The ten classic laws of business management – have you truly understood the essence of management?

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Enterprises place emphasis on management, and management relies on efficiency; to improve management efficiency, it is necessary to act in accordance with certain rules. For business management, there are the following ten golden rules. 1. The Matthew Effect: This effect gets its name from a parable in the New Testament, in the Gospel of Matthew: “To him who has, more will be given, so that he may have an abundance.” ； None, even all of his will be taken away.” The Matthew effect refers to the phenomenon where the strong become stronger while the weak become weaker, and it is widely applied in fields such as social psychology and education. The Matthew Effect illustrates the absolute advantage of large enterprises in the market; to maintain an advantage in a particular field, a company must grow rapidly within that field. When you become a leader in a certain field, even with the same return on investment, you can easily achieve greater value and profits than your less competitive peers. In almost all sectors of the market, it is generally the large companies that manage to maintain an advantage. If a company fails to grow and strengthen itself rapidly in a certain area, it must consider whether it needs to seek new areas of development in order to achieve better returns. 2. Ockham’s Razor principle: complexity can easily lead to confusion; only by simplifying it can it be easier for people to understand and apply. The essence of Occam’s Razor is: do not introduce entities beyond what is necessary. It points out that many things are actually harmful rather than beneficial, and often people are overwhelmed by these troubles. What we need to do is simplify things, turn complex matters into something simpler. In business management, Occam’s Razor tells us that when dealing with matters, we should focus on their essential nature, grasp the main trends, and address the most fundamental issues. In particular, one should go with the flow of nature and avoid complicating things artificially, so as to handle matters properly. In this sense, the art of management is the art of simplification; simplification is what truly means having control over matters. 3. The Law of Not Worthwhile: The Law of Not Worthwhile is a classic principle in management theory. It reveals a common psychological reaction among humans: toward things that one considers unworthy, there is a tendency to mock them and adopt a perfunctory attitude, which pushes the desire for success and self-fulfillment further and further away. There is a classic saying: \"The quality of a dish depends not on the ingredients, nor on the seasonings, nor on the heat used; what matters most is the heart of the person who cooks it.\" ”When you cook with a mindset of \"it’s not worth it,\" bitterness is added to your food. So, what are the things worth doing? Work worth doing has the following characteristics: it aligns with our values, suits our personality and temperament, and allows us to see hope. If a person believes that something is not worth doing, the outcome will certainly not be good; this requires managers to assign tasks in a scientific and rational manner. 4. The barrel law: A barrel used to hold water is made up of multiple planks, and its capacity to hold water is determined by these planks together. If one of the wooden planks is very short, the bucket’s capacity to hold water is limited, and this short plank becomes the \"limiting factor\" for the bucket’s water-holding capacity. The bucket theory states that the amount of water a bucket can hold depends entirely on its shortest plank. In other words, the inferior parts that make up an organization often determine the overall level of that organization. If we compare a company’s management level to a barrel, and its operational performance to the water contained within that barrel, then the decisive factor determining the level of that company’s performance is the shortest plank in the barrel. The components of a company are various resources, such as R&D, production, marketing, management, quality, and so on. To maximize the capacity of the barrel, it is necessary to allocate various internal resources of the enterprise in a proper manner, and promptly address the weakest link. In other words, for a company, it is necessary to find the corresponding buckets and plates, and then identify the shortest plate among them in order to raise its height! 5. The Washington Cooperation Principle: One monk carrying water has enough to drink; two monks carrying water also have enough; three monks don’t have any water to drink. The Washington cooperation principle states that if one person is perfunctory, two will shift blame on each other, and with three people, nothing will ever get done. Cooperation between people is not simply the addition of forces; it’s not just 1+1=2, but rather it is much more subtle and complex. For example, assuming that each person’s energy is 1, then the energy of 10 people could be greater than 10, or it could also be less than 1. Cooperation between people is not static; it is more like an energy with its own direction – when people push each other, they achieve twice the result with half the effort, but when they oppose each other, nothing is accomplished. Washington’s law of cooperation tells us that in business management, having more people does not necessarily mean greater strength. For a particular task, it’s not the case that the more people involved, the easier it is to achieve success. Cooperation is an issue; how to cooperate and whether to cooperate are also issues. 6. The Watch Theorem: When a person has one watch, they can tell what time it is, but when they have two watches, they are unable to determine the time. Two watches do not help people determine the time more accurately; instead, they create confusion and prevent those who look at them from figuring out what time it is. The correct approach is to choose one of the watches, make every effort to adjust its time accurately, and use it as a standard. In business management, the Watch Law tells us that for the same person or organization, it is not possible to apply two different methods or set two different goals at the same time. One person cannot be directed by two people at the same time, nor can a team have two people who make decisions. Otherwise, it will leave the company, the team, and the individual at a loss, causing chaos in their actions. 7. Zero-sum game: A zero-sum game is a concept in game theory that falls under the category of non-cooperative games. In a game involving competing parties, under strict competition, one party will always win while the other loses; the total of the gains and losses of all parties involved is always zero, and cooperation between them is not possible. A zero-sum game is somewhat similar to building one’s own happiness on the suffering of others; since my loss means your gain, both parties try every means possible to achieve \"benefiting oneself at the expense of others.\" However, where one party gains, another loses, and the overall interests of society do not increase by a single bit as a result. Zero-sum games are not conducive to the development of society as a whole. The alternative \"win-win\" theory seems more reasonable. “Being self-interested does not necessarily have to be based on harming others; through effective cooperation, a situation in which everyone is happy is possible. 8. The Law of Wine and Sewage: If a spoonful of wine is poured into a bucket of sewage, what results is still a bucket of sewage ； If you pour a spoonful of sewage into a bucket of wine, what you get is still a bucket of sewage. The law of wine and sewage tells us that as long as there is that one spoonful of sewage, no amount of wine can make it stop being sewage. In businesses, wastewater is almost inevitable, which in turn leads to various problems and conflicts. This requires business managers to be able to identify such wastewater quickly and address it promptly. Wastewater in a company is like a piece of trash in a pot of porridge – it can have devastating effects, turning an efficient department into a chaotic mess. 9. The “South Wind” rule: The north wind and the south wind compete in strength to see which one can make the person wearing a coat take it off. The north wind first brought a bitterly cold wind that was freezing, forcing pedestrians to wrap themselves tightly in their coats. The south wind blew gently, bringing a pleasant and sunny weather. Feeling the warmth of spring, passersby first unbuttoned their coats and then took them off; thus, the south wind emerged victorious. This principle is known as the South Wind Principle, or the Warmth Principle. It tells us that nothing is more moving than emotion. When dealing with relationships between people, it is essential to pay special attention to the methods used. Warmth is better than harshness; when applied to management, it requires managers to respect and care for their subordinates, to show more kindness and pay attention to resolving the practical difficulties in their daily lives, so that subordinates can truly feel the warmth provided by their managers. In this way, it can stimulate the enthusiasm of subordinates for work. 10. The fishbowl effect: Fishbowls are made of glass, which is highly transparent; no matter from which angle you view them, everything inside can be seen clearly. This is the goldfish bowl effect, which is a metaphor for a **management style** with extremely high transparency. When applied to management, this requires leaders to increase transparency in rules and regulations as well as in various tasks; as a result, their actions come under the supervision of employees, which effectively prevents leaders from abusing their power and strengthens their self-restraint mechanisms. At the same time, employees’ sense of ownership and responsibility also increases. Transparency and openness are one of the key ways to prevent ** and corruption. Transparency in rules and regulations as well as in various tasks can effectively motivate employees, inspiring in them a desire to exceed themselves and others; it also helps to unleash their potential so that they can contribute to the company.