part that they had gotten what they wanted from the business, but they also knew that there were responsible for thirty some mouths now. So we ended up merging with a larger company.

The point is that things never looked better from a financial standpoint but a change of tactics was called for. I will never know if that was the right decision but I think this falls right into Sun Tzu’s advice. We need to keep our eyes open in all situations despite what it seems like.

There is more jibber jabber about leaders and treating the group as one. If the group is one then they will work with predictive results and in a more cohesive fashion. I say it in that tone because I think we have had some of this beat in chapter after chapter. There is nothing like repetition to emphasize the point.

End Your Programming Routine: If I was going to summarize this chapter, I would have to say that tactics are situational. Do different things depending on the situation for the best chance for success. I can’t say that is a revolutionary idea, it seems like a common sense one. The real trick is knowing accurately what part of the situation you are actually in.