Taoist Insights on Distributed Governance: The RenDanHeYi ​Model as an Example

In recent years, the concept of distributed governance has gained significant attention for its advocacy of decentralization, transparency, and collective decision-making in some sectors. Fostering synergy and intelligence in corporate governance while enhancing enterprise management systems through the principles of co-construction, governance, and sharing, distributed governance has created a developmental trend for companies. However, the past failure instances of the applications of distributed governance within enterprises reflect the challenges this management concept faces. This paper investigates the potential application of philosophical principles of governance and strategy which are rooted in the idea of Tao, more specifically, “harmony, spontaneity, and decentralized leadership”, advocated by the Chinese Taoist school – primarily the Tao Te Ching, the Taoism revered scripture – to the principles of distributed governance in modern corporates with the great RenDanHeYi business model as an example, explores the possible impact of the ideas for corporate management and offers strategic insights to the complexities of distributed governance.