The strategic insights of Sun Tzu and quality management

Reports the results of an attempt to relate the military treatise of the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu to strategic quality management. Two sets of 20 statements were compiled, one from the work of Sun Tzu and the other from the concepts of strategic quality management. A group of employees experienced in quality management was then asked to indicate on a discrete scale the relevance of each statement in terms of its applicability on quality management. The rankings and correlations of the statements are presented and discussed. The results indicate a degree of relevance of Sun Tzu’s insights to strategic quality management in an Asian context.