day 29

the end of microsoft 1: musashi the great warrior

Figure 1. Musahsi wrote the Book of Five Rings. With nothing more than a wooden practice sword, Musashi wiped out competitors who lacked Musashi's knowledge of strategy. Shinmen Musashi No Fujiwara No Genshim, or simply Musashi to his friends, was born in 1584. Like many American gunslingers immortalized 300 years later in a land far, far away from Japan's Feudal kingdoms, Musashi left an indelible imprint on the Samurai class that now runs Japanese business. Musashi's Book of Five Rings is required reading for every marketing student, business strategist and global competitor. Every day, strategy thinkers throughout the globe use Musashi strategy. Oddly, Musashi was the right man at the wrong time. Japan had just emerged from a series of bloody civil wars and the new Shogun, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, made everyone except his Samurai hang up their swords. While feuds declined even into the 1600's, as Shogun Tokugawa Leyasu took over, Japan entered a long period of relative peace and quiet. Thus, Musashi lived most of his life during a long dry spell in which there was little for gunslingers like Musashi to do except go around picking sword fights. He did this a lot, putting away over 60 competitors by the time he was old enough to shave. To sum up, Musashi was a ronin (aka, out-of-work Samurai who roamed the country looking for fights) at a time when the Samurai was an elite but useless class. Unless they had land or married a rich woman, Samurai warriors were street people. Musashi neither married nor farmed -- instead he pursued the classical ideal of the warrior searching for enlightenment through the perilous paths of Kendo (knife fights). Musashi's legacy is his Book of Five Rings, which lists strategies of combat -- the so-called Heiho ("Hei" means "soldier," and "ho" means "method"). The book is full of advice about how to dispose of your competitor. For example, there are descriptions of "flowing water cut," the "continuous cut," and the "fire and stones cut," which describe various ways to whack your opponent exactly when he or she is least likely to suspect it. What a guy! According to the Book of Five Rings, "Musashi stopped ever using real swords in duels. He was invincible, and from now on he devoted himself to the search for perfect understanding by way of kendo." The current "Kendo" among the software giants is a kind of sport where the object is to render the other guy inconsequential, obsolescent, or in a spiral towards zero market share. Like Musashi, only one player stands above all the rest. Also like Musashi, this player is invincible. Next time, we analyze the Musashi of software. Who is it? What is its strategy? Will this warrior defeat all newcomers?

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