Spies must be handled with intimacy, liberal rewards, and utmost secrecy; their effective use requires intuitive sagacity, benevolence and straightforwardness, and subtle ingenuity in the commander.
By Sun Tzu, from L'Art de la guerre
Key Arguments
- Spies require closer relationships, higher rewards, and tighter secrecy than any other army business.
- Effective employment depends on the commander’s intuition to select and interpret, moral character to manage loyally, and subtlety to discern truth.
- Broad employment across ‘every kind of business’ magnifies their strategic value.
Source Quotes
14. Hence it is that which none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies. None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved. 15.
15. Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity. 16.
16. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. 17.
17. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports. 18.
18. Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business. 19.
Key Concepts
- none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies. None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.
- Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.
- They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.
- Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.
- Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business.
Context
xiii. The Use of Spies — principles of management, character requirements, and secrecy