Bianque was a famous physician in ancient China. One day the King of Wei asked him, "You and your two brothers are all skilled in medicine, which of you is the best?"
Bianque answered, "My eldest1 brother is the best, the next is my second brother , and the last is me."
The King asked again, "Then how is it that you are the most famous?"
Bianque replied, "My eldest brother treats a disease when it is just beginning to show symptoms. What he does is to remove the pathogen--members of my family can all see that but other people cannot. That's why he doesn't enjoy wide recognition. My second brother cures a disease in its early stages. People thus mistake him as only capable of treating minor2 illnesses. So he is merely known within this locality and its neighborhood. As for me, I treat a disease when it is already well developed and very serious. People observe me perform bloodletting by injecting tubes into vessels3 or applying medical ointment4 on the skin, and thus look upon me as well versed5 in medicine. So I have become well known all over the country."
The King was quite satisfied and said, "You've given a cogent6 explanation."
What we can learn from the story is this: Prevention is better than control, which in turn is better than remedy after the event. It's a pity that many enterprise managers fail to see this and try to seek remedies after wrong decisions have incurred7 great losses, which, they will find, may be too late to make up for.
魏文王问名医扁鹊说：“你们家兄弟三人，都精于医术，到底哪一位最好呢？”
扁鹊答道：“长兄最好，中兄次之，我最差。”
文王再问：“那么为什么你最出名呢？”
扁鹊答道：“我长兄治病，是治病于病情发作之前。由于一般人不知道他事先能铲除病因，所以他的名气无法传出去，只有我们家的人才知道。我中兄治病，是治病于病情初起之时。一般人以为他只能治轻微的小病，所以他的名气只及于本乡里。而我扁鹊治病，是治病于病情严重之时。一般人都看到我在经脉上穿针管来放血、在皮肤上敷药等大手术，所以以为我的医术高明，名气因此响遍全国。”
文王说：“你说得好极了。”
事后控制不如事中控制，事中控制不如事前控制。可惜大多数的事业经营者均未能认识到这一点，等到错误的决策造成了重大的损失才寻求弥补，有时是亡羊补牢，为时已晚。
