Study On Mao Ze-dong's Strategic Decision-making Thought

Mao Ze-dong's strategic decision-making thought is a methodological system aiming to make strategic decision, which critically inherited the cream of strategic decision-making and tactical thought in Chinese traditional culture, guided by Marxist dialectical materialism epistemology, closely combining with the revolutionary struggle and production practice directed by Mao Ze-dong and having some kind of Mao Ze-dong's brand of a great personage. Mao Ze-dong's strategic decision-making thought expounded the fundamental rules and methods of strategic decision-making from the point of management philosophy, successfully broke through the "jungle" of dilemma in the course of the development of the theory of strategic management theory, surmounted the limits of strategic decision-making in war and business management, and possessed scientific and universal characters which western strategic management schools lacked. The significance of this study lie in that it will deepen people's understanding on Mao Ze-dong's strategic decision-making thought, enrich China's theoretical treasure house of strategic management decision-making, provide guideline with the great strategic practice of realizing the Chinese nation's reviviscence.Generally speaking, any strategic decision-making'process will comply with the following logic sequence:investigating, studying and scientifically analyzing the strategic environment——determining the strategic goals and works——drawing up the strategic plans——organizing the needed resources to implement such plans, regulating them when needed——realizing the strategic goals. Of course, in different stages of the same strategic process, there will have different emphasis. Based on the sequence mentioned above roughly and also Mao Ze-dong's fundamental rules on strategic decision-making, the paper arranges its contents as follo wings:The first chapter discusses the theoretical origins of Mao Ze-dong's strategic decision-making thought from five aspects:Mao Ze-dong's family circumstance when he was young, the nurture of Chinese traditional culture, the influence of Marxism-Leninism, Chinese revolutionary practice and Mao Ze-dong's unique character of Great Man. I think understanding this origins deeply will help to grasp Mao Ze-dong's whole theory on how to make strategic decisions.The second chapter explores the importance of investigation and study to strategic decision-making. The strategic decision has to be in conformity with the objective developing law and the practical conditions of the things, which will assure that the strategic decisions are correct and effective. Therefore, any strategic guider has to know the strategic environment surrounding him to the full and to foresee the developing trends as properly as possible in order to provide him with basis when to determine the contents on strategic decision-making. The so called "investigation and study" was Mao Ze-dong's method when he needed to inquire into such conditions. Combing the subjective guide closely with the objective is the fundamental demand of assuring the process of the strategic decision-making in an orderly way.The third chapter focuses on the issue of the mass line. In the system of Mao Ze-dong's strategic decision-making thought, the factor of the people occupies a core place. Mao Ze-dong thought that the mass played double roles in the course of decision-making practices which interacted with each other. First of all, the mass are the most fundamental participators in the whole process of making any strategic decision. On the other hand, the mass play an important role of carrying out the strategic decisions. Mao Ze-dong put forward a famous thesis called "the soldiers and the mass are the bases of assuring victory", while his mass viewpoint of "from the mass, in the mass" reflected his thought on the importance of the mass in strategic decision-making processes.The fourth chapter locates Mao Ze-dong's theory of maintaining the independence and keeping the initiative in one's own hands. Any strategic guider has to be confronted with the issue of how to attain initiative and the place of competing superiority so as to create a best strategic environment. Mao Ze-dong's solution on this issue was maintaining the independence and keeping the initiative in one's own hands, which can be regarded as the soul of Mao Ze-dong's strategic decision-making thought. It was also the basic guideline in handling all kinds of domestic and overseas relationships.Chapter five emphasizes my attention firmly on the rule of overall situation. I think of it as a starting point in any strategic decision-making practice. Also it was one of the basic characters and demands of strategic decision-making. Whether the strategic guider properly shows enough consideration for the whole situation can be regarded as an important standard of judging the degree of suitability of a strategic decision-making. The strategic decision-maker must bring all aspects relate to his decision-making practice, the current and long-term interests into his thought field of vision, grasp the principal contradiction and the principal aspects of the contradiction and seize the key links and hub in order to make a wise strategic decision to promote the development of the whole situation.The last chapter briefly interprets Mao Ze-dong's tactics when making a strategic decision. Mao Ze-dong paid much more attention on the issue of tactics in the course of making decisions. He demanded the strategic guiders deeply and carefully analyze all the contradictions and factors, then formulate several solutions according to the practical circumstance. At the same time, the strategic guiders have to try his best to judge correctly the fundamental trends, grasp the relationships and law between necessity and contingency, give his final judgment and select the best suitable scheme. Showing contempt for the opponent in strategy and attaching importance to him in tactics was one of Mao Ze-dong's contributions to strategic decision-making thought.As to methodology, the writer makes full use of his superiority in historical study, has latest principles in the current western management and science of decision as the guides, the historical facts as the foundation, the time as the sequence and makes every effort to explain the whole picture of Mao Ze-dong's thought on strategic decision-making.The paper confirms to the full Mao Ze-dong strategic decision-making thought's significant place in the developing history of strategic decision-making thought in China and the world as a whole. It absorbed the quintessence in Chinese traditional strategic culture as much as possible, accepted Marxism as its guide in methodology, combined itself with Chinese revolutionary practice and had much Chinese factors and marks in itself. It was the contemporary forms and full development of Chinese traditional strategic decision-making thought.The research characteristics of the paper are as follows:Firstly, the writer think that the family conditions of Mao Ze-dong's boyhood and Mao Ze-dong's unique character as a Great Man also played important role in formulating his strategic decision-making thought, except for the well-accepted origins mentioned above.Secondly, the paper trys to arrange Mao Ze-dong's decision making thought from the view angle of "strategy", which is exceptional to some degree. The contemporary western study of management has indicated that there exists obvious differences between universal leaders and strategic guiders, the latter focus their attention mostly on the long-term issues and take the situation as a whole when making any decision. Mao Ze-dong was one of the greatest strategic thinkers and had contributed to the enrichment and development of the world's strategic decision-making thought.Finally, the writer interprets scientifically Mao Ze-dong's viewpoint of taking the strategic situation as a whole, which was ignored for long time in Chinese academic circles. The paper fills up the blank spot.