The Inspirations of Tao Zhu-gong: Modern Business Lessons from an Ancient Past discusses the 12 business principles of Tao Zhu-gong and relates them to today's corporate setting. They state 12 vital abilities that one will need in order to succeed in business. Ranging from handling customers and employees to managing a company and its products to making business decisions, the principles cover most of the areas necessary for a business to develop.

The 12 principles date back more than 2,000 years. Even so, they are still of great significance as they deal with the universal and age-old complexities of running a business. This book also demonstrates their relevance to any business size from sundry shops to international corporations to dot.com companies.

Tao Zhu-gong himself was a great military strategist who resigned from the high position of a prime minister to become a businessman. Using what he had learnt from his military days, he accumulated a fortune that would be equivalent in modern times to that of Bill Gate’s. In his lifetime, Tao Zhu-gong came up with these 12 principles which, unfortunately, are not only unknown to the western world but to many Chinese as well. Whether in the East or the West, every businessman will have much insight to gain from the 12 business principles of Tao Zhu-gong.

- The First Principle - Ability to Know People
- The Second Principle - Ability to Handle People
- The Third Principle - Ability to Focus on the Business
- The Fourth Principle - Ability to be organized
- The Fifth Principle - Ability to be Agility to be Agile and Flexible
- The Sixth Principle - Ability to Demand Payment
- The Seventh Principle - Ability to Use and Deploy People
- The Eighth Principle - Ability to Articulate
- The Ninth Principle - Ability to Excel in Purchasing
- The Ten Principle - Ability to Diagnose and Seize Opportunities and Combat Threats
, etc.