Abstract Adopting a longitudinal single case study, we have derived three typical adaptive management models from the top management team (TMT) of SOGAL Furniture Co. Ltd., by investigating the distinguished management patterns they formed at each stage to adapt to the environmental change. The main conclusions are as follows: (a)SOGAL has gone through three stages in its whole history, namely, entrepreneurial survival, rapid growth and adjusting development. Due to the different internal and external environments at each stage, driven by the interaction between the TMT and IT, three typical adaptive management models have emerged as “Human-oriented with IT-assisted Model”, “Human-IT Each Performing Duties Model” and “Human-IT Integrated Model”, respectively. (b)The TMT improved the flexibility of general rules and strengthened the standardization of personalized rules simultaneously, by leveraging the nature that information technology can both solidify and adjust management rules, so as to achieve an effective balance between efficiency and flexibility. (c)Still taking advantage of the above nature of information technology, the TMT connected “Dao” and “Law” through the formulation of rules, and connected “Law” and “Skill” through the implementation of rules. Based on the combination of Chinese “Dao and Skill” and western “Law”, the thought of adaptive management can be effectively enacted. As a result, an adaptive management model of “control without death, release without chaos” has been formed.