1.8.2007...Balancing and Failure...By Amber Chand.

[Guest guest]

Balancing Success and Failure ”The company I have created is very much an expression of my sense of service, allowing me to use business as an important and purposeful platform for my spiritual practice.” - Amber Chand as co-founder and VP of Vision, Eziba,

USA Amber Chand was the co-founder and VP of Vision at Eziba in the USA, when she was first interviewed about her being a spiritual-based leader. At that time, Eziba was a flourishing internet-based retailing company selling high quality crafts from poor artisans around the world. This anthropologist and international businesswoman reflected on her spiritual purpose: “When I think of my spiritual purpose in life, I think of ways in which it allows me to connect, both internally and externally. In quiet moments, I look to strengthening this place of internal refuge… an inner sanctuary where I go to connect with my spiritual teacher, Sathya Sai Baba, The other is the outer place of action and activity. In the world as a spiritual woman, I see my purpose as

trying to find a way to put love into action. The company I have created is very much an expression of my sense of service, allowing me to use business as an important and purposeful platform for my spiritual practice, knowing that our work with artisans around the globe – many of whom are talented craftswomen – helps to support, sustain and strengthen their lives. I always felt that in founding this company I was following Swami’s guidance and finding a way to bring together my spiritual perspective into a more worldly business arena. This was to be a practice in humility in which I saw myself as simply the flute – His instrument – through which He would play.” Amber Chand narrated how her spiritual-based leadership unfolded with the help of very practical and down-to-earth examples, such as ‘Tea with Amber’. “As a co-founder of Eziba, I have tremendous amount of influence. I know when I walk through this company employees look to me sort of like

a mother, a nurturing spirit. So I try to continually find ways to be that nurturing, reassuring, loving spirit for them. “About a year ago I created a new initiative and called it ‘Tea with Amber’. I was inspired to do this when, one day, my heart sank when I realized that the company had grown to such a degree that I no longer knew everybody. I could not see how I could be in the nurturer role if I didn’t know everyone by name. I began to search for a way that I could connect with everyone in the company. “So the idea came to me to just begin to have a cup of tea with every person. I rearranged my office completely, I created a little sitting area where I have some lamps and plants, I got out my lovely Mexican tea set and began to invite people to tea. Some people were very nervous because they were sitting with the co-founder. I would make them a cup of tea and what I noticed was that once they began to sip their tea, they would start to relax

physically. Once we could both relax with each other, then we could actually open ourselves up to the ‘art of conversation’. “This is definitely something that the employees look forward to. It has become seen as a very important part of my work and as a way for us to continue to highlight Eziba as a company with a social conscience.” Another initiative Amber Chand started early on at Eziba was to speak to the customers who were dissatisfied. This was inspired by her spiritual background. She grew up in a Hindu household in Uganda, Africa, went to the Church of England while in boarding school, and has a strong interest in Buddhism. “In my childhood my mother and father taught me to treat a guest who came to our house as God. You do everything you can to make their time with you happy and satisfying and comfortable. During our first customer training, I told our people that at Eziba I like to feel that the customer is God. “We

have a fabulous customer service group and yet I still want to speak with all of the unhappy customers. I pick up the phone and call them. I begin by apologizing to them: ‘I am so sorry that we have dissatisfied you in some way.’ I must tell you that customers are amazed; they cannot believe that one of the founders is taking the time to call them. From this call, I always end up with a happy customer; we usually end up feeling a lot of joy and laugh together. I tell them to call me again if they ever have any problems and I give them my direct line. So it is another way of being thoughtful. And it works.” Amber Chand with a Palestinian Embroiderer Building partnership with women in Africa But while things worked for Amber Chand, they did not work for the company, which now had a board that was more focused on the bottom line than on selling high

quality crafts from poor artisans around the world as “a way to put love into action”. With its loss of purpose, the company ran into great financial difficulties. When Amber Chand was next interviewed in spring 2006 – roughly a year after Eziba, the company she had invested her heart and soul in, went bankrupt – we were struck by how her engaged spirituality had enabled her to maintain peace of mind and courage in the face of Eziba’s demise. She told us, “Without the anchor of my spiritual practice, I could not have weathered this personal tsunami. For at some level, I knew that Eziba’s meteoric rise and fall were part of a larger archetypal story. That there were to be many lessons learned and that somehow I would find my way, guided by a sense of profound trust in life and the truth of who I am and what I believe in.” Amber Chand had by then founded a new business, The Amber Chand Collection, and reflected on her experiences

with Eziba and her new endeavour: “I am grateful to Eziba for teaching me important lessons and in illuminating for me that one can indeed create successful businesses that are spiritually inspired – only when this becomes one’s singular mission and clear intent. I have no doubt that armed with patience, trust, focused clear effort and humility, the ‘Amber Chand Collection’ will grow successfully.” Like Amber Chand, John Behner, whom you will now meet, also practices his leadership as an expatriate in a foreign culture. He too faced great crises, both in the form of a devastating earthquake and a civil war; his faith in God enabled him to transform such experiences into personal and organizational spiritual growth.Ram ChuganiKobe, Japanrgcjp

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