King Wei of Wei was planning to attack Handan, the capital of Zhao. Upon hearing this, Ji Liang turned back midway from his journey. His robes were crumpled and unkempt, and he had not even paused to brush the dust from his hair, when he hastened to seek an audience with the king. He said, "As I was coming here, I saw a man on the great highway, driving his carriage northward. He told me, 'I am going to the state of Chu.' I said, 'If you are going to Chu, why are you heading north?' He replied, 'My horse is excellent.' I said, 'Though your horse is excellent, this is not the road to Chu.' He said, 'My traveling expenses are plentiful.' I said, 'Though your expenses are plentiful, this is not the road to Chu.' He said, 'My charioteer is highly skilled.' Now, the better these conditions are, the farther he will be from Chu. So it is with Your Majesty: every move you make is aimed at achieving hegemony, and every action you take seeks to win trust throughout the realm. Yet you rely on the strength of your state and the sharpness of your army to attack Handan, in order to expand your territory and enhance your renown. The more frequently Your Majesty acts thus, the farther you will drift from the goal of ruling all under heaven—just like the man who wished to go to Chu but traveled northward."
💡 商战启示录
This tale warns enterprises that strategic direction matters more than execution capability. If the direction is wrong, the more abundant the resources and the stronger the execution, the farther one drifts from the goal. In modern business, a classic example is Nokia, the former mobile phone giant. Nokia possessed a top-tier supply chain, a massive R&D team, and global distribution channels—yet when the smartphone wave arrived, it clung stubbornly to the Symbian system, channeling resources into feature-phone optimization and cosmetic design tweaks, striving to "broaden its territory and exalt its name" on the original track. As a result, its "Ma Liang" (technological prowess), "ample resources" (abundant capital), and "skilled charioteers" (superior management) all far surpassed those of emerging rivals—but its direction diverged from users' demand for a smart ecosystem, and it was swiftly overtaken by Apple and the Android camp. Conversely, Amazon in its early years forsook short-term profits, adhering to a long-term philosophy of "customer centricity." Even amid losses, its correct direction enabled the continuous accumulation of a flywheel effect. Therefore, when making decisions, enterprises should, like Ji Liang, first ask, "Is this not the road to Chu?"—repeatedly verifying before investment whether the strategic direction aligns with the market's endgame, lest they mask strategic laziness with tactical diligence. When the direction is right, slow is fast; when it is wrong, the faster one goes, the farther one strays.