China's greatest transformation expert was, arguably, Admiral Zheng He. Six hundred years ago, Zheng He served the Ming Dynasty's Emperor Yongle as an overseas ambassador. Long famous as a diplomat, Zheng He may also serve as an example of a collaborative business executive who transforms others. In contrast to autocratic monarchs or "lone wolf" chief executives, Zheng He exemplified collaboration even when seeking a goal with single-minded determination. This article also examines how Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric (GE) and renowned transformational manager also used collaborative efforts to bring GE to greater heights. He also mellowed down his style as a Neutron Jack in the earlier years of his career to Transformational Jack, following the footsteps of Zheng He's art of collaboration.
About the Author: Dr Mike Teng is the author of a best-selling book "Corporate Turnaround: Nursing a sick company back to health", in 2002. His book is endorsed by management guru Professor Philip Kotler and business tycoons Mr Oei Hong Leong and Dr YY Wong. He subsequently authored more than twenty seven management books. He was the national trainer appointed by the Singapore government to train displaced CEOs/ senior managers and deploy them to run Small Medium Size companies. He has more than 30 years of experience in starting new plants, strategic planning, operational management responsibilities in the Asia Pacific region. Of these, he held Chief Executive Officer's positions for 20 years in multi-national and publicly listed companies. He also used to advise several boards of directors of publicly-listed companies. Dr Teng served as the Executive Council member for fourteen years and the last four years as the President of the Marketing Institute of Singapore (2000 - 2004), the national marketing association. He is currently the President of the National University of Singapore MBA Alumni and the University of South Australia alumni as well as serving as the Chairman of the Chartered Management Institute, Singapore Branch. Dr Teng holds a Doctor in Business Administration (DBA) from the University of South Australia, Master in Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering (BEng) from the National University of Singapore. He is also a Professional Engineer (P Eng, Singapore), Chartered Engineer ( C Eng, UK) and Fellow Member of several prestigious professional institutes namely, Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM), Chartered Management Institute (FCMI), Institute of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), Marketing Institute of Singapore (FMIS), Institute of Electrical Engineers (FIEE) and Senior Member of Singapore Computer Society (SMSCS). He is also a Practising Management Consultant (PMC) certified by the Singapore government.