Management lessons from the Bhagavad Gita

[Guest guest]

An interesting article from " The Times of India " News Website.

link (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mgmt_gyaan_from_CEO_Lord_Krishna/articleshow/2510295.cms)

---------------------Mgmt gyaan from CEO Lord Krishna

2 Nov 2007, 0102 hrs IST,GEETHA RAO

,TNN

BANGALORE: " The Mahabharata is not

about good and evil — instead, it teaches you that life is grey. Defining

the grey is not easy because it is deeply rooted to the context. So, negotiate

the grey. "

 

Spiritual discourse by a seer? No, words of wisdom for

future global managers in an IIM-Bangalore classroom. What has the Mahabharata

got to do with IIMs? Lots.

The great Indian epic can be used to

compare each of the Pandavas to managers of today with their roles, strengths,

weaknesses and consequences.

 

The popular elective course —

Spirituality for Global Managers — has management students looking at

Krishna as the CEO; Yudhishtir who binds together values; Bhima (outcomes);

Arjun (learning); Karna (legitimacy); Nakul (process) and Shadev

(purpose).

 

Says Ramnath Narayanaswamy, professor at IIM-B: " The

Ramayana and Mahabharata are outstanding texts for all times and can be

contemporised to any age. The Pandavas, Karna included, are each a great hero

with a fatal flaw. "

 

What is interesting is the way in which each of

the Pandavas has been made relevant in the management context. Explains

Narayanaswamy: " Yudhishtir is the mentor whose strengths are his values and

beliefs. He stands for propriety but he is blinded by his code of honour.

Similarly, Bhima is an 'executor' manager. For him, the outcome is supremely

important, the bottomline matters — his weakness is he can be blinded by

rage. "

 

Nakul, points out the IIM-B professor, is the enabler —

the service hero of today.

" He's driven by process, but there's no

active leadership. Sahadeva is the visionary, but he is like the manager who

stands for thought and no action. Karna's strength is personal loyalty, it also

brings about his doom. He's like the manager of today who'd buy vegetables for

his bosses, " says Narayanaswamy.

 

Arjun stands for flawless

perfection. His strength is that he's assailed by doubt, but he's willing to

learn.

" Today's young managers are Arjuns, in search of their own

heroism — they want to discover their own meaning in life, " says

Narayanaswamy.

 

But the best part is the course's attempt to " isolate

the insides of religious traditions and contemporise them " in a managerial

situation. " Scholars from different religious traditions deliver lectures. These

include Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sufism, Jainism, Judaism and

other religions, though the focus is not on scriptures. The focus is on

spirituality, not religion. "

 

Ramnath Narayanaswamy says: " There are

three components in management — the analytical (head), the emotional

(heart) and the spiritual (soul). But, management education completely ignores

emotional intelligence (EI) and focuses only on analytical intelligence.

However, our young future managers need feeling and imagination. It's difficult

to teach these as they are experience-driven. Life skills like creative

thinking, listening, mentoring, working under pressure, empathy, team building

— all these come from EI. " -- -----_/|\_ (Namaste) " Let Noble thoughts come to us from every side " .

- RigVeda (1-89-i)