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35Principle · Group 5

Terrain

Choosing where to compete

“If you know the terrain better than your opponent and use its features, you fight where your own strengths count and your opponent’s come to nothing.”

Every confrontation takes place somewhere, and no place is neutral.

Group 5: Position and SpaceT2 Eastern Strategy
Go to the in-depth section ↓
A solid block of many teal dots moves across an open surface, and small mist-blue dots bounce off it. Then arcs and wavy lines narrow the path into a bottleneck; the block becomes a thin line and loses its order, and golden dots break away from the terrain on both sides.
In short

If you know the terrain better than your opponent and use its features, you fight where your own strengths count and your opponent’s come to nothing.

What it’s about: Every confrontation takes place somewhere, and no place is neutral. Strength depends on the ground. On open ground, a Roman legion was almost impossible to beat; in forest and bog, its order fell apart. That is why, if you know the terrain, your first question is not who is stronger but where.

In depth

The principle in detail

Three steps through the principle: grasp it, place it, put it to work. Open each topic on its own.

The core messageCore statement and 3 clarifications
In essence

Strength is never absolute; it depends on the place. If you know the terrain, you choose the place so that your own strength takes effect.

It also says
Terrain is more than landscape. Markets, organizations and networks have features that strengthen some forces and paralyze others.
It does not say
That a terrain advantage will last. Technology, infrastructure and markets change the ground.
It does not say
That every success can be explained by the place. Leadership, morale, faith and chance count just as much.
The explanationTerrain is more than landscape.

Terrain is more than landscape.

A market has terrain: customers’ habits, hurdles to buying, the channels through which trust develops. An organization has terrain: official and unofficial channels, bottlenecks in decision-making, points where information gets stuck.

Terrain advantages don’t last forever. Technology, markets and people change the ground, and yesterday’s advantage can be worthless tomorrow.

The question

On what ground does your strength work, and where are you currently carrying it into terrain you don’t know?

The signs3 signs when you heed it · 3 when you overlook it
When you heed it
  • Before an initiative, you scout the ground: habits, channels, bottlenecks.
  • You deliberately choose the place and setting for a difficult conversation.
  • You check whether an old advantage still holds.
When you overlook it
  • You carry an approach that worked elsewhere unchanged into a new area.
  • You follow the path others recommend without knowing the terrain yourself.
  • You cling to an advantage that the ground stopped providing long ago.
The backgroundFrom Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” (probably 5th century BC), chapters 10 and 11. · T2 Eastern Strategy
  1. 5th c. BC
    OriginSun Tzu

    The Art of War

  2. 1832
    SupplementedCarl von Clausewitz

    S chapter on terrain in

  3. Tradition T2
    TraditionEastern Strategy

    Sun Tzu, Kautilya, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the Tao Te Ching, Miyamoto Musashi, François Jullien

    See the tradition on the Origin page
Read more: the full background

From Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” (probably 5th century BC), chapters 10 and 11. Supplemented by Carl von Clausewitz’s chapter on terrain in “On War” (1832) and by Stephen Hymer’s and Srilata Zaheer’s research on the liability of foreignness.

The research3 sources: 1 classic, 1 theory, 1 primary study · 1976–1995 · with limitations of the research
3 sources1976–1995 period1 classic1 theory1 primary study
Strength of evidence
  1. weak
  2. moderate
  3. strong

For companies in a foreign market, the liability of foreignness is empirically supported; the general statement about terrain comes from a classical teaching without measurement.

  1. 5th c. BC
    Classic
    Sun Tzu

    “The Art of War,” chapters 10 and 11 (translated by Lionel Giles, 1910): six kinds of terrain, nine situations; the natural formation of the country as the best ally.

  2. 1976
    Theory
    Stephen Hymer

    “The International Operations of National Firms” (dissertation, 1960): foreign companies are at a disadvantage because they lack knowledge of markets, customers and institutions.

  3. 1995
    Primary study
    Srilata Zaheer

    “Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness”: 24 foreign exchange trading rooms in New York and Tokyo; the findings support the liability of foreignness, and other companies’ practices are hard to copy.

Where the research reaches its limits
  • Terrain advantages are not permanent.
  • Technology, infrastructure and markets change the ground, and yesterday’s advantage can be worthless tomorrow.
  • Not every success can be explained by the terrain; if you look only at the place, you underestimate leadership, morale, faith and chance.
  • Srilata Zaheer’s study concerns companies abroad; applying it to organizations, conversations and families is an inference.
Read more: what research shows

The principle goes back to Sun Tzu. In “The Art of War,” probably from the 5th century BC, chapter 10 distinguishes six kinds of terrain, among them accessible ground, narrow passes, precipitous heights and positions at a great distance from the enemy; chapter 11 describes nine situations, from dispersive ground in your own country to death ground. Sun Tzu calls the natural formation of the country the soldier’s best ally, but links it to knowledge of the enemy. Business research offers a related finding. In 1960, Stephen Hymer described how foreign companies are at a disadvantage compared with local ones because they lack knowledge of markets, customers and institutions. In 1995, Srilata Zaheer confirmed this liability of foreignness in a study of 24 foreign exchange trading rooms of Western and Japanese banks in New York and Tokyo.

The related principles16 Know the Enemy and Yourself · 70 Positioning · 85 Death Ground · 91 Potential of the Situation
Know the Enemy and Yourself

Knowledge of the terrain becomes effective only together with 16 Know the Enemy and Yourself

Death Ground

85 Death Ground is Sun Tzu’s most extreme kind of terrain, from which there is no way back

Positioning

70 Positioning transfers the choice of terrain to the market

Potential of the Situation

91 Potential of the Situation shows that the situation itself carries force

Read more: the full text

Knowledge of the terrain becomes effective only together with 16 Know the Enemy and Yourself. 85 Death Ground is Sun Tzu’s most extreme kind of terrain, from which there is no way back; 70 Positioning transfers the choice of terrain to the market, and 91 Potential of the Situation shows that the situation itself carries force.

The action steps5 things you can actually do
  1. Before an initiative, map the terrain: who really decides, where does information get stuck, which habits carry weight?

  2. Don’t just ask who is stronger; ask where your strength takes effect and where it comes to nothing.

  3. When you are new to an area, bring people who know the ground to your side before you act.

  4. Choose the place for difficult conversations deliberately: one-on-one, at the kitchen table or in the group.

  5. Once a year, check which of your advantages depend on the ground and whether that ground has changed.

The reflection questions3 questions: On what ground does your greatest strength take effect, and where does it come to nothing?
  1. On what ground does your greatest strength take effect, and where does it come to nothing?
  2. Which approach did you last carry unchanged into an area you hardly knew?
  3. Which of your advantages depends on ground that is changing right now?

Take your time with one question. Write down your answer – or talk it over with someone you trust.

To finish
The picture to rememberThe animation once more, with an explanation
  1. A solid block of many teal dots moves across an open surface, and small mist-blue dots bounce off it
  2. Then arcs and wavy lines narrow the path into a bottleneck
  3. The block becomes a thin line and loses its order, and golden dots break away from the terrain on both sides
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In context

Group 5: Position and Space

Guiding question: Where do you stand, and how much room do you have to move?

Stage 2 of 5: Understand the situation

Where the 92 principles come from: eight traditions of strategy, from classical war theory to dealing with uncertainty.

More about the origin

Background: WEGVISOR’s own selection from the strategy literature · More about the origin

Examples

The principle in practice

From the different spheres of society.

Government

Arminius, the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and Terrain

In AD 9, Arminius of the Cherusci destroys three Roman legions. He does not strike where Rome is strong; instead he lures the army into forest and bog, where the best army of its time loses its order.

Terrain
Business

Jack Ma, Taobao and Terrain

In 2003, eBay takes over China’s market leader in online auctions and seems impossible to catch. Jack Ma wins with Taobao all the same, because he knows the terrain better: Chinese buyers, Chinese sellers and their distrust of the internet.

Terrain
Media

Paul Julius Reuter, the Carrier Pigeons and Terrain

In 1850, there is a gap in the European telegraph network between Aachen and Brussels. Paul Julius Reuter bridges it with carrier pigeons, laying a cornerstone of one of the world’s first news agencies.

Terrain
Government

Movie: The Last of the Mohicans

In Michael Mann’s 1992 film, Hawkeye and his companions move through the forests of North America as if they were their own home. British linear tactics, made for the open fields of Europe, fail again and again on this terrain.

Terrain
FAQ

Questions about Terrain

What does the principle of Terrain say?

Strength depends on the place. If you know the features of a terrain, whether landscape, market or organization, you choose the place so that your own strengths take effect and your opponent’s come to nothing.

Where does the principle of Terrain come from?

It comes from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” probably from the 5th century BC. Chapters 10 and 11 describe kinds of terrain and how to act on each.

What are some examples of the principle of Terrain?

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, Taobao’s victory over eBay in China and Paul Julius Reuter’s carrier pigeons between Aachen and Brussels.

How well is Terrain supported by research?

Evidence: moderate – for companies in a foreign market, the liability of foreignness is empirically supported; the general statement about terrain comes from a classical teaching without measurement.

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