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• Sharing the hardships of their troops
• Emphasis on training
• Organizational development; they built fighting organizations and influenced their culture.
• Importance of speed
• Taking the initiative and attacking the enemy

Patton, Suvorov, and Alexander the Great are probably the three greatest military commanders in all of history. All won many victories with almost no losses (undefeated), and all accomplished what their contemporaries "knew" couldn't be done.

Clausewitz identified friction, or seemingly minor inefficiencies and problems that, when combined, degrade the organization's overall performance. About 150 years later, Masaaki Imai, author of Gemba Kaizen, described muda, or waste- it's the same thing as friction.

Clausewitz said that passive defensive barriers will not stop a determined and competent opponent. The same lesson applies to passive market barriers.

Clausewitz also told Lyndon B. Johnson why he would lose the
Vietnam War. "Wearing down the enemy in a conflict means using the duration of the war to bring about a gradual exhaustion of his physical and moral resistance." (Book 1, Chapter 2). 

• Introverted/Extroverted 
• Sensing/iNtuitive 
• Thinking/Feeling 
• Judging/Perceiving

Heart and mind are feeling and thinking. Sight is direct observation and perception is intuition. (It is not the MBTI "perceiving." The
Book of Five Rings says, "Perceive that which cannot be seen." This suggests inference or intuition.) The words "polish" and
"sharpen" are especially significant. Polishing and sharpening were vital operations in the care of the Japanese sword. The sword
was the soul of the Japanese warrior. Musashi tells us how to polish and sharpen the sword of the intellect, the instrument of all victories. 

Other key business lessons from A Book of Five Rings:

• Weapon = tool (of competition).This lesson recurs in Western languages. Hoplon (Greek) means "tool," but a hoplite  was a warrior. Armamenta (Latin) means"equipment."
• Use the right tool for the job.
• Similarities between Bushido and architecture (project management): Musashi compares the Way of the Warrior to the Way of the Carpenter (architect) 

This is a short, but outstanding,  guide to managing organizations in competitive situations. It contains  lessons that apply to business and modern statecraft. 

• If Kaiser Wilhelm had read it, Germany would have won the First World War. The Kaiser wouldn't have interfered with General Falkenhayn's plan to bleed the French and British Armies at Verdun. Verdun almost broke the morale of the Entente. 
•  If Hitler had read it, Germany would have won the Second World War. 
•  Don't interfere with your field commanders 
• Treat conquered peoples benevolently, and they will join you. (Applied by the Carthaginian general Hannibal)
•  E.g. The Ukrainians hated the Russians, since Stalin had killed 7 million of them, but the Nazis treated the Ukrainians badly. 
•   If Lyndon B. Johnson had read it, the United States would have won the Vietnam War, or would have stayed out. 
•  Don't fight a protracted war (see Chapter 2 of The Art of War). Also see Clausewitz 
• You need popular commitment to wage war.