Chinese traditions and values are obstacles to modernization as claimed by not only westerners but also Chinese in the early 20th century. Many Chinese intellectuals not only denounced Chinese civilization, in addition they also called for disassociation of the past.
One century later, after the overthrow of Qing dynasty, a rejuvenated Chinese culture and civilization has re-appeared. Taiwan is celebrating the 100th anniversary of establishment of Republic of China in 2011.
However, Chinese story must still take place in the mainland. The blooming Chinese economy with her huge foreign reserve is counting the day when she will over take USA as number one economy in the world. There are more and more unheard Chinese names in the Fortune 500 and in the Wall Street. Some may even notice the emergency of Chinese soft power, with the ballooning establishments of Confucius Institutes all over the world.
What a change in 100 years!
Have Chinese culture, traditions and values changed over 100 years? No, or not much. Are they relevant in 21st century? Yes, most likely. 100 years are short times to Chinese history. A dynasty usually lasted more than 200 or 300 years. So, Chinese could “afford” to be a “sick man of Asia” for a while during late Qing dynasty and the early days of Republic of China.
To Chinese philosophy, especially Yi Jing, they believe there are repeating ups and downs in life, those born in the first half of 20th century (or closing years of Qing dynasty) were unlucky. They were in the wrong place, wrong time and with no help from heaven and earth. It has little to do with Chinese civilization. In fact, no matter what political system whether communist or nationalist, China economy will pick up as far as Chinese maintain her cohesive society and community.
This is why Chinese wisdom is practically useful and continues to influence Chinese in their decision makings. It may start with complications as they are influenced by thousand years of Chinese civilization and ancient Chinese thoughts. However, once a decision is made, the implementation will be simple and fast, just like the high speed train projects. By the logic of Yi Jing, this process will take the pattern of change, unchanged and simple procedure.
Chinese decision process can also be a confusing one. It may change from time to time and there seems to be no standard procedure. Furthermore, one may find no logic to explain it. For a same project, due to different people, time and place, the decision process is different. The difference is due to the interaction of Heaven, Earth and Human Beings. Any new inputs will make new changes.
This course is designed specifically for executive who want to understand practical Chinese wisdom and its application to today’s business world, i.e. the application and relevancy of Chinese thoughts, wisdom and philosophy for business excellence and corporate cultures.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will:
• Understand basic Chinese philosophy and its application
• Understand the formation of Chinese wisdom
• Be able to tell the timeline of Chinese history
• Be able to identify some applications of Chinese philosophy
• Understand Chinese wisdom and business excellence
• Understand Chinese wisdom and corporate cultures
• Identify basic Chinese characteristics and behaviours
• Identify possible future developments
• Learn and understand changes and alternative thinking
• Learn and understand Chinese thinking process
Course Outline
1 Introduction
1.1 Practical management wisdom
1.2 Knowledge and intelligence
This section introduces how Chinese wisdom can be practically used in management. Besides the widely and overly used “The Art of War”, other Chinese wisdom is as good as Sun Zi if not better. Ancient Chinese philosophers believed only intelligence, not knowledge, can be the foundation of wisdom. There is a distinction between knowledge and intelligence that will make difference in business excellence and corporate values.
2 Formation of Chinese Wisdom and Thoughts
2.1 Dynasty as management learning
2.2 Change, Unchanged and Simplicity
2.3 Business excellence and strategic thinking
2.4 Chinese characteristics and crisis management
This section provides a brief history of China as the basic formation of Chinese wisdom. The ups and downs of different dynasty are management learning and experience. The Chinese civilization can be explained from the Yi Jing perspectives. “A book of changes -Yi Jing” is considered the first and oldest book of China. It is also the origin of the Hundreds Schools of Thoughts. Thoughts, strategic thinking and philosophy are keys to business excellence and values. However, China’s development is always up and down, division and unity, hence crisis management is unavoidable and solving crisis has become a routine decision making. So, how do Chinese and their characteristics react to crisis and crisis management?
3 Chinese Wisdom and Business Excellence
3.1 Singapore Quality Class – Business Excellence
3.2 Leadership
3.3 Planning
3.4 Information
3.5 People
3.6 Processes
3.7 Customers
3.8 Results
The relevancy of Chinese wisdom in business excellence is discussed here. All 7 factors of the Singapore Quality Class (Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Process, Customers and Results) are discussed using the thoughts of Confucianism and Daoism. Examples are quoted from Mengzi and Zhuangzi to explain how business excellence can be achieved in the balance of ying and yang. This shows the application of Chinese wisdom and philosophy in practice.
4 Chinese Wisdom and Corporate Cultures
4.1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
4.2 Corporations are communities, not machines
4.3 Management is service, not control
4.4 Employees are peers, not children
4.5 Motivate with vision, not fear
4.6 Change is growth, not pain
4.7 Computers are servants, not masters
4.8 Work is play, not toil.
The management of actions is reflected in corporate values. This section explains how Chinese wisdom can also apply to modern corporate cultures in the form of Silicon Valley business model. However, the moving away of traditional business mindsets (battlefield, control, fear etc) to modern business practice (ecosystem, service, vision etc) cannot deny the involvement of Chinese wisdom. Chinese wisdom is a living philosophy which can apply to corporate cultures and values. Examples again are drawn from the 2 founders of Confucianism and Daoism, Confucius and Laozi. Their wisdom is still relevant and refreshing in corporate cultures.
4 The Stone Story of Red Chamber
A case study of business excellence and Corporate Cultures
4.1 Imperfection is great
4.2 Business Excellence
4.3 Corporate cultures
4.4 Relevancy and development
Famously known as The Dream of Red Chamber, it is hardly used as case study for management. However, the unique situation of its authorship, publication, and version issues can server as a good example for business excellence and values. Red Chamber is not perfect, not complete and has many names and versions. However, it is a representative of Chinese characteristics and culture. We can use the non-literature aspect of Red Chamber as a practical approach to business excellence and cultures. A book published more than 200 years ago is still relevant today and is still popular. Hence, Chinese wisdom and its future development have even a higher growth potential.
Thursday 30 December 2010
Thursday 23 December 2010
The Stone Story of Red Chamber
The Stone Story of Red Chamber
A case study of business excellence and corporate culture
The Dream of Red Chamber is one of the 4 top Chinese novels and few have used it for business analysis. Similarly, Yi Jing as the first book in Chinese history is seldom used for management and organization change. Why?
Red Chamber is very different from the other 3 top Chinese novels (Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and The Journey to the West). Three Kingdoms is very popular for strategy and war study. Water Margin and The Journey to the West too are used for business and management case studies although at a lesser extent. Red Camber is different from the others in many ways: family and female centric, hidden meaning, political implication, cultural reflection of the time, different version etc. No wonder Mao Zedong valued and placed Red Chamber higher than the other 3 novels.
What can a love story teach us about business management? Also few will associate Red Chamber as a case study for business excellence and corporate culture. Perhaps like what Geoffrey James (see below) has described we are moving away from traditional business model (Three Kingdoms and Water Margin) to Silicon Valley business model (an inclusive type of family and community). This is how the soft power of Red Chamber will play a role.
Famously known as a book for romantic story and basically a love story with concentration of female characters (in surface), in what way can this book be a case study for Chinese wisdom in business? This will be discussed in the following sections.
Here comes a little background about the Red Chamber. It does not have a complete version and the commonly read version in fact is far from the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
This case study will not discuss the literature contributions, the content of the book, the beauty of the story, and the female characters. However, it will focus on the development of the Red Chamber as a publication, the writing experience, the up and down of the publication, and how it becomes popular and famous and now a master piece of Chinese literature. The study of Red Chamber will continue and the book is well read and commented by many famous writers, historians, and even politicians.
1. Imperfection is great
The Dream of Red Chamber is not complete. And its imperfection makes the book even greater. That leaves many rooms for study, discussions, improvements and corrections.
Many names: There are many names for Red Chamber. It is originally named Story of A Stone. Red Chamber’s story is about a stone in the heaven travelling to the earth and when it returns, its experience is recorded on back of the stone. Due to many female characters, the book is also called Twelve Beauties of Jinling. In total, there are 108 beauties as a comparison to 108 heroes in Water Margin. And because of some lustful descriptions, it is also being called “Masterpiece of wind and moon”. Wind and Moon have a double meaning of sex and love in Chinese. For example, the place of wind and moon is referring to bar, night clubs, etc. This is why Red Chamber also creates moral controversy and sometimes bans from reading.
Many versions: The now popular version has 120 chapters; however, it is widely acknowledged that Cao Xue Qin only wrote the first 80 chapters. Even the now remaining 80 chapters are not complete with many verifications and changes. Few chapters are even missing. The last 40 chapters were completed by another writer. So the widely popular book that we are reading is not the original masterpiece, and how come it can still be so popular? Some have argued that the complete version has only 108 chapters. Not only the number of chapters is an issue, the contents are also a great debate. There are many changes due to different copying, printing, editing, and re-writing, no one single known version can be considered as the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
Many people involved: Since its publication more than 200 years go, many people have read comments, researches, and study on various aspects of Red Chamber. Some look at it from the literature view points. Some link it to political development in Qing dynasty. Some uses it to study customs, food, culture and social development. Almost all famous people involved in Chinese literature of the 20th century and today have given their comments, opinions and researches on Red Chamber. Not to mention it has made into movies, plays, drama, TV series, and many other performing arts.
Many comments and hard work: The success of Red Chamber can be considered as an effective team work. Cao got many feedbacks and comments from others to perfect his writing. Every piece and every word used is careful studied and analysed. On top of that, he has to avoid the possible conflict with the authority. It takes 10 years, after 5 drafts, to complete the Red Chamber. At the same time, Cao was poor and under very difficult conditions. It must be a great determination to complete the work under hardship.
A reflection of Chinese characteristics: Red Chamber as a family unit is the refection of the society and nation of early Qing dynasty. No other Chinese writings have given a complete picture of the time as Red Chamber. Red Chamber provides the first hand knowledge of the living, customs, family life/relationship, official and government politics and life of lower class people. Their behaviours and how they mange life and face the political outcome are also well covered in the book. From here, you will see different faces of Chinese, how they react under crisis, how they become poor and how they get promoted, how they do bad things, and how they mange a family. All these show us the positive and negative aspects of Chinese characteristics.
2. Business excellence
Leadership:
Senior Executive Leadership
Organisation Culture
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Senior Executive Leadership
Red Chamber may be an accidental success, or at least never expected to be so successful. Cao wanted to make it a great book as he had spent 10 years writing it. But what he left behind is an incomplete publication. He may end up finishing the final draft but the final draft was never published in full. Nevertheless, even an incomplete version has made Cao a great contributor to Chinese literature.
As what he had said it was made up of blood and tears. He had demonstrated his leadership with assistances of others to envisage and vision the whole project.
What he may not anticipate is Red Chamber could be so successful and so popular. In such a way, he has shown the soft power of a leadership.
Organisation Culture
He had set his vision, mission and value very clear - to make Red Chamber a great book, to take a long time to write even under financial hardship, to make impact in Chinese culture and literature.
He was the master mind of the Red Chamber project and he was assisted by his group of family members and friends. It was a team project as relatives and friends had made comments, feedbacks and struggle together with him. He was not alone and his team was supporting him in one way or another, some even providing financial assistance.
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Qing dynasty was very sensitive about writings and wrong phases or words will bring troubles to the writers. Judging from the contents, the story involves a family from rich to poor and the cause and background were the political development of the time.
When Cao engaged in the Red Chamber writing project, he had made it clear that the story background, times, places, and male/female leads are all artificial. It looked true and untrue. This was to prevent conflict with the authority. Perhaps, it was because of this type of formats that make Red Chamber even more interesting as readers have to use his/her own judgements to find out the true/false and fact/smoke of the story.
Another interesting theme is Red Chamber is telling the story of women. Cao wanted to highlight them in the family. He valued them, gave equal right to them and stressed their importance in daily life.
In terms of writing responsibility, Cao was committed to his best and wanted to present the best to readers. One can see the life style and habit of the rich and famous during the early Qing dynasty.
There were many restrictions in writing such a book as the contents might offend the ruler. However, Cao had cleverly used his talented writing skills to complete the job.
Planning:
Strategy Development & Deployment
Strategy Development & Deployment
To write a great masterpiece, Cao knew he needed to have a long term plan and inputs from others. He had to evaluate the suitability of the structure, made corrections, added new comments and changed drafts after drafts. However, his core value and objective had not changed –to make Red Chamber a great book.
The story line and development is an excellent work. It takes 10 years for Cao to complete the writings. Cao’s strategy is very clear and wants to make it a record that will have impact in history and literature.
Due to careful planning, Red Chamber was never banned or got into troubles with the authority. If the book was banned, it will be a great loss to Chinese literature.
In the very first beginning, Cao had realized the possible consequence if the book angered the authority. Even he wanted to implicate some political events, he had to adopt the hidden tactics or use other past historical events to cover up. In fact, this book was widely circulated among officials and people were willing to spend high price to get it. This proved that even the government had agreed with its publication.
He had not benchmarked his book with others but believed in his own performance and improvement through blood and tears.
Information:
Management of information
Comparison & Benchmarking
Management of information
Red Chamber is a reflection of Chinese characteristics. A Chinese has a combination of 3 characteristics: Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. The book is a rich collection of these characteristics. In order to have Chinese characteristics in the book, Cao needed to have a rich understanding of the Chinese history and literature. He himself must acquire all these knowledge before writing.
In the process of writing, he will have to get help from other team members as well as research for more information to enhance his writing.
Comparison & Benchmarking
Cao had never clearly indicated that what he would like Red Chamber to be compared with others? However, he had clearly stated that he wanted to make a difference. Differences from the male centric of Chinese novels (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms), moving away from the historical events (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms),
People:
HR Planning
Employee involvement & Commitment
Employee Education, Training & Development
Employee Health & Satisfaction
Employee Performance & Recognition
HR Planning
To make an impactful book, Cao understands he needs inputs from others (relatives and friends). He had selected a group of friends and relatives who could contribute to the making of Red Chamber. He shared his drafts with them and asked for their comments to improve the writing.
Employee involvement & Commitment
Equally impressive was his group of supporters. His supporters were very engaged in their work and gave due feedbacks, for example, the arguments on the words used, the political sensitive issues, the story lines and developments, the hints etc.
Employee Education, Training & Development
Cao had very good foundation on the Chinese history and literature. This enabled him to use a lot of historical events, poems, arts, writings etc of other people.
Employee Health & Satisfaction
His team members were satisfied and willing to provide feedbacks to him. However, due to his financial condition, Cao had never maintained a good health. However, he too was satisfied with his achievement.
Employee Performance & Recognition
Inputs, feedback and comments from his team were valued and recognized. Cao had very good commentators on his book. They gave valuable inputs to him so that he could avoid conflicts and prevented sensitive subjects. Cao also appreciated their assistance. In the drafts or even published Red Chamber, readers can easily find the different comments given by different supporters. Few books were published with comments.
Process:
Innovation Process
Process Management & Improvement
Supplier & Partnering Process
Innovation Process
The process of writing Red Chamber is a very innovative one. Red Chamber may be the only Chinese book that you can find the comments, notes and other feedbacks from readers and commentators. Cao listened to the comments and input them into his drafts.
Process Management & Improvement
This is why only after at least 5 drafts/corrections; the final version of Red Chamber was out. Cao welcomed inputs and feedbacks so that he could improve his writings.
The process also involved suitable selection of words, chapters, story developments, arrangements of female characteristics (position of 108 of them).
Supplier & Partnering Process
This was a weak point. The original scripts went to too many hands for comments and advices. There was no proper control. Some readers did not return the drafts and some even lost them. Some liked it so much and refused to return.
The printing of Red Chamber is also not very smooth. The book as a draft form was “hand” copy and circulated around. It becomes more popular and achieved huge success after the addition of the last 40 chapters (after Cao dead) and entered commercialised printing and copying.
Customers:
Customer Results
Financial & Market Results
People Results
Operational Results
Customer Results
Customer Requirements
There is a demand for high quality publication. Readers are interested to know the romantic story, the hidden political meanings, the culture and literature of the Qing dynasty, etc. Red Chamber is able to fulfil these demands.
Customer Relationship
Although Cao has no direct relationship with readers, especially, readers after his death, Red Chamber is well received by many people, from young to old, from educated to uneducated, from rich to poor.
The relationship is established naturally and the readership base becomes bigger and bigger. There are people spending their whole life studying, analysing and researching the Red Chamber.
Customer Satisfaction
Red Chamber attracts many high quality readers. When it was first published, it was an immediate success. Many readers paid high price to get a copy. A lot of scholars, powerful families, wanted to collect the Red Chamber. It became a business to get people to copy the Red Chamber and sold it for a profit. The discussion of Red Chamber among officials after office hours was a hot topic and educated people who did not know about Red Chamber found no topic for discussion.
Even today, there is no lack of readers and they continue to spend time to re-read and research on Red Chamber.
Financial & Market Results
There were no financial results for Cao as we do not pay copy right to him. In fact, Cao was financially very poor. Most likely, he died in hardship.
However, Red Chamber was well known not only in China but all over the world as a masterpiece of Chinese literature and culture. Its market expansion has reached beyond China. Red Chambers was made into movies, TV series, drama, opera, books, etc. It is also a representative of Chinese literature.
People Results
Scholars are still studying Red Chamber from different aspects. “Hong xue” or the study of Red Chamber is an important branch of Chinese literature. Seminars, research papers, conferences, are held regularly. Red Chamber has become part of Chinese culture as a performing art, literature, research and study.
Operational Results
The innovation process of Red Chamber may not be easy to match for future writers. It is also hard to get so many qualified people to contribute to a book. The qualification and knowledge of Chinese customs, literature and history that Cao possessed is even hard to match.
However, it shows how a great a masterpiece is done and with better and improved technology, the drafting shortfalls can be verified.
3 Corporate Cultures
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
The publication of Red Chamber, due to its hidden political sensitivities, could lead Cao into great troubles. This was especially true in the early Qing dynasty as there were many resistances from Han people. There were many tragedies that buried the whole family. Some people got into troubles because of a sensitive and double meaning word. Some suffered because of other people ill intention.
Cao had to use many hidden tactics and reflection writings. He had to carefully select his words not only for the beauty of literature but also for political considerations. There were some chapters that he had to make changes or even sacrifice the writings.
He is in the battle flied and yet seeking a balance to live in an ecosystem.
2 Corporations are communities, not machines.
Red Chamber is “life” story of a family, a community. It is a reflection of the whole nation in terms of Chinese customs, culture, literature and history. Many of the thinking, behaviours, customs mentioned in the book are still valid in today’s China. You can find the Chinese characteristics there. It is not a history book but a book that readers can have interactions, exchanges, and associations.
As a creative work, Red Chamber cannot be written like a machine – standard operation procedures. Otherwise, readers will suffer form boring and discard it after few pages. Red Chamber is a life story of the writer, from rich and famous to poor and disgrace. The background is a family. It shows people staying in the big family and how they react to changes in life.
3 Management is service, not control.
The publication of Red Chamber is to serve the readers. The book has no intention to control or influence readers. However, it wants to engage readers and share with readers about the life and the sad story of a rich family. Readers can choose to read their favourable chapters based on their own interest. For example, poems society for young, old lady entering the big garden, burying flowers etc. Each can form individual piece for interest reading or research purpose.
Cao wanted to service the readers and presented a story that reflected his family, his period of Qing dynasty and the Chinese characteristics.
4 Employees are peers, not children.
Red Chamber comparing to the other 3 great Chinese novels (Three kingdoms, Water margin and The Journey to the West) has given equal right to female and poor people. In an old traditional Chinese society and family, Cao has projected a positive image for women (in terms of management, intelligence, knowledge and power) and poor people (sincerity, honesty and pure). For example,
• The most powerful figure is the grand mother.
• The best CEO is a female (Wang Xi Feng).
• There are many intelligent ladies in the family but men are projected as stupid and ugly.
Cao also treated his supporters or teammates as equal and accept their suggestions and advices.
5 Motivate with vision, not fear.
Cao had set a clear vision for himself. He also understood the consequences if the writings got into trouble with the authority. He was motivated by his belief that his work would become the most influencing writing of his time. He continued to write even under hardship and poor condition. Some times he not even had enough food. However, he was still committed to write the book. There were difficulties, fears, and hungry during his writing.
6 Change is growth, not pain.
Red Chamber made a lot of changes as compared to other Chinese writings. Some changes are
- female centric
- family as a reflection of a nation
- hidden political story
- up and down of a family from rich to poor
- hidden, negative and positive writings
- a collection of Chinese customs and arts.
However, the writing is a painful process.
7 Computers are servants, not masters.
Red Chamber used a lot of ancient Chinese idioms, history, the philosophy of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism and many hints.
However, Cao cleverly used his writings to combine all these into his book. His writing was never restricted or obstructed by the heavy historical past and the teaching of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism.
The past information was used to enrich his writing and not become his masters. In stead, Cao made use of these rich information and materials as backup to enhance his writings.
8 Work is play, not toil.
Although the process is a painful and difficult one, Cao never complained about the difficulty of the writing. He enjoyed writing it and especially, when he could share his writings with others and getting their feedback.
If Cao had never enjoyed in his writing, he would certainly abandon his work.
He must have found the happiness in the blood and tear of the stone story despite of the physical condition.
A case study of business excellence and corporate culture
The Dream of Red Chamber is one of the 4 top Chinese novels and few have used it for business analysis. Similarly, Yi Jing as the first book in Chinese history is seldom used for management and organization change. Why?
Red Chamber is very different from the other 3 top Chinese novels (Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and The Journey to the West). Three Kingdoms is very popular for strategy and war study. Water Margin and The Journey to the West too are used for business and management case studies although at a lesser extent. Red Camber is different from the others in many ways: family and female centric, hidden meaning, political implication, cultural reflection of the time, different version etc. No wonder Mao Zedong valued and placed Red Chamber higher than the other 3 novels.
What can a love story teach us about business management? Also few will associate Red Chamber as a case study for business excellence and corporate culture. Perhaps like what Geoffrey James (see below) has described we are moving away from traditional business model (Three Kingdoms and Water Margin) to Silicon Valley business model (an inclusive type of family and community). This is how the soft power of Red Chamber will play a role.
Famously known as a book for romantic story and basically a love story with concentration of female characters (in surface), in what way can this book be a case study for Chinese wisdom in business? This will be discussed in the following sections.
Here comes a little background about the Red Chamber. It does not have a complete version and the commonly read version in fact is far from the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
This case study will not discuss the literature contributions, the content of the book, the beauty of the story, and the female characters. However, it will focus on the development of the Red Chamber as a publication, the writing experience, the up and down of the publication, and how it becomes popular and famous and now a master piece of Chinese literature. The study of Red Chamber will continue and the book is well read and commented by many famous writers, historians, and even politicians.
1. Imperfection is great
The Dream of Red Chamber is not complete. And its imperfection makes the book even greater. That leaves many rooms for study, discussions, improvements and corrections.
Many names: There are many names for Red Chamber. It is originally named Story of A Stone. Red Chamber’s story is about a stone in the heaven travelling to the earth and when it returns, its experience is recorded on back of the stone. Due to many female characters, the book is also called Twelve Beauties of Jinling. In total, there are 108 beauties as a comparison to 108 heroes in Water Margin. And because of some lustful descriptions, it is also being called “Masterpiece of wind and moon”. Wind and Moon have a double meaning of sex and love in Chinese. For example, the place of wind and moon is referring to bar, night clubs, etc. This is why Red Chamber also creates moral controversy and sometimes bans from reading.
Many versions: The now popular version has 120 chapters; however, it is widely acknowledged that Cao Xue Qin only wrote the first 80 chapters. Even the now remaining 80 chapters are not complete with many verifications and changes. Few chapters are even missing. The last 40 chapters were completed by another writer. So the widely popular book that we are reading is not the original masterpiece, and how come it can still be so popular? Some have argued that the complete version has only 108 chapters. Not only the number of chapters is an issue, the contents are also a great debate. There are many changes due to different copying, printing, editing, and re-writing, no one single known version can be considered as the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
Many people involved: Since its publication more than 200 years go, many people have read comments, researches, and study on various aspects of Red Chamber. Some look at it from the literature view points. Some link it to political development in Qing dynasty. Some uses it to study customs, food, culture and social development. Almost all famous people involved in Chinese literature of the 20th century and today have given their comments, opinions and researches on Red Chamber. Not to mention it has made into movies, plays, drama, TV series, and many other performing arts.
Many comments and hard work: The success of Red Chamber can be considered as an effective team work. Cao got many feedbacks and comments from others to perfect his writing. Every piece and every word used is careful studied and analysed. On top of that, he has to avoid the possible conflict with the authority. It takes 10 years, after 5 drafts, to complete the Red Chamber. At the same time, Cao was poor and under very difficult conditions. It must be a great determination to complete the work under hardship.
A reflection of Chinese characteristics: Red Chamber as a family unit is the refection of the society and nation of early Qing dynasty. No other Chinese writings have given a complete picture of the time as Red Chamber. Red Chamber provides the first hand knowledge of the living, customs, family life/relationship, official and government politics and life of lower class people. Their behaviours and how they mange life and face the political outcome are also well covered in the book. From here, you will see different faces of Chinese, how they react under crisis, how they become poor and how they get promoted, how they do bad things, and how they mange a family. All these show us the positive and negative aspects of Chinese characteristics.
2. Business excellence
Leadership:
Senior Executive Leadership
Organisation Culture
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Senior Executive Leadership
Red Chamber may be an accidental success, or at least never expected to be so successful. Cao wanted to make it a great book as he had spent 10 years writing it. But what he left behind is an incomplete publication. He may end up finishing the final draft but the final draft was never published in full. Nevertheless, even an incomplete version has made Cao a great contributor to Chinese literature.
As what he had said it was made up of blood and tears. He had demonstrated his leadership with assistances of others to envisage and vision the whole project.
What he may not anticipate is Red Chamber could be so successful and so popular. In such a way, he has shown the soft power of a leadership.
Organisation Culture
He had set his vision, mission and value very clear - to make Red Chamber a great book, to take a long time to write even under financial hardship, to make impact in Chinese culture and literature.
He was the master mind of the Red Chamber project and he was assisted by his group of family members and friends. It was a team project as relatives and friends had made comments, feedbacks and struggle together with him. He was not alone and his team was supporting him in one way or another, some even providing financial assistance.
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Qing dynasty was very sensitive about writings and wrong phases or words will bring troubles to the writers. Judging from the contents, the story involves a family from rich to poor and the cause and background were the political development of the time.
When Cao engaged in the Red Chamber writing project, he had made it clear that the story background, times, places, and male/female leads are all artificial. It looked true and untrue. This was to prevent conflict with the authority. Perhaps, it was because of this type of formats that make Red Chamber even more interesting as readers have to use his/her own judgements to find out the true/false and fact/smoke of the story.
Another interesting theme is Red Chamber is telling the story of women. Cao wanted to highlight them in the family. He valued them, gave equal right to them and stressed their importance in daily life.
In terms of writing responsibility, Cao was committed to his best and wanted to present the best to readers. One can see the life style and habit of the rich and famous during the early Qing dynasty.
There were many restrictions in writing such a book as the contents might offend the ruler. However, Cao had cleverly used his talented writing skills to complete the job.
Planning:
Strategy Development & Deployment
Strategy Development & Deployment
To write a great masterpiece, Cao knew he needed to have a long term plan and inputs from others. He had to evaluate the suitability of the structure, made corrections, added new comments and changed drafts after drafts. However, his core value and objective had not changed –to make Red Chamber a great book.
The story line and development is an excellent work. It takes 10 years for Cao to complete the writings. Cao’s strategy is very clear and wants to make it a record that will have impact in history and literature.
Due to careful planning, Red Chamber was never banned or got into troubles with the authority. If the book was banned, it will be a great loss to Chinese literature.
In the very first beginning, Cao had realized the possible consequence if the book angered the authority. Even he wanted to implicate some political events, he had to adopt the hidden tactics or use other past historical events to cover up. In fact, this book was widely circulated among officials and people were willing to spend high price to get it. This proved that even the government had agreed with its publication.
He had not benchmarked his book with others but believed in his own performance and improvement through blood and tears.
Information:
Management of information
Comparison & Benchmarking
Management of information
Red Chamber is a reflection of Chinese characteristics. A Chinese has a combination of 3 characteristics: Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. The book is a rich collection of these characteristics. In order to have Chinese characteristics in the book, Cao needed to have a rich understanding of the Chinese history and literature. He himself must acquire all these knowledge before writing.
In the process of writing, he will have to get help from other team members as well as research for more information to enhance his writing.
Comparison & Benchmarking
Cao had never clearly indicated that what he would like Red Chamber to be compared with others? However, he had clearly stated that he wanted to make a difference. Differences from the male centric of Chinese novels (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms), moving away from the historical events (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms),
People:
HR Planning
Employee involvement & Commitment
Employee Education, Training & Development
Employee Health & Satisfaction
Employee Performance & Recognition
HR Planning
To make an impactful book, Cao understands he needs inputs from others (relatives and friends). He had selected a group of friends and relatives who could contribute to the making of Red Chamber. He shared his drafts with them and asked for their comments to improve the writing.
Employee involvement & Commitment
Equally impressive was his group of supporters. His supporters were very engaged in their work and gave due feedbacks, for example, the arguments on the words used, the political sensitive issues, the story lines and developments, the hints etc.
Employee Education, Training & Development
Cao had very good foundation on the Chinese history and literature. This enabled him to use a lot of historical events, poems, arts, writings etc of other people.
Employee Health & Satisfaction
His team members were satisfied and willing to provide feedbacks to him. However, due to his financial condition, Cao had never maintained a good health. However, he too was satisfied with his achievement.
Employee Performance & Recognition
Inputs, feedback and comments from his team were valued and recognized. Cao had very good commentators on his book. They gave valuable inputs to him so that he could avoid conflicts and prevented sensitive subjects. Cao also appreciated their assistance. In the drafts or even published Red Chamber, readers can easily find the different comments given by different supporters. Few books were published with comments.
Process:
Innovation Process
Process Management & Improvement
Supplier & Partnering Process
Innovation Process
The process of writing Red Chamber is a very innovative one. Red Chamber may be the only Chinese book that you can find the comments, notes and other feedbacks from readers and commentators. Cao listened to the comments and input them into his drafts.
Process Management & Improvement
This is why only after at least 5 drafts/corrections; the final version of Red Chamber was out. Cao welcomed inputs and feedbacks so that he could improve his writings.
The process also involved suitable selection of words, chapters, story developments, arrangements of female characteristics (position of 108 of them).
Supplier & Partnering Process
This was a weak point. The original scripts went to too many hands for comments and advices. There was no proper control. Some readers did not return the drafts and some even lost them. Some liked it so much and refused to return.
The printing of Red Chamber is also not very smooth. The book as a draft form was “hand” copy and circulated around. It becomes more popular and achieved huge success after the addition of the last 40 chapters (after Cao dead) and entered commercialised printing and copying.
Customers:
Customer Results
Financial & Market Results
People Results
Operational Results
Customer Results
Customer Requirements
There is a demand for high quality publication. Readers are interested to know the romantic story, the hidden political meanings, the culture and literature of the Qing dynasty, etc. Red Chamber is able to fulfil these demands.
Customer Relationship
Although Cao has no direct relationship with readers, especially, readers after his death, Red Chamber is well received by many people, from young to old, from educated to uneducated, from rich to poor.
The relationship is established naturally and the readership base becomes bigger and bigger. There are people spending their whole life studying, analysing and researching the Red Chamber.
Customer Satisfaction
Red Chamber attracts many high quality readers. When it was first published, it was an immediate success. Many readers paid high price to get a copy. A lot of scholars, powerful families, wanted to collect the Red Chamber. It became a business to get people to copy the Red Chamber and sold it for a profit. The discussion of Red Chamber among officials after office hours was a hot topic and educated people who did not know about Red Chamber found no topic for discussion.
Even today, there is no lack of readers and they continue to spend time to re-read and research on Red Chamber.
Financial & Market Results
There were no financial results for Cao as we do not pay copy right to him. In fact, Cao was financially very poor. Most likely, he died in hardship.
However, Red Chamber was well known not only in China but all over the world as a masterpiece of Chinese literature and culture. Its market expansion has reached beyond China. Red Chambers was made into movies, TV series, drama, opera, books, etc. It is also a representative of Chinese literature.
People Results
Scholars are still studying Red Chamber from different aspects. “Hong xue” or the study of Red Chamber is an important branch of Chinese literature. Seminars, research papers, conferences, are held regularly. Red Chamber has become part of Chinese culture as a performing art, literature, research and study.
Operational Results
The innovation process of Red Chamber may not be easy to match for future writers. It is also hard to get so many qualified people to contribute to a book. The qualification and knowledge of Chinese customs, literature and history that Cao possessed is even hard to match.
However, it shows how a great a masterpiece is done and with better and improved technology, the drafting shortfalls can be verified.
3 Corporate Cultures
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
The publication of Red Chamber, due to its hidden political sensitivities, could lead Cao into great troubles. This was especially true in the early Qing dynasty as there were many resistances from Han people. There were many tragedies that buried the whole family. Some people got into troubles because of a sensitive and double meaning word. Some suffered because of other people ill intention.
Cao had to use many hidden tactics and reflection writings. He had to carefully select his words not only for the beauty of literature but also for political considerations. There were some chapters that he had to make changes or even sacrifice the writings.
He is in the battle flied and yet seeking a balance to live in an ecosystem.
2 Corporations are communities, not machines.
Red Chamber is “life” story of a family, a community. It is a reflection of the whole nation in terms of Chinese customs, culture, literature and history. Many of the thinking, behaviours, customs mentioned in the book are still valid in today’s China. You can find the Chinese characteristics there. It is not a history book but a book that readers can have interactions, exchanges, and associations.
As a creative work, Red Chamber cannot be written like a machine – standard operation procedures. Otherwise, readers will suffer form boring and discard it after few pages. Red Chamber is a life story of the writer, from rich and famous to poor and disgrace. The background is a family. It shows people staying in the big family and how they react to changes in life.
3 Management is service, not control.
The publication of Red Chamber is to serve the readers. The book has no intention to control or influence readers. However, it wants to engage readers and share with readers about the life and the sad story of a rich family. Readers can choose to read their favourable chapters based on their own interest. For example, poems society for young, old lady entering the big garden, burying flowers etc. Each can form individual piece for interest reading or research purpose.
Cao wanted to service the readers and presented a story that reflected his family, his period of Qing dynasty and the Chinese characteristics.
4 Employees are peers, not children.
Red Chamber comparing to the other 3 great Chinese novels (Three kingdoms, Water margin and The Journey to the West) has given equal right to female and poor people. In an old traditional Chinese society and family, Cao has projected a positive image for women (in terms of management, intelligence, knowledge and power) and poor people (sincerity, honesty and pure). For example,
• The most powerful figure is the grand mother.
• The best CEO is a female (Wang Xi Feng).
• There are many intelligent ladies in the family but men are projected as stupid and ugly.
Cao also treated his supporters or teammates as equal and accept their suggestions and advices.
5 Motivate with vision, not fear.
Cao had set a clear vision for himself. He also understood the consequences if the writings got into trouble with the authority. He was motivated by his belief that his work would become the most influencing writing of his time. He continued to write even under hardship and poor condition. Some times he not even had enough food. However, he was still committed to write the book. There were difficulties, fears, and hungry during his writing.
6 Change is growth, not pain.
Red Chamber made a lot of changes as compared to other Chinese writings. Some changes are
- female centric
- family as a reflection of a nation
- hidden political story
- up and down of a family from rich to poor
- hidden, negative and positive writings
- a collection of Chinese customs and arts.
However, the writing is a painful process.
7 Computers are servants, not masters.
Red Chamber used a lot of ancient Chinese idioms, history, the philosophy of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism and many hints.
However, Cao cleverly used his writings to combine all these into his book. His writing was never restricted or obstructed by the heavy historical past and the teaching of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism.
The past information was used to enrich his writing and not become his masters. In stead, Cao made use of these rich information and materials as backup to enhance his writings.
8 Work is play, not toil.
Although the process is a painful and difficult one, Cao never complained about the difficulty of the writing. He enjoyed writing it and especially, when he could share his writings with others and getting their feedback.
If Cao had never enjoyed in his writing, he would certainly abandon his work.
He must have found the happiness in the blood and tear of the stone story despite of the physical condition.
Friday 17 December 2010
Chinese Wisdom and Corporate Culture
Geoffrey James’s “Success Secrets from Silicon Valley – How to make your teams more effective” introduces a new corporate culture for Silicon Valley companies, as compared to the traditional business model. He also mentioned 8 key differences between Silicon Valley and traditional corporate culture:
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
2 Corporations are communities, not machines
3 Management is service, not control
4 Employees are peers, not children
5 Motivate with vision, not fear
6 Change is growth, not pain
7 Computers are servants, not masters
8 Work is play, not toil.
The former is adopting a pro-humanity approach as employees are different from machines. However, traditional business mindsets are still under the dark crowd of industrial revolution and believe in treating employees like a product, equipment or machine. The traditional corporate culture is very close to Legalism in China. Legalism promotes disciplines, rewards, control, fear and expansion to make a country strong.
Hence, can Chinese wisdom apply to his new corporate culture? How can Chinese wisdom be relevant to modern corporate culture in a practical way?
In the previous discussion, Chinese wisdom and business excellence was discussed. And we use Mengzi and Zhuangzi as representatives of Confucianism and Daoism to represent the yang and yin aspects of Chinese wisdom.
For corporate culture, it contains yin and yang and both are co-exiting in the keys and strategies. For Confucianism and Daoism, Confucius and Laozi respectively will provide inputs to illustrate and explain the new Silicon Valley corporate culture. We cannot divide yin and yang from a culture. The corporate culture should include both yin and yang, i.e. Confucianism and Daoism. However, the proportion of Confucianism and Daoism in each key is not equal, some keys have more yin and less yang, or vice visa.
Key 1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
Strategy 1 Encourage diversity
Strategy 2 Launch new generations
Strategy 3 Build symbiotic relationship
Daoism: The principle of Dao is nature (Chapter 25 道法自然). Daoism always stresses the co-existence of human beings with nature and we should leave things moving naturally without intervention. Daoism in principal is against war. In Laozi Chapter 77, the difference between human way （人道）and heaven way (天道) is heaven way uses the surplus to compensate the deficit. But the human way is doing the opposite.
Confucianism: Thousands of things live and grow in no contrary (万物并育而无相害). Although never mention about nature, Confucianism stresses all living things co-exist and live in harmony. Things do not hurt each other. Again, Confucianism is against war.
This key and its strategies are very Chinese, especially from point views of Daoism and Book of changes. Daoism stresses on no intervention (wu wei) and leave the environment develop itself. This natural movements and changes will reach its optimal level at the end under a non-intervention environment.
Key 2 Corporations are communities, not machines
Strategy 4 Communicate directly
Strategy 5 Create opportunities for social interaction
Strategy 6 Encourage hands-on charity work
Confucianism: Human nature is to stay together, but not with birds and animal (鸟兽不可与同禽，吾非斯人之徒与而谁与？). In his comment about the Daoism no interest in politics and society, Confucius felt that as human beings we should serve the community and get involved in the social movement. The difference between Confucianism and Daoism is one is to engage the society (入世) and the other is to move away from society (出世).
Daoism: Small community is the best (chapter 80, 小国寡民). The ideal society or nation is a small country, uses no machines or technology and moves back to the past and simple life style. Neighbouring countries do not contact each other until dead. Laozi wants to keep the community small and has less influence from outside.
This key and its strategies are more related to Confucianism. In Confucianism, the emphasis is Gentlemen who are honest, straight forward, concerns about the poor and society. Their aim is to serve the people and country even under difficult circumstances.
Key 3 Management is service, not control
Strategy 7 Increase power by dispersing it
Strategy 8 Encourage creative dissent
Strategy 9 Build autonomous teams
Daoism: Do not disturb people’s life and put pressure on their business (chapter 72，无狎其所居，无厌其所生). If there is no pressure, there will have no hate. Rulers understand/know themselves but they will not show off. They value themselves but will never intentionally raise their status. Daoism opposes control, and believe in natural cause.
Confucianism: Extend wishes to others (己欲立而立人，己欲立而立人). If leader wants himself to be successful, he should also extend this to other people. If leader wants to have improvements, he should wish other people having improvement. Leaders should think of others if he wishes to be successful, he should also help others to achieve their goals.
This key and its strategies are more towards Daoism – less is more, thinking out of the box, no intervention. They want to have no control and believe “less” is “more”. On the other hand, Confucianism is more structure and looks for compromise.
Key 4 Employees are peers, not children
Strategy 10 Hire the self-motivated
Strategy 11 Eliminate fancy perks
Strategy 12 Sacrifice the sacred cows
Confucianism: In harmony but keep the difference (和而不同). Confucianism always mentions 2 types of people: gentlemen and ordinary people. Gentlemen always want to live in harmony but still keep individual differences. However, ordinary people are of the same kind but not in harmony.
Daoism: Let it be naturally (chapter 57 我无为而民自化). One of the key concept of Daoism is no intervention (wu wei). Because of no intervention, people will develop themselves. Because of doing nothing, people self create their wealth.
The key and its strategies are more towards Daoism. Because of no intervention, people are self motivated and self developed. Laozi is against wastage and promotes saving and thrifty.
Key 5 Motivate with vision, not fear
Strategy 13 Create climate of trust
Strategy 14 Build a shared vision
Strategy 15 Compensate for missions accomplished
Strategy 16 Ruthlessly prioritize
Confucianism: Generals can be lost but not ambition (三军可夺帅也，匹夫不可夺志也). Confucianism places high priority and emphasis on ambition. A person without ambition will not succeed in life and make contributions to society. This is why during the war you may lose a general but the ambition (to win) must always be there. Once you have no ambition, even a great general will not win the war.
Daoism: “Way” for different people (Chapter 41 上下闻道). There are 3 attitudes toward Way. Talents that learn about Way will try their best to achieve it. Middle level talents only believe half of it. Lower talents just laugh it. Laozi comments that if lower talents are not laughing, then the Way is not the way. Different people have different opinions about vision, only those appreciate and believe it will aim to achieve it.
The key and its strategies have the mindsets of Confucianism or even legalism. To build a strong country, have a vision, award equally and build royalty are things that Confucianism and Legalism want to do.
Key 6 Change is growth, not pain
Strategy 17 Have long-term vision, short-term plans
Strategy 18 Keep jobs fluid and flexible
Strategy 19 Make decisions quickly and broadly
Strategy 20 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Confucianism: The original character is quite similar when born; however, learning makes the difference (性相近，习相远). Confucianism believes from young, the character of individuals is about the same, but later after education and learning, it makes a person different from others. Hence, Confucianism stress human beings must have ambition to learn and to improve.
Daoism: Not satisfied then replace old with new (chapter 15, 夫唯不盈，故能蔽而新成). Only when things are not full, for example, a cup of water, then there is a possibility to achieve fullness. People who believe in the (right) Way understand that they need to make changes replacing the old with the new thing to get perfection (full).
The Key and its strategies are linked towards Daoism. Daoism notices changes and believes changes in the natural way will produce the best outcome. Due to no intervention, hence, there is no pain. Laozi likes water and sees it as flexible and powerful. However, for vision, Confucianism has a clear mission.
Key 7 Computers (Technology) are servants, not masters
Strategy 21 Use electronic mail to flatten management
Strategy 22 Humanize electronic communications
Strategy 23 Reduce information pollution
Daoism: Simple and humble, reduce selfishness and desires (Chapter 19, 见素抱朴，少私寡欲). Daoism stresses on learning less and not more. They want people to act simple, maintain humble, reduce selfishness and has less desires. This is also in line with the principle of no intervention (wu wei). More information means giving more things for the people to digest. Laozi emphasises on reduction philosophy (减法哲学). He believes the more people know or learn, the more burdens they have.
Confucianism: Knowing one also knowing the other 3 (举一隅不以三隅反，则不复也). In a (square) room, having the knowledge of one corner enables one to know the other 3 corners. A learner should know how to figure and imagine the other 3 corners when he or she already has information of 1 corner. Continuing to depend on more information to find out the image of the room is overwork and that will make information the master.
The key and its strategies are closer to Daoism. Daoism believes in simplicity, back to basic, and no (intervention) control of information. They believe human beings should reduce their knowledge and do not burden by knowledge, i.e. understanding or leaning more by dropping more and more knowledge
Key 8 Work is play, not toil.
Strategy 24 Cultivate constant challenge
Strategy 25 Encourage informality
Strategy 26 Create a sense of balance
Confucianism: Sing together and in harmony. (子与人歌而善，必使反之，而后和之). Confucianism may be the only philosophies in China that emphasises music, arts, protocol in education and politics. Here, Confucius sings along with other people, when he is happy, he invites them to sing again and he himself will sing one more time. Confucius likes singing and only stops singing when he cries on a particular day. Confucianism focuses on the balance of work and life.
Daoism: Like a baby (Chapter 55 含德之厚，比于赤子). Daoism describes the Way is like the mother and the baby is the one understanding the Way. Mother is rich and forgives everything and baby has no desires. Hence, baby has no external demand and only wants to be with the mother (way). However, when baby grows up day by day, he or she has more desires, demands, and become less simple (pure). This means he is moving further and further away from the mother (Way). While working, work like a baby.
The key and its strategies are related to Daoism and Confucianism. Daoism is against formality. Confucianism believes in happy learning and working. Confucianism wants to keep on reminding people to be alert and face challenges.
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
2 Corporations are communities, not machines
3 Management is service, not control
4 Employees are peers, not children
5 Motivate with vision, not fear
6 Change is growth, not pain
7 Computers are servants, not masters
8 Work is play, not toil.
The former is adopting a pro-humanity approach as employees are different from machines. However, traditional business mindsets are still under the dark crowd of industrial revolution and believe in treating employees like a product, equipment or machine. The traditional corporate culture is very close to Legalism in China. Legalism promotes disciplines, rewards, control, fear and expansion to make a country strong.
Hence, can Chinese wisdom apply to his new corporate culture? How can Chinese wisdom be relevant to modern corporate culture in a practical way?
In the previous discussion, Chinese wisdom and business excellence was discussed. And we use Mengzi and Zhuangzi as representatives of Confucianism and Daoism to represent the yang and yin aspects of Chinese wisdom.
For corporate culture, it contains yin and yang and both are co-exiting in the keys and strategies. For Confucianism and Daoism, Confucius and Laozi respectively will provide inputs to illustrate and explain the new Silicon Valley corporate culture. We cannot divide yin and yang from a culture. The corporate culture should include both yin and yang, i.e. Confucianism and Daoism. However, the proportion of Confucianism and Daoism in each key is not equal, some keys have more yin and less yang, or vice visa.
Key 1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
Strategy 1 Encourage diversity
Strategy 2 Launch new generations
Strategy 3 Build symbiotic relationship
Daoism: The principle of Dao is nature (Chapter 25 道法自然). Daoism always stresses the co-existence of human beings with nature and we should leave things moving naturally without intervention. Daoism in principal is against war. In Laozi Chapter 77, the difference between human way （人道）and heaven way (天道) is heaven way uses the surplus to compensate the deficit. But the human way is doing the opposite.
Confucianism: Thousands of things live and grow in no contrary (万物并育而无相害). Although never mention about nature, Confucianism stresses all living things co-exist and live in harmony. Things do not hurt each other. Again, Confucianism is against war.
This key and its strategies are very Chinese, especially from point views of Daoism and Book of changes. Daoism stresses on no intervention (wu wei) and leave the environment develop itself. This natural movements and changes will reach its optimal level at the end under a non-intervention environment.
Key 2 Corporations are communities, not machines
Strategy 4 Communicate directly
Strategy 5 Create opportunities for social interaction
Strategy 6 Encourage hands-on charity work
Confucianism: Human nature is to stay together, but not with birds and animal (鸟兽不可与同禽，吾非斯人之徒与而谁与？). In his comment about the Daoism no interest in politics and society, Confucius felt that as human beings we should serve the community and get involved in the social movement. The difference between Confucianism and Daoism is one is to engage the society (入世) and the other is to move away from society (出世).
Daoism: Small community is the best (chapter 80, 小国寡民). The ideal society or nation is a small country, uses no machines or technology and moves back to the past and simple life style. Neighbouring countries do not contact each other until dead. Laozi wants to keep the community small and has less influence from outside.
This key and its strategies are more related to Confucianism. In Confucianism, the emphasis is Gentlemen who are honest, straight forward, concerns about the poor and society. Their aim is to serve the people and country even under difficult circumstances.
Key 3 Management is service, not control
Strategy 7 Increase power by dispersing it
Strategy 8 Encourage creative dissent
Strategy 9 Build autonomous teams
Daoism: Do not disturb people’s life and put pressure on their business (chapter 72，无狎其所居，无厌其所生). If there is no pressure, there will have no hate. Rulers understand/know themselves but they will not show off. They value themselves but will never intentionally raise their status. Daoism opposes control, and believe in natural cause.
Confucianism: Extend wishes to others (己欲立而立人，己欲立而立人). If leader wants himself to be successful, he should also extend this to other people. If leader wants to have improvements, he should wish other people having improvement. Leaders should think of others if he wishes to be successful, he should also help others to achieve their goals.
This key and its strategies are more towards Daoism – less is more, thinking out of the box, no intervention. They want to have no control and believe “less” is “more”. On the other hand, Confucianism is more structure and looks for compromise.
Key 4 Employees are peers, not children
Strategy 10 Hire the self-motivated
Strategy 11 Eliminate fancy perks
Strategy 12 Sacrifice the sacred cows
Confucianism: In harmony but keep the difference (和而不同). Confucianism always mentions 2 types of people: gentlemen and ordinary people. Gentlemen always want to live in harmony but still keep individual differences. However, ordinary people are of the same kind but not in harmony.
Daoism: Let it be naturally (chapter 57 我无为而民自化). One of the key concept of Daoism is no intervention (wu wei). Because of no intervention, people will develop themselves. Because of doing nothing, people self create their wealth.
The key and its strategies are more towards Daoism. Because of no intervention, people are self motivated and self developed. Laozi is against wastage and promotes saving and thrifty.
Key 5 Motivate with vision, not fear
Strategy 13 Create climate of trust
Strategy 14 Build a shared vision
Strategy 15 Compensate for missions accomplished
Strategy 16 Ruthlessly prioritize
Confucianism: Generals can be lost but not ambition (三军可夺帅也，匹夫不可夺志也). Confucianism places high priority and emphasis on ambition. A person without ambition will not succeed in life and make contributions to society. This is why during the war you may lose a general but the ambition (to win) must always be there. Once you have no ambition, even a great general will not win the war.
Daoism: “Way” for different people (Chapter 41 上下闻道). There are 3 attitudes toward Way. Talents that learn about Way will try their best to achieve it. Middle level talents only believe half of it. Lower talents just laugh it. Laozi comments that if lower talents are not laughing, then the Way is not the way. Different people have different opinions about vision, only those appreciate and believe it will aim to achieve it.
The key and its strategies have the mindsets of Confucianism or even legalism. To build a strong country, have a vision, award equally and build royalty are things that Confucianism and Legalism want to do.
Key 6 Change is growth, not pain
Strategy 17 Have long-term vision, short-term plans
Strategy 18 Keep jobs fluid and flexible
Strategy 19 Make decisions quickly and broadly
Strategy 20 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Confucianism: The original character is quite similar when born; however, learning makes the difference (性相近，习相远). Confucianism believes from young, the character of individuals is about the same, but later after education and learning, it makes a person different from others. Hence, Confucianism stress human beings must have ambition to learn and to improve.
Daoism: Not satisfied then replace old with new (chapter 15, 夫唯不盈，故能蔽而新成). Only when things are not full, for example, a cup of water, then there is a possibility to achieve fullness. People who believe in the (right) Way understand that they need to make changes replacing the old with the new thing to get perfection (full).
The Key and its strategies are linked towards Daoism. Daoism notices changes and believes changes in the natural way will produce the best outcome. Due to no intervention, hence, there is no pain. Laozi likes water and sees it as flexible and powerful. However, for vision, Confucianism has a clear mission.
Key 7 Computers (Technology) are servants, not masters
Strategy 21 Use electronic mail to flatten management
Strategy 22 Humanize electronic communications
Strategy 23 Reduce information pollution
Daoism: Simple and humble, reduce selfishness and desires (Chapter 19, 见素抱朴，少私寡欲). Daoism stresses on learning less and not more. They want people to act simple, maintain humble, reduce selfishness and has less desires. This is also in line with the principle of no intervention (wu wei). More information means giving more things for the people to digest. Laozi emphasises on reduction philosophy (减法哲学). He believes the more people know or learn, the more burdens they have.
Confucianism: Knowing one also knowing the other 3 (举一隅不以三隅反，则不复也). In a (square) room, having the knowledge of one corner enables one to know the other 3 corners. A learner should know how to figure and imagine the other 3 corners when he or she already has information of 1 corner. Continuing to depend on more information to find out the image of the room is overwork and that will make information the master.
The key and its strategies are closer to Daoism. Daoism believes in simplicity, back to basic, and no (intervention) control of information. They believe human beings should reduce their knowledge and do not burden by knowledge, i.e. understanding or leaning more by dropping more and more knowledge
Key 8 Work is play, not toil.
Strategy 24 Cultivate constant challenge
Strategy 25 Encourage informality
Strategy 26 Create a sense of balance
Confucianism: Sing together and in harmony. (子与人歌而善，必使反之，而后和之). Confucianism may be the only philosophies in China that emphasises music, arts, protocol in education and politics. Here, Confucius sings along with other people, when he is happy, he invites them to sing again and he himself will sing one more time. Confucius likes singing and only stops singing when he cries on a particular day. Confucianism focuses on the balance of work and life.
Daoism: Like a baby (Chapter 55 含德之厚，比于赤子). Daoism describes the Way is like the mother and the baby is the one understanding the Way. Mother is rich and forgives everything and baby has no desires. Hence, baby has no external demand and only wants to be with the mother (way). However, when baby grows up day by day, he or she has more desires, demands, and become less simple (pure). This means he is moving further and further away from the mother (Way). While working, work like a baby.
The key and its strategies are related to Daoism and Confucianism. Daoism is against formality. Confucianism believes in happy learning and working. Confucianism wants to keep on reminding people to be alert and face challenges.
Friday 10 December 2010
Chinese Wisdom and Business Excellence
Have you ever thought of linking Chinese wisdom to business excellence? And how can it be done?
In general, Chinese wisdom and philosophy are guiding principles for Chinese people since their formation and have helped China to move around, up and down from centuries to centuries. It may not be easy to notice but Chinese wisdom is reflected in Chinese characteristics and behaviour in their daily life, including business practice.
There are many business excellence models in the world, for example, US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, European Quality Award, Australian Business Excellence Award and Japan Quality Awards. In Singapore, we have our own Singapore Quality Award. The overall excellence standards have 7 categories under SQA. There are Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Processes, Customers and Results. All these excellent models are quite similar and have considered these 7 factors in assessing an excellent company or organisation.
Assessors will evaluate and audit the performance considering the approach used and deployment of the approaches. The evaluation then moves further to cover the feedback system in a way of learning, innovation and creativity. It therefore also touches on the change process and continuation/improvement for organisation development. An organisation must continue to improve, face challenges and make adjustments under different changing environments.
Yi Jing, the Book of Change, is talking about changes, how to face changes and avoid mistakes. In reality the Book of Change involves 3 basic principles: changes, unchanged and simplicity. We should not look at the Book as a “change” management.
Yi Jing has 8 trigrams, 64 hexagrams and 384 (64x6) broken and unbroken lines. All these have its functions and patterns and standard movements and meaning. These are “unchanged”, like the positions of heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake. The changes take place when one of the broken or unbroken line changes position from one to another and so the whole hexagram will also change to a new hexagram. In analysing the changes, one will need to simplify the change process, assess the situation and make the next move (decision).
When we look at SQA model, the flow from leadership to results, plus leaning and innovation are standard movements. These are “unchanged”. However, when facing new challenges, competitions and environment, the relationship of the 7 categories (and the 21 items and 100 questions) will need to make adjustments. Some problems may have to move from holistic (overall) approach to niche approach to faster react to changes. SQA has simplified the change and unchanged process and provides a clear and simple way to approach business excellence.
We will leave Yi Jing (ying and yang movements) as example for business excellence and move on to use other examples from Confucianism and Daoism, to explain how practical Chinese wisdom is relevant in today’s business world. These examples can help us further understand the practical application of Chinese wisdom.
Mengzi and Zhuangzi, the two representatives of Confucianism (representing the yang) and Daoism (representing the yin) will show us the practical uses of Chinese wisdom in business world. Both men are great in story telling and have left a lot of idioms to us. Mengzi is good at essay and arguments. His straight forward thinking has greater influence in Chinese politics. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, is romantic and imaginative. His free thinking has great influence in Chinese literature.
Leadership:
Mengzi: Courage and strength to lead. In the principle of the great “Qi” (spirit movement), a leader believes he is doing the right thing and his decision is benefiting people. He then gains courage to implement policies and strategies accordingly. He built up his internal strength, which becomes stronger and stronger to let him face challenges. Leaders must dare to make tough decision for the benefit of the organisation.
Zhuangzi: High and tall foresight. In the story of a big bird flying to the south, Zhaungzi described how a fish is transformed into a big bird and gets the energy to fly to the sky. While other small birds are satisfied with their flying height, the big bird wants to fly as further as possible. Leaders must think of the highest achievable level for the organisation.
Planning
Mengzi: Before rain, plan first. When the organisation is moving smoothly, the management needs to plan ahead to further improve organisation performance. This is to avoid complacency.
Zhuangzi: Same amount, different arrangements. In the story of feeding monkeys, giving 3 bananas in the morning and 4 in the evening is the same as 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening. However, monkeys think they have a better deal by having more bananas in the morning. Different plans could have the same result depending on how you look at it. On the other way, it is also a planning under limited resources.
Information:
Mengzi: Not to believe everything in the book. If a leader believes all the information in the book, it is better not to have the book. Businesses need to understand and analyse the information, pure data will do more harm than good.
Zhuangzi: The use of useless. The basic of usefulness is based on useless. When we stand on a small piece of land, only that particular area is useful to us. So, we remove all the useless land areas, at the end can we still stand on the piece of useful land? Hence, once we remove the useless, the usefulness will not appear. The meaning of useful information derives from useless information.
People:
Mengzi: Sole happy is not as good as group happy. In this story, the King is enjoying music, Mengzi advises him to share music with his country men. Management should not bring happiness to few people. As an organisation, every one should be happy and so all are willing to make contributions.
Zhuangzi: The real beauty is internal. In this story, a hotel owner has 2 wives, one ugly and one pretty. To everyone surprise, the owner praises the ugly one. His explanation is the pretty one thinks she is a beauty and always pretends and expresses her beauty. However, the ugly one is humble and concentrates working. So, the real beauty is internal and not external. There are many types of employees and who are the real pretty ones?
Process:
Mengzi: Half performance, double returns. Process should be designed in such a way that people only use half of their strength to gain double returns. This seems to refer to productivity and efficiency.
Zhuangzi: The master piece of ghost and god. A woodcrafter needs several processes to produce a master piece. After praying for 3 days, he thinks nothing about reward, another 5 days, he does not think of whether people are good or bad, another 7 days he forgets about his own body parts. He then goes to the forest to look for the wood and based on natural environment, he finally produces his master piece, like having the help of ghost and god. A company needs to produce outstanding products and services to attract business.
Customers:
Mengzi: Either left or right, there are waters. This is a smooth situation. Whether you turn to the left or right, you will be able to find the water and water always represent free and smooth flow. Customers are like waters and businesses welcome them.
Zhuangzi: Only on the surface. In country Lu, on the surface, there are many Confucian followers. However, a notice announcing only real Confucianism practitioners are allowed to wear Confucian dress, otherwise, offenders will face death penalty, the situation changes. 5 days after the notice, only 1 person put on a Confucian dress. Customers can be real and not real, when times come it will tell.
Results:
Mengzi: Family, no regret and education are 3 happy things. Healthy family, safety brothers and sisters are the first happy. Don’t feel sorry and regret in every thing done is the second happy. Finding talents and train them is the third happy. For a business, healthy employees and families are very important. Performing corporate social or citizen responsibility is equally important. For business continuation, new talents needed to be recruited and trained.
Zhuangzi: Eyeing profit, forget the danger. In a fruit tree garden, Zhuangzi is aiming a bird and the bird is aiming an insect. All are in full concentration on their targets. Suddenly, Zhuangzi realised that by doing so, it means someone is also aiming him. It turned out to be the garden owner who is aiming zhuangzi and beginning to chase him. When aiming for profit and return, have we ever thought of the danger of making quick money?
In general, Chinese wisdom and philosophy are guiding principles for Chinese people since their formation and have helped China to move around, up and down from centuries to centuries. It may not be easy to notice but Chinese wisdom is reflected in Chinese characteristics and behaviour in their daily life, including business practice.
There are many business excellence models in the world, for example, US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, European Quality Award, Australian Business Excellence Award and Japan Quality Awards. In Singapore, we have our own Singapore Quality Award. The overall excellence standards have 7 categories under SQA. There are Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Processes, Customers and Results. All these excellent models are quite similar and have considered these 7 factors in assessing an excellent company or organisation.
Assessors will evaluate and audit the performance considering the approach used and deployment of the approaches. The evaluation then moves further to cover the feedback system in a way of learning, innovation and creativity. It therefore also touches on the change process and continuation/improvement for organisation development. An organisation must continue to improve, face challenges and make adjustments under different changing environments.
Yi Jing, the Book of Change, is talking about changes, how to face changes and avoid mistakes. In reality the Book of Change involves 3 basic principles: changes, unchanged and simplicity. We should not look at the Book as a “change” management.
Yi Jing has 8 trigrams, 64 hexagrams and 384 (64x6) broken and unbroken lines. All these have its functions and patterns and standard movements and meaning. These are “unchanged”, like the positions of heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake. The changes take place when one of the broken or unbroken line changes position from one to another and so the whole hexagram will also change to a new hexagram. In analysing the changes, one will need to simplify the change process, assess the situation and make the next move (decision).
When we look at SQA model, the flow from leadership to results, plus leaning and innovation are standard movements. These are “unchanged”. However, when facing new challenges, competitions and environment, the relationship of the 7 categories (and the 21 items and 100 questions) will need to make adjustments. Some problems may have to move from holistic (overall) approach to niche approach to faster react to changes. SQA has simplified the change and unchanged process and provides a clear and simple way to approach business excellence.
We will leave Yi Jing (ying and yang movements) as example for business excellence and move on to use other examples from Confucianism and Daoism, to explain how practical Chinese wisdom is relevant in today’s business world. These examples can help us further understand the practical application of Chinese wisdom.
Mengzi and Zhuangzi, the two representatives of Confucianism (representing the yang) and Daoism (representing the yin) will show us the practical uses of Chinese wisdom in business world. Both men are great in story telling and have left a lot of idioms to us. Mengzi is good at essay and arguments. His straight forward thinking has greater influence in Chinese politics. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, is romantic and imaginative. His free thinking has great influence in Chinese literature.
Leadership:
Mengzi: Courage and strength to lead. In the principle of the great “Qi” (spirit movement), a leader believes he is doing the right thing and his decision is benefiting people. He then gains courage to implement policies and strategies accordingly. He built up his internal strength, which becomes stronger and stronger to let him face challenges. Leaders must dare to make tough decision for the benefit of the organisation.
Zhuangzi: High and tall foresight. In the story of a big bird flying to the south, Zhaungzi described how a fish is transformed into a big bird and gets the energy to fly to the sky. While other small birds are satisfied with their flying height, the big bird wants to fly as further as possible. Leaders must think of the highest achievable level for the organisation.
Planning
Mengzi: Before rain, plan first. When the organisation is moving smoothly, the management needs to plan ahead to further improve organisation performance. This is to avoid complacency.
Zhuangzi: Same amount, different arrangements. In the story of feeding monkeys, giving 3 bananas in the morning and 4 in the evening is the same as 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening. However, monkeys think they have a better deal by having more bananas in the morning. Different plans could have the same result depending on how you look at it. On the other way, it is also a planning under limited resources.
Information:
Mengzi: Not to believe everything in the book. If a leader believes all the information in the book, it is better not to have the book. Businesses need to understand and analyse the information, pure data will do more harm than good.
Zhuangzi: The use of useless. The basic of usefulness is based on useless. When we stand on a small piece of land, only that particular area is useful to us. So, we remove all the useless land areas, at the end can we still stand on the piece of useful land? Hence, once we remove the useless, the usefulness will not appear. The meaning of useful information derives from useless information.
People:
Mengzi: Sole happy is not as good as group happy. In this story, the King is enjoying music, Mengzi advises him to share music with his country men. Management should not bring happiness to few people. As an organisation, every one should be happy and so all are willing to make contributions.
Zhuangzi: The real beauty is internal. In this story, a hotel owner has 2 wives, one ugly and one pretty. To everyone surprise, the owner praises the ugly one. His explanation is the pretty one thinks she is a beauty and always pretends and expresses her beauty. However, the ugly one is humble and concentrates working. So, the real beauty is internal and not external. There are many types of employees and who are the real pretty ones?
Process:
Mengzi: Half performance, double returns. Process should be designed in such a way that people only use half of their strength to gain double returns. This seems to refer to productivity and efficiency.
Zhuangzi: The master piece of ghost and god. A woodcrafter needs several processes to produce a master piece. After praying for 3 days, he thinks nothing about reward, another 5 days, he does not think of whether people are good or bad, another 7 days he forgets about his own body parts. He then goes to the forest to look for the wood and based on natural environment, he finally produces his master piece, like having the help of ghost and god. A company needs to produce outstanding products and services to attract business.
Customers:
Mengzi: Either left or right, there are waters. This is a smooth situation. Whether you turn to the left or right, you will be able to find the water and water always represent free and smooth flow. Customers are like waters and businesses welcome them.
Zhuangzi: Only on the surface. In country Lu, on the surface, there are many Confucian followers. However, a notice announcing only real Confucianism practitioners are allowed to wear Confucian dress, otherwise, offenders will face death penalty, the situation changes. 5 days after the notice, only 1 person put on a Confucian dress. Customers can be real and not real, when times come it will tell.
Results:
Mengzi: Family, no regret and education are 3 happy things. Healthy family, safety brothers and sisters are the first happy. Don’t feel sorry and regret in every thing done is the second happy. Finding talents and train them is the third happy. For a business, healthy employees and families are very important. Performing corporate social or citizen responsibility is equally important. For business continuation, new talents needed to be recruited and trained.
Zhuangzi: Eyeing profit, forget the danger. In a fruit tree garden, Zhuangzi is aiming a bird and the bird is aiming an insect. All are in full concentration on their targets. Suddenly, Zhuangzi realised that by doing so, it means someone is also aiming him. It turned out to be the garden owner who is aiming zhuangzi and beginning to chase him. When aiming for profit and return, have we ever thought of the danger of making quick money?
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