The most well known and popular ancient Chinese book for management could be “Sun Zi – the Art of War” 孙子兵法. It is widely used not only for business but also for military education as it is one of the “must read” books at West point, USA.
If one only knows the Art of War and has no knowledge about other ancient Chinese philosophies, he or she is like a blind touching an elephant and trying to estimate the size of the elephant. According to Shima Qian’s “Shi Ji” (The Record of Great Historian in Han Dynasty), Sun Zi is not listed as the top 6 philosophy groups (Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism, Mohism, Ying-Yang and Logicians) in the Hundred Schools of Thought. However, it was mentioned as one of the top 10 philosophy groups. There is also a saying; Sun Zi got his war theories and principles from Laozi – the master of Dao philosophy.
If we dated back our modernization to Industrial Revolution, then the western modern management and business practice can also be traced back to 18th century. However, in pursuit of market, profit, economies of scale, the modern management principles (leading planning, organizing and controlling) and decision makings are unable to move away from these objectives. Because of this narrow view, it is no surprise that we only concentrate on Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1764), as a productivity tool. And few can remember another Adam Smith book entitled Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).
Long ago, Adam Smith had reminded us about the negative effect of commercialisation, capitalism and economic development. As you may have notice, Moral sentiments was published first before the Wealth of Nations. We seem to look at business excellence and development from the up side down perspective.
The world is changing and moving rapidly in the age of information technology. But no matter what we are heading, we cannot ignore the fundamentals and traditions as mentioned in Moral sentiments or even to ancient European and Asian philosophers. This leads to the recent surge of ancient philosophies in Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Humanist traditions. Yale University is currently engaging in a project and will hold a global conference in 2013 on practical wisdom for management from ancient spiritual and philosophical traditions.
The discovery of Americas and the emergency of USA as an economic superpower have changed the world and make people in full confidence of business excellence in profit maximization. However, with hyperinflation, great depression in 1930s, and several financial crises in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, no wonder we have to cast doubts on free economy, especially the emphasis on profit over value. In years to come, the American influence in business will have to be reduced and a multi-player business environment will emerge. This will lead to inputs and considerations of the ancient spiritual and philosophies.
The rapid economic development in China has seen besides creating wealth, also witnessing the surge of the interest of Jing Dian (经典) learning. Chinese businessmen and government officials are spending high fees attending Jing dian courses by Peking University, Fudan universities etc. On 30 June 2010, Peking University announced the founding of a Confucianism Research Institute to promote academic studies about traditional culture and explore the contemporary significance of Confucian studies. This low profile and small scale project is approaching the Chinese traditions in a deeper way rather than the popular and better known Confucius Institutes sponsored by Chinese government.
However, we cannot ignore the significance of the Research Institute (or other similar researches in other Chinese philosophies, especially Daoism and Buddhism). The long term effect has yet to be known. On the other way, to a lesser extent, some Chinese businessmen and officials have even gone one step further to learn and practice the stricter teaching of Chinese Buddhism, Confucius, Daoism, etc. and apply these principles in their daily life and business practices.
How can we learn from the past, from the past wisdom of great Chinese traditions?
Geoffrey James in his book, “Success Secrets from Silicon Valley – How to make your teams more effective”, has divided business organizations into traditional and Silicon Valley businesses. The Silicon Valley mindset are Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield; Corporations are communities, not machines; Management is service, not control; Employees are peers, not children; Motivate with vision, not fear; Change is growth, not pain; Computers are servants, not masters; Work is play, not toil.
Doing the thing right? Traditional business model is adopting the practices of industrial revolution and placing market, productivity, efficiency and profit ahead of environment, communities and humanity. They just want to improve their existing operating system, keep doing and perfecting the same old things.
Doing the right thing? Silicon Valley business emphasizes more on harmony in development, sustainable development, slower growth and corporate social responsibility.
This approach is closer to the practical wisdom of ancient traditions.
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