I enjoyed Toby Shapshak’s article on Muhammad Ali (FM Fox June 9-15).
He says that while Sun Tzu may be the most often used guide to modern-day business strategy, Ali’s “rope-a-dope” strategy, which won him the Rumble in the Jungle, is arguably a better example for businesses looking to compete in the digital age. Maybe.
Problem is, “rope-a-dope” was no planned strategy, as Foreman said in his autobiography: “I know, and he knows, he had no such strategy before the fight.”
Ali had a keen understanding of his own strengths and of his opponent’s weaknesses and, with masterful intuition, went to the ropes out of necessity.
This perhaps owes more to Sun Tzu’s “opportunities multiply as they are seized” than Shapshak would credit.
Steve Burke, The Armoury Boxing Club
Cape Town