What has Sun Zi's Art of War got to do with Project Management?

One may question: After all, Sun Zi's Art of War, despite being a remarkable achievement, was written about war and how to fight wars in ancient China more than 2000 years ago! There were no guns, no planes, no nuclear bombs, and certainly no internet. Many things that we take for granted in modern days are not available during that time when the book was written. We also do not fight war in the same way we fought in the past. So is the principle really still applicable to modern business management, and in particular, Project Management?

I believe it is applicable because there are many parallels between starting a project and starting a war. Just as a nation must sometimes engage in wars to protect itself to survive, or to attack others to expand, a business organization must similarly engage in strategic initiatives and projects to protect its competitive position or to expand its business. We also know that war is risky and consumes resources from the nation. Similarly, there are risks associated with every project, and every project must consume resources from the business organization embarking on the project, be it people, or money etc.

Thus managing a project could benefit from the insights from Sun Zi's Art of War, which is essentially how to manage warfare effectively.