The state of Qin attacked Zhao, and the King of Zhao appointed Zhao Kuo as the supreme commander. Zhao Kuo's mother submitted a memorial, saying, "Zhao Kuo is not fit to be the supreme commander." The King of Zhao asked, "Why?" She replied, "In the past, when I served his father, he was the supreme commander. He personally offered food to the strategists and retainers in his camp, counting them by the tens; the friends he associated with numbered in the hundreds. The rewards bestowed by Your Majesty and the royal clan were all distributed among the officers and gentlemen of the army. From the day he received his appointment, he ceased to concern himself with household affairs. Now, as soon as Zhao Kuo becomes the supreme commander, he sits facing east to receive homage, and no officer dares to look up at him. The gold and silk bestowed by Your Majesty, he takes all home and stores away, and daily he seeks out cheap lands and houses to purchase. Does Your Majesty think he resembles his father? Father and son are of different minds—I beg Your Majesty not to send him." The King of Zhao said, "Do not interfere; my decision is made." Zhao Kuo's mother then said, "If Your Majesty ultimately sends him, and he proves unworthy, may I be spared from implication?" The King of Zhao consented. After Zhao Kuo replaced Lian Po, he entirely altered the military regulations and dismissed many officers. When the Qin general Bai Qi heard of this, he dispatched elite troops, feigned defeat, and then cut off the Zhao army's supply routes, splitting the Zhao forces into two sections, causing the soldiers' morale to waver. After more than forty days, the army was starving. Zhao Kuo personally led his finest soldiers into battle, and the Qin forces shot him dead with arrows. The Zhao army suffered a great defeat, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers surrendered to Qin, who buried them all alive.
💡 商战启示录
Zhao Kuo's defeat lay in "fighting wars on paper." His mother, perceiving his true nature, foresaw the calamity he would bring. In modern business, many startups or professional managers boast glittering résumés and encyclopedic theories yet lack real combat experience, often committing errors of a similar kind. For instance, an internet company once recruited at a handsome salary a "executive from a renowned enterprise." This man excelled at PowerPoint presentations and strategic planning, but upon taking office, he rushed to overturn the existing system, wholesale copying the model of tech giants while ignoring the team's actual conditions and market differences. The result was a drain of core talent, delayed projects, and ultimately a decline in company performance—until he was forced out. This case is strikingly parallel to Zhao Kuo's: the parachuted leader never went to the front lines, never respected the existing culture, never channeled resources into motivating the team, but instead clung to dogma or pursued self-interest. The words of Zhao's mother serve, in truth, as a cautionary bell for modern enterprises in selecting and appointing leaders—when evaluating a leader, one should not look only at theoretical competence, but also observe whether he is humble and pragmatic, whether he understands decentralization and the sharing of benefits, and whether he remains composed under pressure. Commerce is like warfare; the market is a battlefield. Only those leaders who, "from the day they receive their commission, ask nothing of household affairs," and who place the team above all else, can guide their enterprises through cycles of change. Conversely, those who are merely names without substance will, like the Zhao army, be "buried alive" by the market in the end.