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Hers is a balanced personality, free of unreasonable desires that could make her lose sight of her sense of righteousness. She does not have a binding attachment to her emotions. Nor does she have a jealous preference for her pet ideas or her pet people. She scoffs at nepotism. She encourages her team members to be nay-sayers, so voices of dissent can be heard and judiciously dealt with. She radiates positivity all around her. She is committed to the organisation’s goals and looks after her team members much like a lioness would protect her cubs.

Such a person of steady wisdom is described in the Bhagavad Gita as a Sthita-Prajna. Consider the following:

दु:खेष्वनुद्विग्नमना: सुखेषु विगतस्पृह: ।
वीतरागभयक्रोध: स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते ॥ 2.56॥

He whose mind is unperturbed amid sorrows; who among pleasures is free from longing; from whom attachment, fear and anger have departed; he is said to be a sage of steady intellect.

A People-centric Approach

Alfred Sloan is reported to have once remarked, ‘What is good for General Motors is good for America.’ J.R.D. Tata always thought the other way around. ‘What is good for India is good for Tatas.

Tatas keep following a people-centric approach to their business decisions. I believe that companies like Asian Paints, Eicher, Godrej, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Johnson & Johnson, Mahindra, and many others, also follow the same path. They shield their staff from major business upheavals, like the coronavirus which surfaced during 2020.

Led by enlightened leaders, such organisations surely earn brownie points in respect of enjoying employee goodwill.

(An edited excerpt from my latest book, ‘Bhagavad Gita’s Guide to Corporate Dharma’)

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What fuels mighty achievements and the unique creations of artists like Vincent van Gogh or Michelangelo? Could they have produced their masterpieces if they were worried about market value or recognition? Newton, too, wasn’t distracted by past or future when the apple fell—otherwise, he might have missed discovering gravity. Similarly, a Silicon Valley innovator’s best ideas come from a focused, present-minded state conducive to creativity.

Beneath every inspired work lies the soul’s quest for bliss through doing something unique with effort and detachment. Living fully in the present moment helps one embrace an inspired life. Creativity flows like a form of meditation, where the creator, universe and surroundings align in harmony—a state of ‘Inspired Self-forgetfulness’ or ‘Detached Attachment’.

Achieving Excellence in Execution and Living a Free Life!

The Bhagavad Gita tells us that by practising the art of detachment, one learns to live in the present moment, neither fuming about what one did in the past nor anxious about what the morrow might bring. It is this skill which is alluded to as yoga.

बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते ।
तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योग: कर्मसु कौशलम् ॥ 2.50॥

He whose intellect is united casts off both good and bad actions here. Therefore, take recourse to Yoga. Yoga is skill in actions.

(An excerpt from my latest book, ‘Bhagavad Gita’s Guide to Corporate Dharma’)

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Consider the case of Jet Airways, which shut its operations in April 2019 after having been a key player in the Indian airspace for over 25 years. The unwillingness on the part of the promoter family to let go of its control over the business made the airline eventually crash-land. Professionals were hired in top key positions, but the art of delegation was apparently given short shrift.

In family-owned businesses, the younger generation is often raring to go. Many a scion keeps wondering when the elder owner would hang his corporate boots or sandals, so they could have a free hand to nudge the enterprise towards newer markets, adopting the latest technologies sprouting in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. But for most of the elderly owners, it is a tough challenge to give up control. Like the proverbial man who keeps clinging to a tree but blames the tree for not allowing him to let go, they refuse to fade away gracefully into the sunset. During the period of transition, chaos and confusion reign. Hapless employees continue to suffer silently, caught as they are between the divergent thought processes of the two generations.

The war depicted in the epic Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad Gita is an integral part, came about only because King Dhritarashtra could not overcome his attachment to either the throne or his son, Duryodhana. The outcome was the death of all his 100 sons, loss of prestige and kingdom, and of course, social and economic misery of the multitudes who had earlier thrived during his reign.

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

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A well-written book which provides invaluable insights for business learners like me to scale up by following existing cultural values.

When Dharma itself is becoming a rare phenomenon, infusing Dharma into the operations of a corporate entity is a novel idea. It reinforces that we should never forget our roots.

Dr Sureender Seetharaman,

Director, The Flavors India (P) Ltd, Pondicherry, India

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In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna exhorts us to rise above the three gunas and remain rooted in the self alone.  He cites three kinds of personality traits, or gunas.  

त्रैगुण्यविषया वेदा निस्त्रैगुण्यो भवार्जुन ।
निर्द्वन्द्वो नित्यसत्त्वस्थो निर्योगक्षेम आत्मवान् ॥ 2.45॥

The Vedas’ concern is with the three gunas. Be without the three gunas, O Arjuna, without the pairs of opposites, ever established in purity, without possessions, possessed of the Self.

All of us have these three gunas in varying proportions— sattvic (benign goodness), rajasic (action-oriented) and tamasic (inaction, lethargy, procrastination). In different settings, even the proportions comprising a personality might be somewhat different. A devil in the office could be a loving father at home. Someone who champions the cause of women’s empowerment in public could be terrorising his wife at home.

The bouquets and brickbats hurled at one by life invariably represent opposites that one faces in life—success and failure, joys and sorrows, heat and cold, health and disease, and the like. A manager would typically face many a tough choice to be made in her career—that of chugging along in an assignment which pays well but is not close to her heart, or calling it quits, finding her true calling and pursuing her passion in life; an important meeting at the office versus annual day celebrations at her only child’s school at the same time; whether or not to show the door to a long-serving cashier who has recently been found having his hand in the till; and the like.

What Lord Krishna is suggesting here is for one to be trans gunas. This way, one attains a balanced and harmonious state in all of one’s activities, whether materialistic or spiritual, thereby leading to true happiness within, irrespective of whether one fails or succeeds in one’s efforts.

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

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Yet another technique advised by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita is that of reverse delegation; in other words, the art of passing the buck to someone higher up!

मयि सर्वाणि कर्माणि संन्यस्याध्यात्मचेतसा ।
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वर: ॥ 3.30॥

Dedicating all actions to Me with a mind fixed in faith on Me, free from expectation and sense of mine (ownership), fight, delivered from fever.

The technique suggested here is very practical and suited to CEOs and managers of all kinds, irrespective of their state of evolution. One’s desires may still be strong in the mind, attachment to worldly objects may still be strong, the intellect may also not yet be free from confusion and delusion, and the ego may still be governing one’s actions.

However, surrendering all actions to a superior power with faith and sincerity has several advantages. It calms the mind, intellect and ego, and propels an individual on a natural path of evolution.

A manager can start practising this technique by simply forming a habit of meeting her boss halfway through. In other words, by keeping him updated on the status of a project even before he starts worrying about it!

(The text is an edited excerpt from my latest book ‘Bhagavad Gita and Corporate Dharma’. Illustration courtesy Sri Ram Chandra Mission and the artist.)

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There is a widespread perception that the larger the business, the broader and deeper its adherence to values and ethics. In other words, enterprises which happen to be either in the small scale or in the tiny sector could ill afford a luxury of this kind!

Many CEOs believe values and ethics can wait until a business is financially strong. In other words, the weaker ones, which are in a struggling phase, can’t afford the luxury. This approach risks embedding bad habits deeply into the company’s culture, making change difficult. Like a tiger’s stripes, these habits are hard to shake off.

True values stem from the inner conviction of leaders, not from a company’s size or profits—and often, strong values lead to better success.

Let us relook at the case of Infosys. Since its inception, the founders are known to have resisted the temptation of paying ‘speed money’ to get things moving faster on the bureaucratic front. Its annual revenue reached US$100 million in 1999, US$1 billion in 2004, US$10 billion in 2017 and US$ 19.3 billion in 2024. The company was formed in 1981, but even as late as 2011, T.V. Mohandas Pai had alleged that his company was asked to pay bribes by government officials to clear projects, which it refused to do.

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

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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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Which are the things that have a longer shelf life, one may well ask. One’s value system. One’s character. What one places one’s faith in. One’s attitude towards life in general. One’s capacity to be able to handle the rough and tumble of a management career. One’s ability to make decisions based not only on big data analytics but also on intuition.

These are the kinds of things that build the resilience of individual managers and organisations to face macroeconomic shocks and market uncertainties with aplomb. Over time, the harsh slings and arrows of a career find it difficult to chip away at one’s innate qualities. Once this core is managed well, external things fall in place most of the time. One’s responses to people and circumstances become more refined, thereby improving one’s managerial effectiveness. One’s personal brand equity acquires a better sheen.

The Bhagavad Gita highlights the importance of faith in our lives and the latent way it provides a compass that determines the direction of our efforts.

सत्त्वानुरूपा सर्वस्य श्रद्धा भवति भारत ।
श्रद्धामयोऽयं पुरुषो यो यच्छ्रद्ध: स एव स: ॥ 17.3॥

The faith of all humans conforms to the nature of their mind. All people possess faith, and whatever the nature of their faith, that is verily what they are.

This explains why many businesses end up merely being ‘businesses’, whereas some make the cut as ‘industrialists’, trying to give back to society in whichever way they can.

(I believe that businesses whose collective faith is sattvic in nature end up being industrialists!)   

The Tata Group: Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds

Consider the case of the house of Tatas. The group can rightfully boast of a value system which goes back more than 158 years.

(Detailed examples follow in the book.)

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

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If Marie Curie had decided to become a human-resource professional at some point of time in her illustrious career, she would surely have had something to say about the half-life of so many things: interpersonal relationships, joys and sorrows, promotions, increments, awards and other recognitions which come one’s way all the time. Even insults, abuses, and rebukes hurled at managers by their bosses, whether in private or in public, would have been held to be things which have a rather short half-life.

This is what the Gita has to say on the nature of material things:

मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदु:खदा: ।
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥ 2.14॥

O son of Kunti, contacts (of the senses) with (their)  objects, giving rise to (the experience of) cold and heat, pleasure, and pain, are transient and they come and go. Bear them, O Bharata (without being disturbed).

If everything in the material world is of a transient nature, one might as well ask as to what is eternal, or at the least, longer-lasting, when compared to the kind of small stuff we touched upon here.

In the book, we go on to discuss the importance of values followed by organisations and the very purpose of business. If one looks at business entities that have been alive and kicking for a very long time, and have a shimmering brand equity to boot, one realises that these are indeed the considerations which are not of a transient nature.

(The text is an edited excerpt from my latest book ‘Bhagavad Gita and Corporate Dharma’. Visual courtesy the World Wide Web.)

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