Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 54 3 "He who knows himself knows": Self-satisfaction is the chief culprit of corporate doom
Enterprises must be self-aware, but not self-satisfied.

Appreciating a wise, knowing those out.

—— "Tao Te Ching" Chapter 33
Those who know others are wise, and those who know themselves are wise. "Those who know themselves know clearly", that is to know and treat themselves clearly, which is the most precious thing.Leaders must have self-knowledge and the courage to constantly deny themselves and surpass themselves in order to make continuous progress.

Dickens has a famous saying: "It was the best of times, and it was also the worst of times." Success, in a sense, is a kind of burden for an enterprise. Since ancient times, there has been a saying in our country that "the proud soldier must be defeated".If an enterprise regards itself as the leader of the industry, it will lose its due sense of crisis, lose the enterprising spirit of the start-up period, and be complacent.However, the changes never stop, and the crisis of the enterprise is unpredictable. Only by constantly using changes in the trend of the times, constantly innovating, and getting rid of the burden of success, can we help enterprises adjust their strategies in time, so as not to lose their existing wealth and wealth. Huge profits can enable our company to maintain a leading edge in market changes, leave competitors far behind, and create huge wealth.

However, not all companies realize the "blind" truth that change leads to development.Montgomery, a famous American department store retailer with more than 130 years of operating history?Ward Corporation, the former rival of Wal-Mart, Martha and other chain stores, quietly came to the end of its history at the end of the 20th century. On December 2000, 12, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in the Federal Court of Delaware and announced that it would close its 28 retail stores and 30 distribution centers in 250 states in the next few months.As a pioneer of retail business in the United States, the closure of this century-old store not only leaves people with memories and regrets of its past glory, but also brings people deep thinking about the rise and fall of the company.

Montgomery's started out as a mail-order store, grew into a large-scale catalog store, and eventually expanded to include appliances, home decoration, housewares, clothing, auto repair, and gold and silver jewelry.It is satisfied with its existing performance, lazy to learn from market changes, and ultimately fails to establish a clear image of the company in the minds of consumers. Consumers with higher income feel that the grade of goods here is slightly lower, and those with lower income Consumers felt that the prices of the commodities here were too high, so they failed to form their own relatively fixed consumer groups, and were deprived of consumers in the fierce business war.

The Montgomery Company failed because of its insensitivity to changing circumstances.Intel President Grove said: In this rapidly changing environment, facing so many strong opponents, why can we always maintain such competitiveness?Because we clearly realize that there is only one constant in today's world - change.The competition among enterprises in today's world is essentially the competition of learning speed.The only way we can have lasting competitiveness is to learn faster than others.

Like Montgomery Company, the disappearance of the famous Chinese trademark Wangmazi scissors also makes people sigh. In July 2003, everyone saw such a news from the newspaper: Beijing Wangmazi Scissors Factory, a traditional time-honored brand that originated in the eighth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (7) and has been handed down for more than 1651 years, was ruled bankrupt by the Changping Court.Many people can't help but ask after seeing this news: Why did such a well-known and time-honored company suffer from bankruptcy?
"There is Wang Mazi in the north, and Zhang Xiaoquan in the south." In the Chinese knife and scissors industry, Wang Mazi's scissors are well-known.For hundreds of years, Wangmazi knives and scissors have dominated the market for their sharp edges and durability.Even after the founding of New China, Wang Mazi's scissors were still very "hot". In the best business in the late 20s, Wang Mazi set a record of selling 80 kitchen knives and 7 pairs of scissors in a month.But since 40, Wang Mazi's performance has been declining year by year, and he has been in a loss for years. On the eve of the new century, he even fell into a situation where he borrowed money to pay his wages.

Experts in the industry believe that as a state-owned enterprise, Wang Mazi followed the management model under the planned economic system and lacked market competition ideas and innovation consciousness, which was the root cause of its failure.For a long time, the main products of Wangmazi Scissors Factory have continued the traditional iron clamping steel process. Although it is more wear-resistant and easier to use than stainless steel knives, due to the complicated process, easy to rust, and low-grade appearance, the products have gradually lost their competitive advantage.The market demand has changed a lot, but the operators of Wangmazi scissors continue to stick to the rules and fail to make improvement measures.

Numerous business cases warn entrepreneurs: this is a world where the fittest survive. No matter how good a company is, as long as it stops innovating, it is only one step away from death; no matter how excellent a company is, as long as it lacks innovation, it will go to failure.Enterprises without innovation will not be able to last; entrepreneurs without innovative thinking can only leave the market sadly.Ideas disappear because of lack of innovation; products disappear because of lack of ideas; customers disappear because of lack of products; businesses disappear because of lack of customers; companies disappear because of lack of business.

In today's ever-changing business world, the momentary success of an enterprise does not mean that it can be done once and for all.Only continuous change and innovation can ensure the eternal youth of the enterprise.Survival of the fittest, natural selection, and the elimination of companies that are self-styled and unwilling to change are the "iron" laws of the market-the market never considers how many years of history a company has, and how glorious it has a past.Only by abandoning self-satisfaction, focusing on learning, and following changes in the market can we continue to win the trust of the market.

(End of this chapter)