ABSTRACT
What Sun Tzu is telling us in twenty-first century supply chains is that as leaders we have to not only develop ourselves, but must also develop our employees. Just because we know how it used to be done — that is, Sun Tzu’s “rustics” — does not mean that it is right or that we can rest on our laurels and be content with knowing outdated processes and technologies. To prepare ourselves and to prepare our employees and supply chain team members for any possible contingency or customer demand is “the greatest of virtues” to which Sun Tzu referred. To continue to do things the way we have always done them just because “we’ve always done it that way” or to not train ourselves and our employees is the twenty-first century crime that Sun Tzu wrote about in 500 BC.
