Go: An Asian Paradigm for Business Strategy
By Yasuyuki Miura
Cover show/hide
Details show/hide
| Title | Go: An Asian Paradigm for Business Strategy |
|---|---|
| Author | Yasuyuki Miura |
| Publisher | Kiseido |
| Code | k99 |
| Date | 1995 |
| ISBN | 4-87-87-099-5 |
| Pages | |
| Dimensions | 8 1/4. x 5 3/4. - 210mm x 147mm |
Blurb show/hide
Can the success of Japanese business strategy
be explained by the ancient Asian game of Go?
According to the author, a top-ranking Japanese executive and 3-dan Go player,
it definitely can.
In chess, Go's Western counterpart, the object is to destroy your opponent's
pieces, then eliminate his king - destroy your competitor
In Go, you co-exist with your opponent and try to control the greater amount
of territory - strive for greater market share
That Go is a paradigm for decision making is almost a cliché in Japan. For that reason it is played by politions, bureaucrats, as well as businessmen.
The membership list of the Japan Go Association can almost double as a directory of the top
names in the Japanese business and political world. The chairman of that association is Asada
Shizuo, ex-CEO of Japan Airlines, and its president is Watanabe Kazao, ex-CEO of Tokyo Marine
and Fire Insurance.
Go is an easy game to learn. The playing pieces are of one kind and the rules are few and simple. The essence of Go can be stated in just four short sentences.
- Go is played on a 19x19 lined board composed of 361 intersections.
- The playing pieces are 181 black stones and 180 white stones, played alternately on the intersections.
- The object is to control more vacant intersections than your opponent.
- By surrounding all the adjacent intersections of your opponent's stones with your own stones, you can capture them.
In this book, Mr Miura explains in detail how to play and how its strategies can give you a fresh approach to the competitive world of business.
Contents show/hide
| The Opening | ...1 | ||
| Star IX: The Rules | ...5 | ||
| Star VIII: Shodan (Expert Player) | ...34 | ||
| Star VII: Hand Talk (Shudan) | ...60 | ||
| Star VI: The Go Board | ...77 | ||
| Star V: The Fuseki | ...100 | ||
| Star IV: Joseki | ...134 | ||
| Star III: The Stones | ...172 | ||
| Star II: The Players | ...196 | ||
| Star I: The Competitions | ...230 | ||
| The Endgame | ...259 | ||
| Appendix | ...262 | ||
| An Example of Capture in a Game | ...262 | ||
| An Example of a Ko Fight in a Game | ...263 | ||
| Determining the End of the Game | ...264 | ||
| Handicaps | ...265 | ||
| Japanese Go Terms | ...266 | ||
Reviews show/hide
Review by David Carlton show/hide
| Review Author | David Carlton | Reviewer Strength | 1 kyu |
| Author's Email | carlton@bactrian.org | website | http://www.bactrian.org/~carlton/ |
This is a book about using go as a paradigm for thinking about business. He presents this as an Asian way, so Western businessmen's strategies are supposed to be like chess, where the goal is to destroy your opponent, whereas Asian businessmen's strategies are supposed to be like go, where the goal is to coexist with more territory (or market share).
I kind of like books like this, and enjoyed reading this one, but it's certainly not about go. I have no idea how good his business analysis is; for all I know, it could be either exactly correct or ridiculously cliched and biased. I don't know that I'd particularly recommend it to anybody else, and I do wonder what caused Kiseido to publish it.