“Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.”
People and opponents move toward incentives and react to appearances. Sun Tzu advises using bait — an attractive option, an apparent weakness — to pull the other side into a position of your choosing. Shape the game before it is played.
Chapter 1’s closing catalogue of stratagems includes the pair 利而诱之，乱而取之 — bait him with advantage, take him in disorder. Before Sun Tzu discusses armies at scale, he assumes this: opponents move toward what they want. The bait is not a trick layered on top of the contest; it is how you choose the contest’s location, because a well-placed incentive relocates the enemy on your schedule.
A firm wants a key partner’s attention but cannot outbid bigger suitors. Instead of bidding higher, it offers the one thing money rarely buys in that industry — first rights to a data set the partner genuinely needs, for two quarters, exclusive. The partner reorganizes its quarter around the alliance. The bait cost the firm almost nothing; its value came entirely from what the other side was missing.
The bait must be real. Feigned disorder works only if the enemy believes the disorder; a hollow incentive teaches the other side that your offers are theater, and that lesson is permanent. Sun Tzu’s baits are honest about being desirable — what they hide is the trap’s existence, never the prize’s substance.