Conclusiones Parciales

Once a product has been conceived and developed, it goes through four distinct phases: entering the market, gradually increasing its market share, reaching its sales peak, and then slowly declining.

Once it is in its fourth phase, it is destined to go under completely.

Unless, that is, its “corpse” can be revived. In this case, it can return to its first phase and go through all the other phases again. You can achieve this by taking an existing product and selling it as a different one. This may require subtle alterations to the original design, and often involves relaunching the product.

This is how a Taiwanese company saved a pill that promised young mothers more breast milk for their babies. At first, sales were outstanding. Then, living conditions improved, mothers found that they had quite enough milk without the pill, and improved education enabled more mothers to use powdered milk instead. Sales of the pill stagnated, and even threatened to dry up altogether. Thereupon the pharmaceutical company imbued its pill, which was already dead, with a new “soul.” It claimed that the same pill would help women develop ample well-formed breasts. Thus, where the pill had previously appealed only to young mothers, it now enthused all the young ladies of Taiwan. Therefore, without changing the pill at all, the pharmaceutical company had rescued it from commercial failure (Lin, pp. 87–8).

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Stratagem 15:

Luring the tiger down from the mountain [onto the plain]

In applying this stratagem, you lure your opponent away from his base, or separate him from his main allies.

Isolation stratagem.

You cause your opponent to leave their home territory—which they know and trust and, hence, which favors them—and to go into foreign areas that you know well. This is either in order to defeat them in territory that favors you, or to occupy theirs. Thus, you lead your opponent onto “thin ice.” Another

variant of this stratagem is to lead your opponent far from their support personnel, thus making them easier to defeat. Here, the

“tiger” represents any powerful adversary whom it would be dangerous to fight straightforwardly. But the “tiger” is also a slower-witted animal than the fox (Yu 1993, p. 135), which you have a chance of defeating by luring it away from its home terrain. You can lure the tiger away by a variety of means: You can tempt it with bait, instill fear, pretend to attack its territory, or simply provoke it.

Stratagem radius

According to the ancient Greek myth, sirens tempted passing sailors onto their island with their beautiful singing, where they killed them.

Odysseus rendered their stratagem ineffective by blocking the ears of his men with wax and tying himself to the mast of his ship. Thus, his ship remained on a steady course. Unfortunately, in Heinrich Heine’s poem “The Lorelei,” the sailor is not so wise. High on a mountain on the bank of the Rhine, a beautiful young woman is combing her long golden hair and singing a wonderful song. Thus, she leads the sailor off course, and he perishes in the waves.

Exploitation stratagems 121

Chinese trade agreements with foreign partners tend to include certain clauses in their contracts. These oblige their partners to abandon the jurisdiction of their home country’s legal system. Thus, they leave themselves at the mercy of Chinese law, which is both unfamiliar and unfavorable to them. For example, the Chinese may stipulate that the court of jurisdiction for a business contract concluded with a foreigner must be in China.

Sometimes, in the world of business, it is not really a matter of luring a competing “tiger” down from its “mountain,” but of finding a “mountain” where there is currently no “tiger.” You can lay claim to such “mountains” without first having to lure a “tiger” away from them. Polaroid cameras are a prime example of this: They successfully laid claim to an area of the market whose very existence the competition knew nothing about (Chen 2, pp. 160ff.).

Stratagem 15 can also be applied if the “tiger” has left the

“mountain” without any encouragement. This was the policy of certain Japanese firms after World War II. European colonial powers withdrew from their colonies, leaving plenty of “mountains” without

“tigers,” which the Japanese exploited to the full. Their products were too basic to make any impact on Western markets, so they expanded their economic influence elsewhere, starting in Asia, Africa, and even the smallest Pacific islands, later moving on to Australia. In due course, they went into the markets of the northern hemisphere, where they were now much more successful (Lin, p. 93).

Stratagem prevention

Once you have occupied a territory, you should not give it up easily.

You should carefully examine any temptation to leave your territory, and, if necessary, you should stubbornly resist it. Moreover, if you must leave your home terrain, do not stray too far away from it, and make sure that there is a way back to it. Avoid any area where you really do not feel at home. Stratagem 27, “Feigning madness without

122 Stratagem Training

losing the balance,” is an effective way to counteract stratagem 15.

Thus, Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian chancellor, infuriates anyone who tries to lure him into their domain and make him look stupid.

He is exaggeratedly laid-back, and simply will not play along with them. Instead, he devotes himself to soccer and the cello (NZZ, January 28, 2001, p. 3).

Stratagem risk

If you catch a shark and leave it on dry land, you render it harmless.

If, however, you lure a crocodile onto the riverbank, it is still dangerous. You must make sure that you are really luring a “tiger”

down onto the plain, and not an eagle. You must also make sure that your opponent really is weaker in unfamiliar territory.

Example