Step 4: 3. Using Benchmarks

2. Best Opportunities and Actions > 2. Best Opportunities > 3. Using Benchmarks

What do you know about using benchmarks to identify your best opportunity?

1. I want to understand the six benchmarks of comparing opportunities.
   4.6 Six Benchmarks

   4.6 Six Benchmarks

   "You must be able to lead your men deeply into different surrounding territory.
   And yet, you can discover the opportunity to win."
   Sun Tzu's The Art of War 11: 5:14-16

   Situation: 

   Evaluating opportunities is one of the most sophisticated aspects of Sun Tzu's system. This is especially true given the limited amount of information we have before exploring opportunities. Twenty different rules describe the surface characteristics of opportunities that separate good opportunities from poor ones. In the real world, we simply do not have time to compare all these characteristics rigorously.  All alternative opportunities are impossible to identify. Facts and opinions vary.  Most characteristics resist quantitative analysis.
   

2. I understand the six benchmarks, but I want to understand how my best choice depends on my weaknesses.
   4.7 Competitive Weakness

   4.7 Competitive Weakness

   "You must know all about these six weaknesses.
   You must understand the paths that lead to defeat."
   Sun Tzu's The Art of War 10:2:31-32
   

   Situation: 

   To pick the best possible opportunities, we must avoid putting ourselves in a bad position. Pursuing the wrong opportunities brings out our weaknesses. These situations fail to take advantage of our strengths. Most of us do not realize that picking the wrong opportunities can create or emphasize previously hidden weaknesses.

3. I understand both of the above, but need a graphical tool that makes comparison easier to visualize.
   4.9 Opportunity Mapping

   4.9 Opportunity Mapping

   "You can recognize the opportunity for victory; you don't create it."
   Sun Tzu's The Art of War 4:1:10
   

   Situation: 

   The three characteristics that describe opportunities and their six extremes can get very abstract. The problem is that, as humans, we are wired primarily for visual perception. When our methods are purely conceptual, we miss many of our best opportunities because we cannot "see" the key characteristics of the opportunity involved.