Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 34 5 "Self-equalization": Softness - Equivalent Exchange, Complementary Advantages
The exchange benefits both parties.

The heaven and the earth are in harmony, so that the nectar will fall, and the people will be equalized without order.

—— "Tao Te Ching" Chapter 32
When the yin and yang of the heaven and the earth are combined, nectar will fall, and people don't need to order it to be even and natural, reflecting a kind of balanced and harmonious beauty. "Roumei" is soft and beautiful, which is reflected in the enterprise through complementary advantages and growth.After an enterprise develops to a certain stage, if it wants to continue to grow, avoid business risks, form strategic alliances, realize resource sharing and complement each other's advantages, it is undoubtedly a shortcut to enhance competitiveness and gain competitive advantages.

Once upon a time, there were two hungry people got a gift from an elder: a fishing rod and a basket of fresh huge fish.Among them, a person to a basket of fish, another person to a rod, so they parted ways.The person who got the fish, pitched bonfire with dry sticks, and cooked the fish. He wolfed down the fish, but before he could taste the meaty aroma, he ate up all the fish soup, in a blink of an eye.Soon, he starved to death beside the empty fish basket.The other person continued to starve with a fishing rod, and walked towards the beach with difficulty step by step, but when he saw the blue ocean not far away, the last bit of strength in his body was exhausted. He could only helplessly pass away with endless regrets.

There were two hungry people. They also got a fishing rod and a basket of fish from the elders.It's just that they didn't go their separate ways, but agreed to find the sea together.They cooked one fish at a time, and after a long journey, they came to the seashore.From then on, the two began to fish for a living. A few years later, they built a house, had their own families, children, and a fishing boat they built, and lived a happy and healthy life.

In the story, two hungry people share fish and fishing rods, which is actually a kind of complementary advantages. Through exchange, each party can live a better life.The rise of complementary advantages is closely related to the fierce competition in today's market and the rapid development of science and technology. In the face of many opponents with higher levels and stronger strengths, it is impossible for any enterprise to have an advantage in all aspects.In this situation, enterprises with complementary advantages have joined forces to implement collaborative marketing strategies, jointly develop new products, share talents and resources, and jointly provide services, thereby reducing competition risks and enhancing enterprise competitiveness.

In February 2004, China Mobile's M-ZONE and McDonald's formed a cooperative alliance. The combination of "communication + food" sent out such a voice to their consumer groups: "Heroes will be heroes, play differently. , M-Zone and McDonald's formed an alliance with Jinlan, and the era of privilege has begun for me from now on!"

The business scope of these two "heroes" is irrelevant. One is a "domestic communication leader" and the other is an "international fast food king". The concept is to effectively segment the market by creating an ethnic subculture, especially for young people, who pay more attention to their own personality.In cooperation with McDonald's, the launch of the "Dynamic Package" (original price of 15 yuan) that only M-Zone members can enjoy at a price of 21.5 yuan will undoubtedly increase the feeling of "privilege" for customers.For McDonald's, the "dynamic package" can increase the "stickiness" to consumers, thereby expanding the scope of the "territory" of both parties.

Since then, M-Zone has also cooperated with McDonald's in various forms in terms of channels, products, and markets, and launched a series of activities targeting young people, expanding the "site" of M-Zone to more and wider fields.

At present, McDonald's is penetrating and expanding from the paradise in the eyes of children to young consumers. At this time, the flow of people is the key to operation, and what the M-Zone has is a large number of audience groups. After attracting customers, the wireless communication platform of the M-Zone becomes an effective channel for McDonald's to release new products and promotional information in a targeted manner, making more effective use of the emerging fifth media to spread resources and investment. Sharing virtually strengthens the depth and breadth of the overall communication, and can attract a large number of young customers in need.

For M-Zone customers, they can get preferential prices when purchasing McDonald's products, which is a sense of privilege and a win-win situation.In the past, they only came to McDonald's to eat hamburgers and French fries. The setting of the McDonald's children's playground made them feel that they did not belong here. Now, because of the intervention of the M-Zone, they feel more satisfied.Of course, M-Zone's partners are not limited to McDonald's. China Mobile will continue to cooperate with various social resource advantages to expand the alliance preferential rights of M-Zone users.

Numerous facts have proved that through equivalent exchange and complementary advantages, enterprises can expand the market "cake" to a certain extent through assets, technology, brand and other advantages, thereby achieving economies of scale, maximizing profits and capital appreciation Target.But the premise of complementarity is that the two parties have some commonality of resources, such as the complementarity or overlap of customer groups, the consistency of market goals and brand propositions, and so on.On this basis, both partners can replace their respective advantageous resources to each other, and maximize the value of their resources in this system. On the one hand, they can better meet the needs of their respective markets, and on the other hand, they can save their respective marketing costs.

(End of this chapter)