Official skill · Strategy

Know the enemy and yourself

v1.0.1 · Updated 4 November 2026

Compares you and one named competitor on Sun Tzu's five factors and seven comparisons, marks every unknown, then picks where to engage, where to avoid, and what to learn first. Use it when A named competitor keeps showing up and the team disagrees on how strong they are.

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When to use it

A named competitor keeps showing up and the team disagrees on how strong they are
Before entering a segment or making a move a rival will answer
When you know the rival's features better than your own weak points

What you give it

The contest: which customers you both compete for
The decision the assessment should serve
Public facts about the competitor
Honest facts about your own side (win-loss, churn, team, runway)

What you get

A two-sided table on the five factors and seven comparisons with sources and unknowns, the rival's solid and empty points, where to engage or avoid, a learning plan, and a decision.

How it works

Name the contest and the decision One sentence each: who the two sides compete for ("independent cafés with one to three sites in Osaka"), and what will be decided ("whether to launch a supplier-ordering feature this quarter"). A comparison without a named contest turns into a feature list.
Collect evidence for both sides, with sources and dates Tag every fact: [site], [pricing page], [review], [win-loss], [interview], [internal], or [unverified]. Collect the same kinds of facts about yourself that you collect about them. A rival's claim on their own site is evidence of the claim, not of the result.
Compare on the five factors Chapter 1 of the Art of War weighs five things before any battle: 道 (the Way), 天 (heaven), 地 (ground), 將 (the general), 法 (method). For each, write what you know about each side, the source, and who has the edge, or "unknown": - **Purpose (道):** in the text, whether the people share the ruler's aim enough to follow through danger. In business: do your team and your customers back where you're going? Look at retention, referrals, staff turnover, how customers describe you. - **Timing and conditions (天):** in the text, light and dark, cold and heat, the seasons. In business: conditions neither side controls, such as regulation, platform changes, the buying season, the economy. Who is better placed for what's coming? - **Terrain (地):** in the text, high and low, far and near, hard and easy, wide and narrow ground, and ground where an army lives or dies (死生). In business: the segments, channels, and switching costs where you meet. Who is closer to the customer, and whose ground is it? - **Leadership (將):** the text lists wisdom, trustworthiness, care for people, courage, and strictness. In business: the quality of decisions and the founders' or managers' track record, judged from actions, not bios. - **Method (法):** in the text, organization, roles, and control of supplies and spending. In business: how the company is organized, how fast it ships, its cost structure, and whether its processes actually run.
Run the seven comparisons as a scorecard The same chapter asks seven questions to compare sides. In our rendering: whose ruler has the Way, whose general is more able, who holds the advantages of heaven and ground, whose rules are carried out, whose forces are stronger, whose soldiers are better trained, whose rewards and punishments are clearer. Rewrite each for the contest (for example "whose team ships more reliably", "whose incentives pull staff toward the customer") and mark Us, Them, Even, or Unknown, with the source.
Grade what you know Count the unknowns on each side. Then place yourself in one of the text's three cases: you know both sides (most rows filled with sourced facts), you know only yourself (your rows are filled and theirs are mostly guesses), or you know neither (your own rows are guesses too). Say plainly which case applies. Teams often discover they're in the third case: they know the rival's features and little about their own churn reasons.
Find their strong and empty points Chapter 6 compares an army to water, which avoids high ground and runs to low ground: a force should avoid what is solid and strike what is empty (避實而擊虛). List where the rival is solid (strengths backed by evidence) and where it's empty (gaps customers feel, segments it neglects, things it can't do without breaking its own model). Pair each empty point with one of your strengths. A gap you can't fill is not an opening.
Choose where to engage and where to avoid For each pairing, decide: engage (their empty point meets your strength, on terrain you know), avoid (their solid point, or ground where your facts are unknown), or learn first (the opening looks real but rests on unknowns). Then test the choice against the chapter 3 conditions for victory, in our rendering: knowing when to fight and when not to; knowing how to use a large or small force; top and bottom wanting the same thing; being prepared and waiting for the unprepared; a capable leader not overruled from above. Name any condition that fails.
Write the learning plan and the decision The top 3 unknowns that would change the decision, each with how to find out (win-loss interviews, a product teardown, customer calls, public filings), an owner, and a date. Then the decision: engage, avoid, or learn first, with a review date. End with next actions, not a summary of Sun Tzu.

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