Going forward, we plan to organize more real-life events and talks, which will provide a fun setting to explore highly relevant and impactful topics and concepts. The upcoming event is titled “Sun Tzu, Clausewitz and Model Thinking”, a particularly impactful and relevant topic that will provide many profound insights, as will become clear during the talk. The key focus of the talk is the concept of strategy, which is a vital concept in any competitive setting but also one that is highly complex and often poorly understood, even at the highest levels of decision-making. In this session, however, we will clarify it through the perspectives of Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and our methodology of Model Thinking.
While the talk is highly relevant from a business perspective, it will also present profound concepts and ideas to help make sense of fast-unfolding conflicts and events in the world today and how they impact your business model. For this reason, it is a highly timely and relevant topic for many reasons.
Link between war, strategy and Model Thinking
Sun Tzu and Clausewitz are two of the most influential figures in strategic thinking, but their work is specifically focused on war. While the theme of war does not occupy the central focus of the talk, war represents a state of extremes in which our beliefs, assumptions, and models are severely put to the test. In such situations, the cost of being wrong is extraordinarily high—something that has again become clear in current global events.
The theme of war therefore offers a powerful didactic lens and a strong sense of realism to question whether our models in other domains—such as business, social settings, education, or the management of well-being—truly hold. Our view is that, in many cases, they do not. This is precisely why more powerful didactics and better ways of thinking are paramount.
Making sense of the changing world order
While geo-political developments and war are not a key focus of the talk, the topic is highly relevant and impactful, as we are living in a world with shifting power balances and in which the international rule-based order is under increasing pressure. In such an environment, history has shown that tensions and frictions tend to escalate, and that existing powers will employ force in order to sustain or restore their position—exactly what we can observe in the current world.
Understanding strategy, and how this translates into conflict and war, can therefore provide valuable perspective to make sense of the current world and to anticipate and manage risks in a more structured way. We will provide an article to illustrate a concrete application of this.
Location and time
The talks, as of now, will be given in Warszawa and Amsterdam in May and the months to follow. Apart from providing a didactically impactful experience, the sessions are also intended to be fun and bring people together. The sessions are sponsored by GON and are fully free of charge. Specific information regarding registration will be provided at a later date, but you may already email us at info@gon-advisory.com if you have a strong interest in attending.
