Part two in a series comparing ancient strategic wisdom with the ITIL guiding principles
In the previous essay in this series, we explored the surprising parallels between Machiavelli’s The Prince and the seven guiding principles of the ITIL framework. That comparison revealed a shared concern with pragmatic governance amid uncertainty. Yet Machiavelli was writing about power: how to seize it, how to hold it, and how to wield it. His frame of reference was the ruler and the state.
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, composed in the fifth century BC, offers a different vantage point. Where Machiavelli thinks about governance, Sun Tzu thinks about competition. Where Machiavelli asks how to rule, Sun Tzu asks how to win, and, more importantly, how to win without unnecessary destruction. This distinction makes Sun Tzu an even more natural conversation partner for modern IT service management, where the challenges are less about seizing control and more about outmaneuvering complexity, scarcity, and the constant threat of disruption.
I reviewed The Art of War after The Prince and found it mapped even more closely to the ITIL guiding principles. If Machiavelli illuminates the political dimension of service management, Sun Tzu illuminates the competitive dimension. I have discussed both parallels in my courses over the years, and this essay captures the Sun Tzu half of that conversation.
The ITIL guiding principles (Focus on Value, Start Where You Are, Progress Iteratively with Feedback, Collaborate and Promote Visibility, Think and Work Holistically, Keep It Simple and Practical, and Optimize and Automate) have remained unchanged from ITIL 4 (2019) to ITIL 5 (2026). Let us see what Sun Tzu would have made of each principle.
1. Focus on Value
ITIL: Everything links back to stakeholder value
ITIL’s primary principle is that every activity an organization undertakes should map back to value for the organization, its customers, and its stakeholders. Value is subjective, defined by the consumer, and must be continuously understood and validated.
Sun Tzu: The purpose of war is not fighting; it is achieving the strategic objective
Sun Tzu is emphatic that the purpose of military action is not combat for its own sake. The supreme excellence, he argues, is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Every campaign must serve a strategic objective; battles that do not advance that objective are wasteful, whether they are won or lost. A general who fights brilliantly yet achieves nothing of strategic value has failed.
The parallel
Both frameworks insist on relentless alignment between activity and purpose. The IT organization that resolves ten thousand tickets yet fails to advance business outcomes is like Sun Tzu’s general who wins every skirmish but loses the war. Activity without value is waste, whether measured in lives or in service hours.
The deeper lesson
Sun Tzu goes further than ITIL in one crucial respect. He argues that the highest form of value creation is achieving the objective without expending resources at all, through positioning, deterrence, or influence. For IT leaders, this raises a powerful question: what problems could you prevent entirely rather than solve efficiently? The service request that never needs to be submitted is the battle that never needs to be fought.
2. Start Where You Are
ITIL: Assess the current state before building something new
ITIL advises against rebuilding from scratch. Instead, objectively assess existing services, processes, people, and tools. Use measurement and direct observation to determine what works and what can be reused, repurposed, or improved.
Sun Tzu: Know yourself and your enemy
The most famous passage in The Art of War is the instruction to know yourself and your enemy. Sun Tzu argues that accurate self-knowledge (understanding your strengths, weaknesses, resources, and capabilities) is the foundation of strategic success. A commander who does not know the true state of his forces cannot make sound decisions, no matter how much intelligence he has about the opponent.
The parallel
Both Sun Tzu and ITIL insist that an honest assessment of the current state is not optional; it is the prerequisite for everything else. ITIL warns against the bias and distortion that can creep into organizational reporting. Sun Tzu warns against the self-deception that leads generals to overestimate their strength. In both cases, the danger is the same: decisions grounded in fantasy rather than reality.
The deeper lesson
Sun Tzu’s formulation is broader than ITIL’s. He insists on understanding the external environment as thoroughly as the internal one. ITIL’s “Start Where You Are” focuses primarily inward. Yet ITIL 5’s expanded emphasis on PESTLE analysis and external factors in its Discover activity suggests the framework is moving toward Sun Tzu’s more comprehensive model of situational awareness.
3. Progress Iteratively with Feedback
ITIL: Small iterations, continuous feedback, adaptive execution
ITIL advises practitioners to break large initiatives into manageable iterations and use feedback loops to ensure each step remains aligned with evolving needs and changing circumstances. No improvement iteration occurs in a vacuum.
Sun Tzu: Water shapes its course according to the ground
Sun Tzu repeatedly uses the metaphor of water: just as water shapes its flow to the terrain it encounters, a successful military strategy must adapt continuously to conditions on the ground. He argues against rigid plans and fixed formations, insisting that adaptability is more valuable than planning. The general who cannot respond to unexpected developments, who clings to the original plan despite mounting evidence that it is failing, will be defeated by a more responsive opponent.
The parallel
Both frameworks treat adaptability as a core competency rather than a fallback. ITIL’s iterative approach and Sun Tzu’s fluid strategy reflect the same insight: the environment is too complex and dynamic to be mastered by a single upfront plan. The agile movement in software development would recognize Sun Tzu as a kindred spirit.
The deeper lesson
Sun Tzu adds a dimension that ITIL only implies: speed as a competitive advantage. It is not enough to iterate; you must iterate faster than the forces arrayed against you, whether those forces are competitors, incidents, technical debt, or shifting customer expectations. The organization that can observe, orient, decide, and act faster than its environment changes will always have the initiative.
4. Collaborate and Promote Visibility
ITIL: Transparency, trust, and cross-boundary collaboration
ITIL promotes open information sharing, cross-functional collaboration, and the elimination of hidden agendas. Organizational silos are recognized as one of the greatest threats to effective service management.
Sun Tzu: Intelligence is the foundation of all operations
Sun Tzu devotes an entire chapter to the use of spies and intelligence, and he ranks it as the most important chapter in the entire work. His concept of intelligence is not about secrecy alone. It is about ensuring that the right information reaches the right decision-maker at the right time. Internally, Sun Tzu demands perfect unity of purpose and absolute clarity of communication between the general and his forces. A breakdown in internal visibility is as dangerous as a failure in external intelligence.
The parallel
Both frameworks recognize that information flow is the nervous system of any organization. ITIL’s war on silos mirrors Sun Tzu’s insistence on unified command. Both frameworks understand that when parts of the organization cannot see what others are doing, the entire organism becomes sluggish, redundant, and vulnerable to surprises.
The deeper lesson
Sun Tzu introduces a nuance that makes IT leaders uncomfortable: the distinction between internal and external visibility. Within the organization, Sun Tzu demands total transparency and unity. Toward the outside world (competitors, adversaries, even unreliable allies), he advocates deliberate opacity. ITIL does not make this distinction, treating transparency as universally good. Sun Tzu would argue that an IT organization should be radically transparent internally while being far more strategic about what it reveals to vendors, competitors, and even some stakeholders. This is not deception; it is the management of information asymmetry.
5. Think and Work Holistically
ITIL: No service exists in isolation
ITIL emphasizes that results are delivered through the effective integration of multiple dimensions: people, technology, partners, and processes. Optimizing one area at the expense of others degrades the entire system.
Sun Tzu: The five factors determine victory or defeat
Sun Tzu opens The Art of War by identifying five factors that determine the outcome of any conflict: the Tao (moral influence and purpose), Heaven (timing and external conditions), Earth (terrain and environment), the Commander (leadership quality), and Method (organization, discipline, and logistics). Sun Tzu argues that victory goes to the side superior across the most factors. Superiority in one dimension cannot compensate for a critical weakness in another.
The parallel
Sun Tzu’s five factors are a close analogue to ITIL’s four dimensions of service management. The Tao maps to organizational purpose and culture. Heaven maps to external factors. Earth maps to the technological and physical environment. The Commander maps to people and leadership. Method maps to value streams and processes. Both frameworks are fundamentally multidimensional models that reject reductionism.
The deeper lesson
Sun Tzu’s first factor, the Tao, is the one that ITIL underemphasizes. It refers to the shared sense of purpose that aligns an entire organization to move in the same direction without detailed instruction. ITIL 5’s emphasis on guiding principles as a replacement for rigid rules is essentially an attempt to achieve the same effect: alignment through shared values rather than micromanagement.
6. Keep It Simple and Practical
ITIL: Eliminate what does not add value
ITIL advises practitioners to use the minimum number of steps necessary, eliminate processes that do not add value, and always apply outcome-based thinking to produce practical solutions.
Sun Tzu: The greatest victories require the least expenditure of resources
Sun Tzu is obsessed with economy. He repeatedly argues that prolonged campaigns drain the treasury, exhaust the army, and create vulnerability, even when battles are won. A general who achieves the objective quickly and at minimal cost is superior to one who does so through a long, costly campaign. The best strategy, Sun Tzu insists, is the one that achieves maximum effect with minimum effort and cost.
The parallel
Both frameworks treat unnecessary complexity as a form of waste that actively harms the organization. Sun Tzu would view an over-engineered ITSM process as he warns against in military campaigns: an operation that consumes more resources than the objective is worth. The twenty-step change-approval process for a low-risk patch is a prolonged siege when a swift stroke would suffice.
The deeper lesson
Sun Tzu links simplicity to something ITIL does not address: the concept of tempo. Complexity slows you down, and in a competitive environment, slowness is dangerous in itself. The organization that can deploy a fix in hours, while its competitor takes days, has a structural advantage, not merely because the fix lands sooner, but because the entire organization learns and adapts faster, compounding those advantages over time.
7. Optimize and Automate
ITIL: Use resources to their best effect; let technology handle repeatable tasks
ITIL instructs organizations to eliminate waste, deploy human resources where they add genuine value, and automate everything technology can handle more efficiently.
Sun Tzu: Position your forces so the situation itself does the work
Sun Tzu’s concept of shih (strategic advantage through positioning) may be his most profound contribution to strategic thought. The idea is that a skilled commander arranges forces and conditions so that victory flows naturally from positioning, rather than relying on the extraordinary effort of individual soldiers. He uses the analogy of a round boulder perched at the top of a steep mountain: minimal energy is needed to release enormous force because positioning has done the work.
The parallel
This is the deepest resonance between Sun Tzu and ITIL’s automation principle. True optimization is not about making people work harder or even smarter; it is about arranging systems so the desired outcome occurs with minimal ongoing human effort. The well-designed automated pipeline that deploys, tests, and monitors without intervention is like Sun Tzu’s boulder on the mountaintop. Positioning (the architecture, design, and configuration) is where all the intelligence goes. Execution becomes almost effortless.
The deeper lesson
Sun Tzu would caution against automating for its own sake. Automation that does not improve strategic positioning is merely faster waste. Before automating a process, ask Sun Tzu’s question: does this activity advance our strategic objective? If not, eliminating it entirely is better than automating it. The fastest path through an unnecessary process is to avoid it altogether.
In the first essay in this series, Machiavelli showed us that the ITIL guiding principles are fundamentally about governance: managing complex systems amid uncertainty. Sun Tzu takes us further, showing that these principles are also about competition: the ability to read the environment, adapt faster than it changes, concentrate resources where they matter most, and arrange conditions so that success becomes the natural outcome rather than the heroic exception.
Where Machiavelli’s divergences from ITIL were primarily about the ethics of transparency and power, Sun Tzu’s divergences are primarily about scope and ambition. Sun Tzu consistently thinks bigger than ITIL: he insists on external awareness alongside internal assessment, on speed alongside iteration, on strategic positioning alongside operational optimization, and on preventing problems alongside solving them. In each case, Sun Tzu is not contradicting ITIL but extending it, pushing the same principles to their most powerful implications.
That a Chinese military treatise from the fifth century BC, an Italian political handbook from the sixteenth century, and a British-born IT governance framework from the twenty-first century all converge on the same core set of guiding ideas should give us confidence that these ideas are not merely fashionable or parochial. They are structural truths about how to manage complexity, scarcity, and human coordination, independently discovered and articulated across cultures, centuries, and domains because they are correct.
The next time you review your organization’s approach to service management, consider the full lineage of the ideas you are working with. You are not merely following a framework. You are participating in a conversation about strategy, governance, and human effectiveness that has spanned 2,500 years. The tools change. The principles endure.
Dane is an accredited ITIL 5 trainer and consultant based in Sweden. He has delivered more than 400 courses to more than 4,500 students across all certification levels. This is the second in a series that compares ancient strategic wisdom with modern IT best practices.
This article was first published on Substack on April 21, 2026.