Sun Tzu Consulting
Founders: Les Conn and Noelle Conn
OUR STORY
Sun Tzu Consulting began in the quiet aftermath of repeated missteps.
Over decades of working alongside foreign investors, entrepreneurs, and executives in China, we kept seeing the same pattern: smart people with strong resources walking into avoidable failures—not because they lacked effort or capital, but because they assumed China operated by Western rules. They mistook form for function, transaction for relationship, and policy for practice.
We watched joint ventures collapse over unspoken expectations. We saw due diligence miss the real power structures behind corporate facades. We observed brilliant strategies falter because they were built on a map that didn’t match the terrain.
That’s when we realized: what was missing wasn’t more data—it was a different lens.
Inspired by the enduring wisdom of The Art of War (孫子兵法)—a text not about combat, but about perception, timing, and understanding the unseen—we set out to build a consultancy that starts where others stop: with how China actually works, not how outsiders wish it worked.
Sun Tzu Consulting was founded by Les and Noelle Conn out of a shared conviction: that deep historical insight, combined with decades of hands-on business experience across Greater China, could help foreign enterprises navigate complexity with clarity, respect, and strategic advantage.
From the beginning, our mission has been clear—to turn cultural friction into strategic fluency. Not by teaching foreigners to “act Chinese,” but by helping them see, think, and decide through a framework that honors China’s own logic.
Because in this part of the world, the most powerful moves are often made before the first meeting—even before the first handshake.
This is the story of why we exist. And it’s the foundation of every engagement we undertake.
