“Whenever planning to conduct a major military expedition, you should first employ spies to determine the enemy’s troop strength, emptiness or fullness, and movement and rest, and only thereafter mobilize the army.”
In his chapter entitled “Employing Spies”, Sun Tzu emphasized on the importance of comprehensive intelligence. He advocated that even after checking the true nature by deploying the knowledge of Qi Men Dun Jia, the information must still be verified. Here’s the quote: “Advance knowledge cannot be gained from ghosts and spirits, inferred from phenomena, or projected from the measures of Heaven, but must be gained from men for it is the knowledge of the enemy’s true situation.”
I don’t need a Qi Men chart to elaborate on the use of Spies. In today’s world where everything is out in the open, spying on the competition has never been easier. It’s literally called the Social Media.
Spend some time in your competitor’s social media sites, particularly the comments section. You will be able to quickly discern the points of customer dissatisfaction, or confusion. Spend enough time on these you will be able to pinpoint the chinks in their armour that can be exploited by the wily entrepreneur.
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