The Mind of Operations (en Inglés) - Jiuping Xu

This open access book offers a systematic introduction to operational thinking as a distinctive Chinese cognitive framework for understanding and governing complex systems. Drawing on five millennia of Chinese civilization, it traces how strategic wisdom evolved from Yu the Great’s flood control, Dujiangyan and the Three Gorges Project to today’s South–North Water Transfer, “Dual Carbon” strategy, smart cities and AI-enabled decision-making. This book provides an original “trinity” framework of systems thinking, coordinated planning thinking, and balancing thinking, explaining how structural cognition, process integration, and conflict coordination work together to solve multi-objective, multi-constraint problems. Through rich historical and contemporary cases—from classical texts such as The Art of War, Qimin Yaoshu and Discourses on Salt and Iron to modern mega-projects, digital platforms and resilient supply chains—it shows how Chinese governance wisdom has been continuously transformed into modern methodologies for optimization, risk control and strategic planning. Methodologically, this book develops a complete toolkit of “structural cognition–process integration–conflict coordination,” supported by cognitive models, case analysis, and digital-intelligent teaching tools. It demonstrates how operational thinking can guide national governance modernization, regional coordinated development, industrial upgrading, and personal time- and life-management (for example, via the “Four Quadrants Rule”). By integrating traditional culture, systems science, management science and AI, this book builds an independent knowledge system of operational thinking with Chinese characteristics, contemporary value and global relevance. It helps readers move from “cognitive mapping” to “practical navigation,” and from intuitive judgment to data- and model-driven decision-making.