Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
These beautiful silk-covered illustrated hardback editions of classic management leadership books, make up the ‘Art of Strategy’ series from Watkins Publishing and would make a serious impression on any manager’s bookshelf. It’s time to get motivated back to work after the summer break!
THE FIVE RINGS, MIYAMOTO MUSASHI, 9781780281209, WATKINS, BD9.800 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
The Art of Strategy:
Written by legendary Japanese swordsman Musashi Miyamoto, The Five Rings (c.1645) is a brilliant exposition of the struggle for mastery.
Combining sword fighting techniques with Zen philosophy, this classic Bushido text - devoted to achieving success through strategy and tactics - is as relevant today as it was to the 17th-century samurai.
Miyamoto’s teachings, based on a lifetime of experience in battle, give us unfaltering guidance on the path to victory. The book advises the reader on psychological tactics to put the enemy off guard, on ways to forestall an attack and on the importance of observation.
This is also one of the great Japanese treatises on aesthetics and spirituality, speaking to us of the essential role of harmony in the way of the warrior.
THE PRINCE, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
9781844834556, WATKINS
BD9.800 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
The Art of Power:
Frequently misunderstood over the centuries as an unprincipled manual for manipulators and tyrants, careful reading of The Prince shows that it identifies freedom as an essential characteristic of a good society - Machiavelli sets out axioms for success and order amid the often violent political intrigues that characterized Renaissance Europe.
Combining fine photographic illustrations with a new translation of one of the great literary works of history, this classic text examines the relationship between moral goodness and legitimate authority, setting out timeless principles for pursuing power and fortune and using them to best effect in securing order and peace.
Much of Machiavelli’s republican thought can be identified in the American constitution, and many of his ideas - such as the belief that life is subject to change and that the winners will be those flexible enough to adapt - remain as applicable today as they were half a millennium ago.
THE ART OF WAR, SUN TZU
9781844831791, WATKINS
BD9.800 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
The Art of War:
Like Machiavelli’s The Prince and Musashi’s Book of Five Rings, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is as timely for business people today as it was for military strategists in ancient China.
Written in China more than 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu’s classic The Art of War is the first known study of the planning and conduct of military operations. These terse, aphoristic essays are unsurpassed in comprehensiveness and depth of understanding, examining not only battlefield maneuvers, but also relevant economic, political, and psychological factors.
Indeed, the precepts outlined by Sun Tzu regularly applied outside the realm of military theory. It is read avidly by Japanese businessmen and was touted in the movie Wall Street as the corporate raider’s bible. Little is known about Sun Tzu (544-496 B.C.) and his life during the Warring States period after the decline of the Zhou dysnasty, but his classic, The Art of War, remains one of the central works of Chinese literature.
This beautiful new illustrated edition of the classic text provides practical ancient wisdom on how to beat aggression through non-aggression, with key lessons for business and life in general.
