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
SMS to Friends & Family
SMS from Digi to Digi
SMS from Digi to other
network
Calling to Friends &
Family
Calling from Digi to Digi
Calling from Digi to other
network
Normal Rate Digi Campus Rate
1 cents/message -
1 cents/ message 1 cents/message
When hit RM 1 usage on
the day
15 cents/message 6 cents/message
7 cents/ minute 15 cents/ minute
Calls Up to RM2 onwards
will be waived on
12 cents/ minute 15 cents/ minute
When hit RM 1 usage on
the day
12 cents/ minute 15 cents/ minute
When hit RM 1 usage on

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 the day

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
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

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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.

4.0 Conclusion

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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.

5.0 Recommendation

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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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