King Wu of Qin said to Gan Mao, "The envoys sent by the state of Chu are mostly eloquent and skilled in debate; when they argue with me, I often find myself at a loss for words and unable to handle them. What should I do?" Gan Mao replied, "Your Majesty need not worry! When those eloquent envoys come, do not heed their proposals; when those clumsy and timid envoys come, be sure to follow their advice. In this way, Chu will send weak envoys and refrain from dispatching eloquent ones. Your Majesty may then take advantage and control them."
💡 商战启示录
Gan Mao's strategy reveals a mechanism of adverse selection: by deliberately rejecting the counsel of the eloquent and instead heeding the weak, he compels his opponent to recalibrate their approach to talent, thereby degrading the quality of envoys the opponent dispatches and seizing the upper hand in negotiations. In modern business, this tactic can be applied to supply chain management or partner selection. For instance, when a large retailer negotiates with multiple suppliers, if it finds a particular supplier's sales representative overly assertive and demanding, it might intentionally refrain from reaching an agreement with them, opting instead to partner with a supplier offering more lenient terms, albeit of slightly inferior quality. This forces the assertive supplier, eager to preserve the relationship, to lower its thresholds or replace its negotiation team, ultimately securing more favorable terms for the retailer. Similarly, in talent recruitment, if a company observes that graduates from prestigious universities harbor excessively high expectations, it may deliberately reduce their hiring ratio, favoring instead graduates from ordinary institutions who are diligent and grounded, thereby optimizing the cost structure of its workforce. The essence of this strategy lies in leveraging asymmetric information and selective feedback to guide the opponent toward adjustments that serve one's own interests, just as Gan Mao articulated—rendering the "capable unused"—to achieve the commanding position where "the king thereby controls the situation."