A thinker's CEO

The global financial crisis could perhaps have been averted if we had listened to Confucius. For example, if General Motors, which held more than 50 percent of the US automobile business, had followed the Confucian tenet and its account books were a true reflection of the value of the company, it would not have crashed the way it did.

So says Frank Ashe, a financial analyst and an associate professor with Macquaire University, Sydney, Australia. His contention is that the legendary Chinese ideologue and political and social thinker who lived between 551-479 BC, whose thoughts continue to inspire academics, philosophers and the lay people in East Asia, would have been as effective in modern-day corporate risk management.

Just take out the word "ruler" or "family head" from the guidelines listed in Analects (a discontinuous collection of brief statements and short dialogues that Confucius' disciples collated from the master's teachings) and replace it with "CEO", says Ashe, and you have a wonderful formula for success in corporate governance.