1.0 Introduction

Sun Zi’s Art of War is the oldest known military classic in Chinese literature. It is

also the most revered and well-known Chinese military text outside of China. Sun

Zi’s Art of War was famous in managing its general and troops for war. But, in this

world now, we eventually apply some of the concepts in Sun Zi. Sun Zi art of War

were sometimes used as a reference to companies win or to compete with its

competitors. Sun Zi Art of War is becoming more famous compare to before, this is

because the Western companies now adapts some of the concept from Sun Zi in their

management and planning the company objectives.

We choose Chapter 1 as our assignment topic and will discuss detailed in this

assignment. Chapter 1 talks about the detailed assessment and planning of troops in

War. In the modern management, it can be describe as the planning for the

organization goal and objectives. Planning is equally important for all the

organizations in the modern well as helping to achieves companies’ objectives and

goals.

Meanwhile, we are using the famous Telco as our company reference, which is Digi

Communication Malaysia. Digi Communication was the first Telco in Malaysia to

launch and operates a fully digital cellular network on 24 May 1995 and further on its

network to Sabah and Sarawak on April 1996. In these years, the effort and strategic

planning that Digi contribute had successfully gain the notice and trust from

Malaysian market.

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2.0 Content

Sun Zi said: The conduct of war is a method of vital importance to the nation. It

determines the survival or death of the country. It is a method of life and death (of the

people and their ruler). It must be studied and examine thoroughly. Thus, analyze and

study the five factors carefully. Compare them against (those of the enemy) so as to

understand the changing conditions and circumstances (of war) and to asses the

chance of victory. These five factors are moral influence, the weather, terrain,

generalship, and doctrine and law.

Moral Influence

Moral influence refers to measures and policies that align the people with the

sovereign so as to be in complete agreement and harmony with each other. In this

way, the people will be prepared to co-exist with as well as die for the sovereign

without any fear and dangers.

In every organization, every leader must have the characteristic such as ethical, good,

right, honest, decent, honorable and justice. For example, a good leader must admit

his or her mistake rather than blaming the employees for the wrongdoing. In order to

gain respect, they must treat the employees fairly and with justice. Every employee

has different attitudes and behaviours and it might cause conflict and problems among

the employee themselves. If the issues were going to be brought up to the leader, he or

she must not conclude his or she decision base on one’s situation, instead a good

leader will examine and evaluate the whole problem before putting the blame on

others.

A good working environment will reduce the employees’ stress and they will be able

to work together without conflicts, and these will improve the relationship between

their peers and increase job performance. In this way, employees will be motivated to

understand their leaders well as well as the whole organization. The understanding of

the organizational mission and vision will lead to employees’ loyalty and this will

reduce turnover in the organization. Employees’ loyalty will lead to establishing of

organizational citizenship where the employees will perform beyond the required job

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duties. As a result, a good relationship as well as good working environment will

achieve the organization goals within a short period of time.

Moreover, social responsibility is important because the society of nowadays are

putting pressure on organization in ethical practices. It has been studied that, the

organization that practices social responsibilities will gain more market shares

compare to those who are not.

Moral influence is a vital tool for people in and out of the organization to come into

agreement and have confidence towards the leader in bringing up the moral values

and guiding them through the difficulties.

Weather

Weather refers to the contrasting changes of night and day, the coldness of winter and

the heat of summer, and seasonal changes.

Weather in management perception is review as changes that occur including

customer preferences, increasing competitors, advancement of new technologies,

economic forces such as economic growth or recession, and the international arena.

External or internal forces translate into a perceive needs for change within the

organization. However, many people are not willing to change unless they perceive a

problem or a crisis. Managers are responsible for monitoring threats and opportunities

in the external environment as well as strengths and weaknesses within the

organization to determine whether a need for change exists.

In the business, one of the strategies for change is by using marketing mix, blending

of the four strategy elements which are Product, Price, Promotion, and Place (4P) to

fit the needs and preferences of a specific target market.

Product is a broad concept that also encompasses the satisfaction of all customer

needs in relation to a good, service, or an idea. Product strategy involves more than

deciding what goods or service the firm should offer to a group of customers. It also

includes decisions about customer service, package design, brand names, trademark,

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patents, warranties, the life cycle of a product, positioning the product in the

marketplace, and new product development.

Price is the sum or amount of money at which a thing is valued, or the value which a

seller sets on his goods in market; that for which something is bought or sold, or

offered for sale; equivalent in money or other means of exchange; current value or

rate paid or demanded in market or in barter; cost. Pricing strategy deals with the

methods of setting profitable and justifiable prices. It is closely regulated and subject

to considerable public studies. One of the many factors that influence marketer’s

pricing strategy is competition. A good pricing strategy should create value for

customers, building and strengthening their relationship with a firm and its products.

Promotion is a communication linked between sellers and buyers. Organizations use

variety of ways to send messages about their goods, service and idea, such as directly

through salesperson or indirectly through advertisement or promotion. In promotion

strategy, marketers blend the various elements of promotion to communicate most

effectively with their target market. Many companies use an approach called

integrated marketing communications (IMC) to coordinate all promotional activities

so that the customers receives a unified and consistent message. Customers might

receive newsletters, email updates, discount coupon, and catalogs.

Place/Distribution strategy ensures that customers find their products in the proper

quantities at the right times and places. Distribution decisions involve modes of

transportation, warehousing, inventory control, order processing, and selection of

marketing channels. Marketing channel are make out of institutions such as retailers

and wholesalers (intermediaries) that may be involved in a product’s movement from

producer to final consumer. Distribution considerations can also lead to strategic

organizational decisions.

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Terrain

Terrain refers to whether the route to be taken is long or short, whether the ground is

treacherous or safe, wide or narrow with regard to ease of movement, and whether the

ground will determine the death or survival (of an army).

In the corporate world, planning is very important in making any decisions. Planning

means the management function concerned with defining goals for future

organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and resources needed to attain

them. The purpose of planning is to help the organization achieve high performance

and simply to remain alive. Overall organizational performance depends on achieving

outcomes identified by the planning process. Managers involve people throughout the

organizational, which can encourage higher performance because people understand

the goals and plans.

A lack of planning or poor planning can hurt an organization’s performance. Top

managers’ lack of vision in perceiving market direction and weak planning efforts

regarding rapid expansion and franchisee relationships has seriously damaged once

successful firm. So, in order to achieve high performance, one needs planning.

Generalship

The generalship of a commander refers to his qualities of wisdom, trustworthiness,

benevolence, courage and discipline.

The primary key to successful strategy implementation is leadership. Leadership is the

ability to influence people to adopt the new behaviours needed for strategic

implementation. A leader influence, members adopt the personality and behaviour of

the leader such as knowledgeable, reliable, responsible, honest, dependable, kind,

compassion and generous. Moreover, influence is designed to achieve some end or

goal. Leader persuades, motivate employees, and shape the culture and values to

support the new strategy. Managers can make speeches to employees, build coalitions

of people who support the new strategic direction. With a clear sense of direction and

a shared purpose, employees feel motivated, challenged, and empowered to pursue

new strategic goals.

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Doctrine and law

Doctrine and law refer to organization and control, management systems and

procedures, and the command and control structure for the development of the

resources.

Organizing

Organizing typically follows planning and reflects how the organization tries to

accomplish the plan. Organizing involves assigning task, grouping tasks into

departments, delegating authority, and allocating resources across the organization.

An organization’s planners pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses. Strengths help them

to set objectives, develop plans for meeting those objectives, and take advantage on

marketing opportunities.

In an industrialized society where complex technologies dominate, organizations

bring together knowledge, people and raw materials to perform tasks no individual

could do alone. Without organizations, how technology enables us to share

information around the world.

Based on our definition of management, the manager’s responsibility is to coordinate

resources in an effective and efficient manner to accomplish the organization’s goals.

Organizational effectiveness is the degree to which the organization achieves a stated

goal, or succeeds in accomplishing what is tries to do. Organizational efficiency refers

to the amount of resources used to achieve an organizational goal. It is based on how

much raw materials, money, and people are necessary for producing a given volume

of output.

Efficiency and effectiveness can both be high in the same organization. Sometimes,

however, managers’ efforts to improve efficiency can hurt organizational

effectiveness, especially in relation to severe cost cutting.

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In addition, the concept of organizing applies when the firm wish that the people in

the organization communicate to one another to increase job efficiency and

effectiveness. So the need for coordination becomes important. The organization

needs system to process information and it needs communication among people in

different departments, and at different levels. Coordination refers to the quality of

collaboration across departments. Without coordination, a company’s left hand will

not act in concert with the right hand, causing problems and conflicts. Coordination is

required regardless of whether the organization has a functional, divisional, or team

structure. Employees may not want to compromise with other units for the good of the

organization as a whole.

Controlling

Controlling can be defined as monitoring employees’ activities, determining whether

the organization is on target toward its goals, and making corrections as necessary.

Managers must ensure that the organization is moving toward its goals. Trends toward

empowerment and trust of employees have led many companies to place less

emphasis on top-down control and more emphasis on training employees to monitor

and correct themselves. Information technology is also helping managers provide

needed organizational control without strict top-down constraints.

Some companies use the internet and other information technology to coordinate and

monitor virtually every aspect of operations, which enables managers to keep tabs on

performance without maintaining daily authoritarian control over employees. So

employees have amazing freedom to make decision and take action, but they also

know that top managers keep a close eye on what’s going on throughout the company

with just a few mouse click.

Organizational control refers to the systematic process of regulating organizational

activities to make them consistent with the expectations established in plans, targets

and stand of performance. Thus, effectively controlling at an organization requires

information about performance standards and actual performance, as well as actions

taken to correct any deviations from the standard. To effectively control an

organization, managers need to decide what information is essential, how they will

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obtain that information (and share it with employees), and how they can and should

response to it. Having the correct data is essential. Managers decide which standards,

measurements, and metrics are needed to effectively monitor and control the

organization and set up systems for obtaining that information.

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3.0 Discussions

Digi Communication noticed the importantness of strategic plannings which include

the POLC and the 4P’s. Therefore, they put in a lot of effort in these plannings to

achieve the company’s goal of being one of the top Telecommunication company in

Malaysia.

Digi Communication is applying these concepts to fight with its biggest competitor

such as Maxis and Celcom. Maxis and Celcom target its market on working adults,

Business partners and those who seek for better coverage. Whereas Digi focus its

market more on adolescents, as they are easily attracted on lower rates on calling,

Short Messaging Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), video

calling, and usage on the internet. Digi started to launch Digi Campus and targets on

Local Universities as well as private Universities throughout Malaysia. The launching

of the campaign has succeeded in attracting undergraduates to switch their prepaid

user to subscribe this package. Furthermore, it also attracts other network users such

as Maxis user, Hotlink user, Celcom users to purchase new Digi prepaid number.

Digi Campus gets to attracts undergraduates to subscribe due to the low rate that

offers to them.

Prepaid Normal Rate Digi Campus Rate

SMS to Friends & Family 1 cents/message -

SMS from Digi to Digi 1 cents/ message

When hit RM 1 usage on

the day

1 cents/message

SMS from Digi to other

network

15 cents/message 6 cents/message

Calling to Friends &

Family

7 cents/ minute 15 cents/ minute

Calls Up to RM2 onwards

will be waived on

Calling from Digi to Digi 12 cents/ minute

When hit RM 1 usage on

the day

15 cents/ minute

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Calling from Digi to other

network

12 cents/ minute

When hit RM 1 usage on

the day

15 cents/ minute

Digi did numerous surveys on students who are studying in colleges and universities

in order to understand their needs on phone usage. The aim of the survey is to figure

out the average spending on calls per student and suggestions on what can be

improved to gain more supports from the market. Through the survey, Digi knows

that students that are away from home need mentally support and concern by their

loved one. They need care and attention from the people they care of as they are quite

new in their study environment.

Besides that, students prefer networks that provides lower rate that save up their

expenses especially making any callings and sms-es to any other networks. For

example, Gabrielle is a Maxis user for about 2 years. When she pursues her studies in

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, she finds that most of her friends are using Digi

network. Whenever she needs to make any phone calls or sms, she learned that she

was charged extra to any Digi user compare to Maxis. Not long after that, she

manages to find that Digi introduced Digi Campus to all the universities

undergraduates. Soon, she was motivated to purchase a new digi prepaid number and

she subscribes the package and she is very satisfied with it as it saved up a lot of her

expenses.

Digi biggest competitor, Maxis are well known for their wide coverage throughout the

nation and worldwide. But, Digi was unable to provide as wide coverage as Maxis

network, so they strategize their technique on how to gain confidence from their

customers. In order to defence from their rival’s success, Digi mainly introduced ‘I

Will Follow You’ by the Yellow Man which is the symbolic of Digi network. The

idea of the Yellow Man is to provide as better coverage as possible and to get

attention from the people worldwide. To be surprised, Digi has won confidence from

its customers where the idea of “I will follow you” gives a better coverage to users all

around nation no matter where your location are no matter you are in villages, town,

city or any other places. Nowadays, Digi has improved in providing a better coverage

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for its customers. In addition, whenever a people see the Digi yellow man, yellow

duck or something that is bright in colour, they already perceived it as Digi

Telecommunication. This has proven that Digi has succeeded in gaining attention of

the consumers.

Furthermore, Digi focuses more on advertising and promoting compare to other

telecommunication networks; and will set up a lot of booth in many different

locations. Normally they will set up a booth at a place that have a lot of teenagers

gathering around such as shopping complex, in front of the cinema, sports complex,

basketball court, education fair and even during pc fair. Whenever a booth is set, loud

songs is played and beautiful decorations are design with a lot of yellow balloons that

will be attracting the attention from the potential customers. Moreover, Digi will be

giving away plenty of freebies such as popcorn, key chains and hardboard files if

anyone has purchase and registered their network on the spot. From here, Digi will be

able to win a lot of new customers over and succeed in the business in the long run.

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4.0 Conclusion

The Art of Sun Zi not only helps the nation to win its war during ancient times, it also

helps company to achieve its goal by applying some of its concept. Company seeks

for Sun Zi application everyday in order to survive in the competitive world today.

Every company that wants to achieve success needs to apply the theory of PLOC that

is planning, learning, organizing, and controlling. By this, the objectives and goals of

the company may be achieved in any ways as these 4 concepts were the main object

to success. While we are doing the report, we realized that planning a strategic goal is

important to achieve success. The concepts of 4Ps play the vital role in the business

field. 4Ps is defined as product strategy, pricing strategy, place strategy and

promotion strategy.

It is believed that Digi Telecommunication applies these concepts of Sun Zi in their

management effectively, and it eventually helps Digi to create fame in its field

throughout Malaysia. Digi Telecommunication is leading its target market and were to

make itself the top Telco Company in Malaysia, defeating Maxis Telecommunication.

The chances of winning might be small, but the non defeated spirit of Digi amazed

everyone, especially when they came out with ‘Yellow Man’ as their promotion tools.

We appreciate the teachings of out lecturer Dr. Wong in helping us to understand Sun

Zi easily and to know its application in the business sector. We thank him for the

explanations and helpings by finishing this assignment successfully.

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5.0 Recommendation

In able to help Digi to gain more market in the telecommunication world, we suggest

that Digi should give the opportunity to all students nationwide on applying the

package of Digi Campus. Digi should not only target to college students and

undergraduates, but also to the secondary school market. This is because in the

modern technology days, almost every family is affordable to purchase a mobile

phone to their youngsters. Youngsters are relying more on mobile phones compare to

fixed phone line at home, which is more convenient to them.

Furthermore, Digi must provide more promotion package to the consumers, so that

their fame will increase higher. Or, Digi can adopt back one of its promotion which

get the most interest of the youngster, which is ‘MTV Powerpack’ which is

introduced at year 2003. This package were loved by the teenagers and adolescence at

that moment, they are disappointed when they found out that Digi cancel the

promotion plan later on.

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