Just before the Lunar New Year in 2010, I met up with a group of Chinese businessmen led by Mr Wong Ah Long. These gentlemen explained quite quickly and seriously that they would like me to help in doing research on the legendary Admiral Zheng He.

I was actually quite surprised by the request. Prior to this, I had only vaguely remembered that I did study Zheng He in my secondary school history classes. I asked if they had made a mistake in “selecting the professor” since this is not the usual kind of research that I do as an academic. My training and work have been in operations and supply chain management, and even there, my usual mode of research is based largely on theoretical mathematical modelling, although in some instances, I do adopt an empirical approach in studying specific operations issues.

They ignored my “protest” and went on to explain that they have been impressed by Zheng He's contribution in spreading peace and goodwill through his seven imperial voyages carried out during the early part of the fifteenth century. They felt that Zheng He and his basic message of peace and goodwill should be introduced to the larger world, especially when the world today seems to be filled with conflicts and stresses of all kinds.

This group of businessmen included Dr Tan Ta Sen. Apart from his business background, Dr Tan was also introduced to me as the President of the International Zheng He Society. These men were clearly very earnest and genuine in their desire to propagate the Zheng He message. I was honestly quite inspired by their humility and determination, though I was not clear then as to what would constitute Zheng He's basic message.

I promised the businessmen that I would read about Zheng He over that Lunar New Year break, and would think about what I could or could not do in terms of research on this legendary Chinese character. As it turned out, my reading led to curiosity, which led to the desire to want to know more, and quite quickly, I concluded that the existing literature did not quite look at Zheng He from a management or business perspective.