After July 31st, all players that teams attempt to trade must pass through waivers. If any of the other teams in baseball put a claim on the player, then the team must either remove the player from waivers (thus making him untradeable the remainder of the season), negotiate a trade with the team who claimed him, or let him go to another team with no compensation.
Manny Ramirez was claimed by the White Sox and the Dodgers gave him up in what could be called a “salary dump”. Mike Napoli and Ted Lilly were claimed by the Red Sox and Yankees respectively, but their teams instantly removed them from waivers.
Sometimes the waiver wire is just used to gauge interest in another player by other teams. How can this be used in business? A good HR philosophy by a company would be to regularly have high level meetings between locations discussion potential talent, transfers of management, and potential for trading staff to fill gaps where needed. A company would be wise to hold these meetings on a regular basis (maybe twice or quarterly) to share what talent is available, offer talent who is interested in moving, and also share what talent may be available once the next meeting commences.