To win the war, according to Sun Tzu, one has to know one’s weaknesses and strengths, as well as the enemies’ strengths and weaknesses for lack of the other will result to defeat early in war.

This may be a physical war among nations, but it also applies to war between siblings (ahh, siblings fight, don’t they?), politicians, employees, religion (yes, even religion), and businesses. They may not be physical wars but more on psychological and commercial wars.

In the entrepreneurial world, applying the art of war is managing your business performance. In the olden days, that means a lot of data from all points of view to be analyzed humanly possible.

Now, with the availability of business performance management software, “running by the numbers” now means something as planning, budgeting, analysis and reporting which can give the measurements that will empower management decisions.