Connecting with China: Business Success through Mutual Benefit and Respect

Chapter Seven

PAST CHINA WISDOM - CURRENT BUSINESS PROFILE

Kindness in thinking creates profoundness

- Lao Tzu

 

We have referred several times in this work to the Bing Fa texts. In this context, few Western business people who have read widely on the area of strategic thinking in recent years can have escaped the many references and frequent quotes from one of the most prominent Chinese writers, Sun Tzu and his renowned text, The Art of War.

 

There is good reason to take seriously the guidance of such revered thinkers, analysts and strategists as Sun Tzu, Lao Tzu and Confucius. They still mould and exert influence over the business people you will meet and deal with in China and, indeed, they represent a whole tranche of the latter ’s thinking. The Chinese consider their advice as relevant today and to as many spheres of activity as, in the case of The Art of War, it was to 6th century military tactics and stratagems. This is because, in a world of change and of internationalisation where China has once again opened both commercially and in terms of its relationship borders, the perennial wisdom of its great thinkers prove a source of inspiration as well as practical assistance and reassurance.

 

I have seen Chinese people draw on this wisdom when suddenly confronted with challenging business and relationship situations, and in some cases real adversity, where their responses were both unexpected and extraordinary, providing a profound insight into their character.

 

Firstly, ...