Written by: William Lee, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Zhuge Kong Ming 諸葛孔明, perhaps one of the most respected prime ministers in the Chinese history, used to reside in a farm. He was persuaded by Liu Bei 劉備 to help him resurrect the Han Dynasty 漢朝. It was 207AD.
Liu Bei, a distant uncle to the hijacked Han Emperor, started with no land and no capital. All he got was the intangibles of legitimacy, leadership and good faith.
At a time when thousands of warlords and bandits rose and disintegrated like morning fog, these qualities differentiated him from the rest. So although Liu Bei had won and lost many battles, he had no problem to gather crowds and win their support. That enabled him to rise from defeats, every single time he lost.
But deep down, he knew he needed a partner, to organically grow his business. Opportunistic land grabs was not a long-term solution. Liu Bei was the CEO. He needed a COO sharing the same purpose, to make his vision a reality.
Farming The Business
In Chinese, the characters生意 (pronounced as “sheng yi” and commonly translated as “business”) literally describes a goodwill 意 to give, grow and sustain lives 生 through the institution of a lasting business.
The Way to achieve that (道, pronounced as “dao”) is by matching (和, pronounced as “he”) the seller’s purpose and capabilities (氣, pronounced as “qi”) with the buyer’s desires and needs (氣), to generate (生, pronounced as “sheng”) capital (貝, pronounced as “bei”, the first part of the word money/currency 財, pronounced as “cai”) and build, grow and sustain human assets (才, pronounced as “cai”, the second part of財).
I can only imagine that, the inventor(s) of these terms intended to apply this philosophy to all human activities, including the state business.
In the business of state, administrators and common people were both the buyers and the human assets at the end of the Han Dynasty. The head of a state was the leader of a selling organisation possessing the will and the capabilities to satisfy people’s desires and needs.
Liu Bei had positioned himself to be the beacon of hope, for those willing to see the Han Dynasty returning to its former glory, grounded on an enticing value proposition of order, honour and prosperity.
Kong Ming was there to assist him gaining clarity in his vision and execution, and develop, grow and manage those matching capabilities.
The Rise
Shortly after Kong Ming joined Liu Bei, an opportunity came.
Cao Cao 曹操, the prime minister who hijacked the Han Emperor, just defeated his nemesis Yuan Shao 袁紹 and forcibly acquired a marine from a local governor Liu Cong 劉琮 to complete his military capability. The sheer number of his army, calvary and marine would easily overpower his opponents anywhere. It seems nothing was going to stop him conquering the rest of China.
The next target – Liu Bei.
Liu Bei‘s potential, similar value proposition but differing purpose made him a natural competitor in this winner-wins-all market.
Out of desperation, Kong Ming representing Liu Bei went to Sun Quan 孫權, second-in-line of Cao Cao’s aggression, seeking strategic alliance.
A second-generation warlord, Sun Quan and his marines were great in waterway battles but not on land. He needed Liu Bei’s cavalry skills and his intelligence on Cao Cao, despite its miniature size.
Encouraged by Kong Ming’s contextual capability analysis and fired up by his own ego, Sun Quan quickly exploited Cao Cao’s weaknesses: misaligned personnel as a result of rapid hostile expansion; general war-torn fatigue; unfamiliarity in local geography; and debilitating pandemic spawned from prolonged warfare.
Cao Cao’s defeat at Chi Bi 赤壁 fuelled Sun Quan’s ambition and those around him – he too wanted to conquer the whole of China now. He quickly turned defence to offense, and got stuck. Cao Cao’s foresight, capabilities and strategic brilliance ensured that the setback would not result in a total collapse.
The sticky war between Sun Quan and Cao Cao gave Liu Bei and Kong Ming an opportunity to land grab the vacuum left within the Jing Zhou territory 荊州. Sandwiched between Cao Cao and Sun Quan, Liu Bei and Kong Ming had no option but to expand, consolidate and secure their newly acquired assets as quickly as possible. When the wind of circumstances changed, both insatiable forces could swallow them at any time without hesitation. And, change was imminent and inevitable.
Liu Bei’s resounding value proposition combined with the perfect execution by his followers, made the difference. Minimal killing, destruction and corruption was sustained during the process – a highly unusual sight at this time of wars and thefts – and those surrendered were trusted and assimilated. Kong Ming’s competency in agriculture, engineering, finance, economics, law & order and general management further provided the much-needed stability and facility, for the people to grow organically.
Just a few years later, the winning formula was repeated again and again at Yi Zhou 益州 and Han Zhong 漢中, when Liu Bei went west to acquire more territories that would complete Kong Ming’s famous Long Zhong Dui strategic plan 隆中對.
The Demise
The quick ascension of Liu Bei was a threat for both Cao Cao and Sun Quan.
The powerful combination of leadership, general management, capabilities development and congruent alignment meant that Liu Bei would outgrow all of his competitors, if the trend continued.
With that, Sun Quan first accused Liu Bei of stabbing on his back at the Chi Bi Battle, and asked for compensation. On the surface, Sun Quan would continue the Sun-Liu alliance, after Liu Bei agreed to give away several Jing Zhou cities. He then waited until Liu Bei to divert his forces to attack, capture and consolidate Yi Zhou, drawing much of his best generals and Kong Ming away from their base at Jing Zhou. Then, while Cao Cao attacked Liu Bei from the north, Sun Quan would pretend to strengthen the Sun-Liu alliance once again, by offering to marry his son to the daughter of Liu Bei’s best general and the then governor of Jing Zhou, Guan Yu 關羽. Satisfied by Sun Quan’s apparent submission, Guan Yu moved north to attack Cao Cao from the east, to maximise Liu Bei’s recent triumph on Cao Cao at Han Zhong from the west. All while Sun Quan secretly formed an alliance with Cao Cao and advanced his forces to surprise attack Guan Yu’s base at Jing Zhou from the south.
Sun Quan succeeded and took all of Jing Zhou away from Liu Bei. And, he executed Guan Yu.
At this point, Liu Bei faced a decision of his life. Despite Kong Ming’s objection, he abandoned the winning Long Zhong Dui strategic plan. He attacked Sun Quan without the best of his generals and Kong Ming – they were still needed at Yi Zhou and Han Zhong consolidation. He committed Cao Cao’s mistake, expanded at the period of overexpansion. And, he wrongfully estimated his ‘ally’s’ spontaneous reactions to his meteoric rise serving different purposes (for the Way of Spontaneous Reactions 道法自然 by Lao Tzu 老子, see this article!
He lost his final battle, big time.
The Lasting Business
Forever loyal to Liu Bei, Kong Ming would fulfill his promise and continue Liu Bei’s quest after his death, until he himself died on the battlefield of illness and exhaustion, staying true to his organic growth strategy… his army was growing crops at the border with the farmers, even at war.
Kong Ming was the COO. He could not unite all the different administrators of different origins like Liu Bei once did, although common people loved him. He’s been worshipped like a reverend ever since, particularly across Yi Zhou and Han Zhong, the modern-day Sichuan Province 四川, where he had time to organically grow his farm to a lasting business.
William Lee, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine William Lee, a business coach and expert in connecting people’s wheels of fortune together, excels at producing positive results in complex multi-stakeholder engagement, end-to-end customer experience satisfaction, and remote team management. Frustrated by years of conflicts and external negativities, William dug deep to understand how our minds work, how we interact with one another, and how good faith can improve our connected world together. Through a process called CentriFusion, William’s methodology and system provide an easy first step to vastly improve team empathetic capability. With increased presence and engagement, as a result, fertile mental grounds are sown to enable organic and spontaneous growth, aligned to a shared common purpose. William provides the way to attain TRUE and SUSTAINABLE COMFORT in your businesses. Enjoy life without complacency!
