by Louisa Lim
China's
Chairman Mao Zedong (shown here in 1966) has become an unlikely role
model for the country's business community, which he once condemned.
AFP/Getty Images
Frederic J. Brown Mao's likeness appears on the Chinese currency, known as the
renminbi or
yuan.
AFP/Getty Images
All Things Considered, April 24, 2008 ·
China's former leader Chairman Mao Zedong has had various
incarnations:
guerrilla fighter, political leader, mass murderer and pop-art icon.
Now, 32 years after his death, in perhaps the most unexpected
transformation, he is being reinvented as a business guru.
Almost
six decades after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, Mao's
legacy is still felt strongly, even by those he once condemned as
"capitalist running dogs." 在1949年中华人民共和国成立大约60年之后，毛的思想仍然深刻影响着许多人，甚至是那些他曾经藐视的所谓“资本主义走狗”。A recent study published in the Harvard Business Review found that 14 out of 15 Chinese CEOs said they turned to Mao for inspiration.
Mao's Principles Still at Play
Looking to Mao may seem hypocritical. But some argue that grappling with such contradictions is key to understanding China.但一些人认为设法化解矛盾是了解中国的关键。
Sheila
Melvin, who spent seven years at the United States-China Business
Council, notes that Mao argued that "the unity of opposites or
contradictions was the fundamental law of the universe.对立面或矛盾的统一是世界的基本原则。"
Melvin has written The Little Red Book of Business, a somewhat unlikely primer on doing business in China一本关于在中国做生意的并不太名副其实的初级读本（即写得比较深入), based on some of Mao's core principles.
"It
does seem rather bizarre," she says. "I believe foreigners can learn a
lot from studying Chairman Mao's worldview and philosophy, which still
have great influence in China on government and government leaders."
She applies Mao's aphorisms to the world of business. Take, for instance, "Make foreign things serve China洋为中用."
"That was Mao's basic idea," Melvin says. "Everything he did was in the service of China."
That basic philosophy still exists in China, she says.
"Foreign
companies should understand that if they're coming here, they're being
used," Melvin says. "This seems kind of bad in the beginning. But if
you accept the fact that you're being used, you can be ... quite
successful."
Lessons from Guerrilla Warfare, the Cultural Revolution
Melvin says many companies draw upon Mao's strategic prowess, including his guerrilla warfare techniques.
One
example is of Wahaha, a Chinese soft-drink maker that at first declined
to take on Coca-Cola in the cities. Instead, it decided to surround the
American behemoth from the countryside, just as Mao surrounded Chiang
Kai-shek's Nationalists during the Chinese civil war.
The
company "started in third-tier cities, then went to second-tier, then
it went to attack [Coke] on its own ground in the cities," she says.
Some
Chinese executives even take inspiration from Mao's darker years,
including those during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution that swept
China in the late 1960s and early '70s.
At appliance maker
Hai'er, for example, employees are made to detail their own failings at
self-criticism sessions, similar to those during the Cultural
Revolution. The head of the telecommunications company Huawei also
reportedly uses Mao's theories of criticism during staff meetings.
Dearth of Alternative Models for Chinese Entrepreneurs
Xiao
Zhixing, a professor at China Europe International Business School,
says that in the early 1990s most Chinese businessmen modeled
themselves on Mao.
"It was almost ubiquitous [then]," Xiao
says. Even today the influence of the Great Helmsman resonates among
older executives,时至今日这位总舵手仍然广泛影响着老一辈的管理人员， he says, especially those in state-run industries and
in China's interior.
"They just don't have other possible
models to learn from," he says. For instance, many entrepreneurs
emulate Mao's mass-movement measures人民运动的方法 during the Cultural Revolution
period in their own efforts to launch corporate culture at their
companies.
Some Chinese businessmen also are learning from
Mao's darker management techniques. He was famous for repeatedly
deposing his chosen successors, being secretive with information, using
a divide-and-rule分而治之 strategy to set factions against each other, and
being autocratic and bypassing formal decision-making processes.
Patrick
Moreton, who manages an executive MBA program in Shanghai for
Washington University and Fudan University, says Mao's example has
limitations.
Effective management requires "candor and direct
conversations on what needs to get done," a "straightforwardness and
trust," and other qualities that are not a part of Mao's style, Moreton
says.
Mao Leaves Lessons in What Not to Do
Mao's
spirit of rebellion ultimately caused economic mismanagement, chaos and
millions of deaths. So Melvin, the author, says she thinks Mao also
serves as a good teacher in terms of what not to do.
Xiao, the
professor, says that in the long term, using Maoist strategy tends to
be counterproductive in business. He quotes the example of the founder
of the Wahaha soft drink company, Zong Qinghou, who credits Mao with
his management style — and who is reportedly under investigation for
tax evasion.
"Deep down inside, this kind of Maoist manager
tends to disregard rules and regulations," says Xiao. "They tend to
disregard the value of respect for the individual, respect for the
rules of the game."
As the popularity of executive MBA courses
flourishes, China's future business elite is now learning more standard
business management techniques. But it's a quirk of fate — or perhaps
an example of the unity of opposites — that the man who abhorred
private business is inspiring the successors of those he once
persecuted.但是这是一件命运难料的事情 － 或者说是矛盾统一的例子 － 即这个曾经憎恶私有企业的人却启发着那些他曾经迫害过的管理者们的继任者。