I think the underlying problem is people are hardwired to try and exert dominance. Evolutionarily it makes sense that there is desire for exerting dominance, and even in modern society the 'higher up' the ladder you are, generally, the better your life is.
Unfortunately in modern society most traditional methods of ‘exerting dominance’ are generally frowned upon/not conducive to civilized co-existence. So people have redirected this basic drive into dominance in business, and then they use writings by ancient strategists to justify what is basically anti-social behavior. I think applying either Machiavelli or Sun-Tzu’s writings today in totality would make you a pretty horrific person by the standards of modern civilization.
Machiavelli/Sun Tzu wrote reasonable treatises on monarchial rule and actual war (business != war, as much as some macho 'business warriors' want to pretend), but the overbroad application/translation into business practices is questionable at best.
The problem is that the people most likely to try and justify actions based on their teachings are the ones that are also least likely to understand the context in which they wrote and the non-applicability of their lessons to business in this day and age.
I don't agree, and I think this is a canard promulgated by those who benefit from it: those who are taught or inclined to believe that domination is a good way to get around in life.
