Someone said to the King of Qi: "Qi has defeated Chu in the south, subdued Qin in the west, and with the forces of Han and Wei, captured the armies of Yan and Zhao in the north—yet its territory has not expanded, its people have not increased, and its state has not grown rich. Why is this? It is because Your Majesty has not established the proper title and strategic aim. If you preserve the states of Han and Wei while overawing Chu and Zhao, then no lord under heaven will fail to come and pay homage to Qi. But now Your Majesty, instead of preserving Han and Wei, attacks Chu and Zhao alone—this is like abandoning one's own fields to till another's, losing the root while pursuing the branches. Moreover, if you rescue Zhao without seizing its land, Zhao's resentment will deepen; if you attack Chu without victory, Chu's enmity will be forged. With deep resentment and sworn enmity, yet wishing the feudal lords to draw near—this is impossible. Therefore, for Your Majesty's sake, it is better to preserve Han and Wei and overawe Chu and Zhao, and then all the lords under heaven will come to pay homage to Qi."
💡 商战启示录
The essence of this strategy lies in "preserving minor gains to secure the greater advantage"—that is, refraining from coveting immediate, partial victories, and instead building strategic alliances to establish deterrence, ultimately commanding the entire landscape. In modern business, this corresponds to "ecosystem thinking" and "long-termism." For instance, Alibaba in its early days did not merely expand its self-operated businesses; rather, by nurturing small and medium-sized sellers (akin to preserving Han and Wei), it cultivated a platform ecosystem, thereby deterring rivals such as JD.com and Amazon (pressuring Chu and Zhao), and ultimately ascending to dominance in e-commerce. Conversely, consider certain enterprises—such as the erstwhile bike-sharing wars—where each player recklessly seized territory (attacking Chu and Zhao) while neglecting relationships with key stakeholders like governments and capital providers (failing to preserve Han and Wei), leading to internal attrition and eventual consolidation or elimination. The true wisdom of commercial warfare lies in this: do not fixate solely on direct competitors; instead, prioritize forging an "alliance chain"—collaborating with suppliers, distributors, and even the non-core operations of competitors to form a community of shared interests. When you possess a formidable network of allies, your market standing will rise naturally even without proactive offensives, much like the state where "all under heaven pays homage." At the same time, one must guard against the pitfall of "abandoning one's own fields to till another's"—namely, reckless diversification or cross-industry expansion that neglects the consolidation of core competitiveness. An enterprise should, like the King of Qi, first stabilize its foundational base (preserving Han and Wei) before pursuing external expansion (pressuring Chu and Zhao), only then can it remain invincible in the arena of commerce.