ashokbhatia

Vision and mission statements of corporates adorn their walls and can be readily copied. However, the value system of an organisation is not something which can be copied very easily. It permeates the entire organisation—its hierarchy and its various divisions or departments. It rubs off on most of its employees. Even service providers and supporting manufacturers get tuned to the same frequency. It would perhaps not be wrong to say that values are to an organisation what the soul is to a physical body. Businesses which thrive over a long period of time and achieve sustainable commercial success would invariably be found to have sound values at the core of their operations.

Manifestation of Values

Small things reflect the values being followed—whether nephews and nieces of the top person are getting freely hired to do jobs they are not competent at, whether spaces in the car parking lot are allotted hierarchy-wise or are based on a first-come first-served basis, whether the corner office has high sound proof walls all around or is open to all to signify transparency, whether the boss is entitled to charge the company for her spouse accompanying her on a business trip, whether office stationery items get whisked off to executives’ households for use by their kids, or whether the use of cell phones or social media platforms is viewed with a sense of benign resignation by a hapless human resources honcho.  

It is the leader who sets the tone. Those down the ladder fall in line.

Values Defy Death

Products and organisations have life cycles of their own, just like the human body is prone to many changes—birth, existence, growth, decay, disease, and death. But values outlive these perils of life; somewhat akin to the Self, our inner core, which the Gita holds to be eternal and deathless.

अविनाशि तु तद्विद्धि येन सर्वमिदं ततम् ।
विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्चित्कर्तुमर्हति ॥ 2.17॥

That which pervades the entire body, know it to be indestructible. No one can cause the destruction of the imperishable soul.

(The text is an edited excerpt from my latest book ‘Bhagavad Gita and Corporate Dharma’.)

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