Indian epics: Knowledge and Wisdom - Transcending into Millenium management Practices

Indian epics: Knowledge and Wisdom - Transcending into Millenium management Practices

Mrs. A.Bharathy

Research scholar (Dravidian University) &

Lecturer, Department of Management

Pondicherry University Community College

Pondicherry

Abstract : In this modern world , the art of Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in Government. This article focuses on how the complexities of the modern management system can take lessons from our Indian scriptures. More so corporate India is setting new trends through expansion and extension of their corporate boundaries as seen through their acquisitions and mergers. Be it the Arthasashtra or the Ramayana or the Mahabharatha they are a store house of management knowledge and wisdom.These lessons are relevant in the 21st century for us because these paradigms of management implicit in them are not objects of archives but living lessons for generations to come, without over sighting the fact that they at best supplement or support existing principles or practices of management.

Indian epics and mythology offers countless solutions to day-to-day problems being faced by people. Epics such as the Bhagavad-Gita, Mahabharata and others are the storehouse of invaluable knowledge, which can be utilised to tackle difficult situations in the corporate world. More so today corporate India is setting new trends through expansion and extension of their corporate boundaries as seen through new acquisitions and mergers.

Be it King Ashoka of Kanishka who built rest houses for travelers and advertised Buddhist philosophy on rock edicts to our father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi discovering the paths of truth from the play on Raja Harishchandra or understanding the characteristics of a leader from the Ramayana to our present day corporate entities strategic actions namely

Bharti Airtel acquiring Zain telecom's Africa assets for $10 .7 billion

Tata group acquiring UK s flagship brands LandRover & Jagaur brands

Reliance pay out of 392 million for 60% stake in US Shale Joint Venture

as the list goes on , one can quote a number of instances where our indian epics are rich in Business practices and ethics for the man of today , tomorrow and beyond. Indian Business is breaking a new ground facilitating the arrival of the idea of Indian Management. Yoga, Ayurveda and Indian Management Wisdom (IMW) are the three rivers of knowledge from India that are drawing a new attention at the global level.

Evolution of Management Thought:

Here we must take note of the changes that occurred in the last 25 years in various domains of life -- knowledge, technology and economy. The terms such as knowledge economy, and knowledge society have become buzzwords. These terms denote the rapid speed in creation of knowledge. So we have to think of adopting, adapting and being 'adept' according to them. Only 'fittest', not fit or fitter, would survive. Keeping these changes in view, it is necessary to think of new strategies of managing these changes. The position cannot be controverted. The fact, however, is that despite all the changes the core principles of management remain unchanged. It is because essential human nature does not change. At the core, 'things' of management i.e. various stakeholders involved in it as they are, do not change .

Mere management in terms of degrees and qualifications does not work, as has been discussed in detail by Henry Mintzberg in the book Managers Not M.B.A. Gandhi did not have an M.B.A.. Despite that he was the greatest manager in at least recent Indian history. He did not manage finance but a vast ocean of human resources in the country that had been disunited for centuries and so enslaved it politically, culturally, intellectually and economically as well. He succeeded because he went to his people to understand their condition. He associated himself with them and became one of them in terms of their distress and dispossessions, as was evident in his dress, diet and dealings with people of different religions and regions. With it, he made his fellow Indians think the way he thought. He changed their perceptions of their own condition and exploitation. To his call, the entire nation responded in one voice. It was something unprecedented in Indian history, for he succeeded against the most powerful -- politically and economically -- and highly sophisticatedly managed and administered empire. After the contextual remarks, a natural question arises: Who discovered management???

The present scenario informs us that management has travelled a long distance from its origin in Latin 'manege' standing for training horses through exercise. Even before the term came into existence, there were cultural encyclopedias like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and Kautilya's The Arthashastra which are primarily about political and economic management. Texts such as these have inventory and methodology of management of the given field. More so in case of the latter. In a general sense, all of us are amateur managers, as we have not gone through training. The training aspect was incorporated in the era of Industrial Revolution in the 19th century Europe. Manager and management are the products of the industrialization which added professionalism and commercialization to it. The Manager had to manage an army of workers in factories. With the switch over from the Industrial to post-Industrial, society, there was a change in the nature and stature of manager. With new mode of economic production, a new currency, new mode of management of finance, a new market (in which every individual is a market) came into existence. Now, every one became a manger of the given task. The factory, the place of work was replaced office with a necessary network of communication with the people whom the manager might never physically see but manage them in terms of assigned task. Gradually one's home, hotel room might be a workplace for the manager. Thus, the post-industrial society was a post-manager society. Every society in a sense has been managing itself for centuries with or without methodology of the management. Those who managed the society in trying times and upheavals were honored and invested with the title of hero. All great heroes were great managers without going to any college or University for a course in management. In fact, the life of hero (read managers), served as models for deriving principles or theories of management. A hero was a manager par excellence of his own self and society that had reposed its faith in his abilities.

Every civilization that has survived for thousands of years could do so because it found and had its managers, though the term was not then in vogue. The heroes or nyak were the people who were distinguished managers of their lives, and of the people around them in their personal and public lives particularly in moments of crises. It is possible to learn from them, as they used different paradigms of management. All lasting narratives celebrate their success or mode of management narratives -- mythical and epical, for they have sustained for so long because the protagonists -- real or unreal -- were acceptable not only for their success but also for being so within given cultural time and space in accordance with lok (popular) and shstra (learned) traditions. Their lives and the way they managed situations around them can be treated as material for constructing paradigms of management, as can be discerned in the following discussion.

These views on paradigms of management are directed at exploring new paradigms of management and their possibilities. Many such paradigms can be developed from Indian cultural tradition. The same can be said about other civilizations.The writings like The Ramayana and The Mahabharata in Indian context are not only cultural encyclopedias but also texts of management, for in them their wise authors who were just observers of general human nature have kneaded views or lessons on management voiced through their characters.To date Kautilya (Chanakya), is regarded as the world's first Management Guru.His management thoughts and ideas helped kings and rulers for centuries. All the powerful kings in ancient India like Ashoka had learnt Arthashastra and practiced it to expand their kingdom multifold (increase market share), to protect the kingdom against powerful enemies (develop a strategy against competitors), develop winning strategies, habits and practices.These lessons are relevant in the 21st century for us because these paradigms of management implicit in them are not objects of archives but living lessons for generations to come, without over sighting the fact that they at best supplement or support existing principles or practices of management.

Emergence of Indian Management Wisdom :

When we look at the emergence of Indian Management Wisdom (IMW) as a new thought

current, we find its roots in the following seven streams of consciousness' of Indian Wisdom'represented by crystallization of experiences in the form of insights, imaginations and visions :

Ancient Wisdom Foundations: 3 Vs capture the essence of ancient wisdom viz. Valmiki, Vyasa and Vivekanand. It may be indicated that the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Complete Works of Vivekananda capture the essence of Indian mythology and philosophy. Impact of Valmiki, Vyasa and Vivekananda on Indian consciousness is immeasurable. From the viewpoint of the impact on Indian consciousness, three periods of mythology and history could as well be viewed as Rama period, Krishna period and Ramkrishna/ Vivekananda period. Implications of such a perspective for management thought are interesting as Rama represents good governance, Krishna represents leadership and strategy and Ram-Krishna combination represents spiritual approach to management.

Arthasastra Foundations: Written in the context of the Kingdom, Arthasastra is a well

Known book dealing with management of Kingdom. It has many useful lessons for leadership and management that can be applied to Corporate Kingdoms'. Its secular character is very appealing and its pro-people orientation has interesting lessons for management of organizations.

Freedom Movement Foundations: India's freedom struggle also provided a backdrop for the emergence of the idea of Indian Management and Indian Management Wisdom. Freedom movement was also a social movement, which led to the liberation of the nation. Indian Business played a significant role during freedom struggle. The concept of trusteeship was the product of the freedom movement as Gandhi was searching for an alternative to Capitalism and Communism. It represented a holistic approach to building business organizations. The linkage of Indian Management with freedom movement led to a broadening the concept of management. It implied that the idea of management should not be merely restricted to corporate Management but should also include marginal sections of society. In essence management should be development oriented' in nature. This is an important lesson from the freedom movement foundations of Indian Management.

Indian Business Foundations: Indian business' acumen is known from ancient times. Later it found its expression in community entrepreneurship e.g Marwari entrepreneurship, Gujarat entrepreneurship, Chettiar entrepreneurship. Vyapar Sastra' provided the conceptual foundations for many trading practices. As the medium size businesses developed into corporate structures, new lessons were learnt. Such experiences of the development of organizations led to development of a corpus of knowledge and wisdom in the form of case studies of Business Maharajas' and Corporate Rishis'.

Cultural Foundations: It is now recognized that cultural dimension is also important for

development of management philosophies, theories and concepts. This has been the concern of many Indian scholars such as Prof. S K Chakraborty, Prof. J B P Sinha, Prof. M.B. Athreya, Prof Virmani and Prof Rajen Gupta. Japan developed Japanese Management rooted in its culture. Similarly, Indian Management as an idea has been emerging from the influence of the civilizational and cultural experiences. In fact, Indian managers learn about American and Japanese management concepts, tools and techniques in classrooms and in Management Development Programs, however in practice they intuitively integrate this learning with ground realities and thereby evolve their own Indian blends' that integrate American and Japanese theories of management with indigenous cultural context. This has been a reason for their success and it has led to development of new Indian Management Wisdom through India Blend' approach to management.

Subaltern/Social Movements Foundations: Indian Management Wisdom has also been

influenced by subaltern forces as manifested in several social movements. This led to demands of involvement and empowerment. Empowerment of the weakest is equally important in contrast to the survival of the fittest. Subaltern and social movements led to the idea of Duty of the Fittest'. This implies that Corporations have a duty towards the society and the corporate model should incorporate this idea in its operating philosophy.

Capillary Action Foundations: Many grassroots institutions driven by the philosophy of

loksangraha' (well being of members) have made an impact on the social consciousness.

SEWA, Lizzat Papad, Dabbawalla, AMUL and many other organizations are shining examples of the capillary action approach to development. AMUL model suggests the need for a linkage between the capillary action and corporate action. During recent years e-chaupal of ITC has also created a new linkage model wherein grass root action is combined with corporate action.

New Age Spiritual Movements: New age spiritual movements originating from India, such as Transcendental Meditation (TM) of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Vipasana meditation, Brahma Kumaries spiritual university, Art of Living movement etc, have emerged from Indian spiritual traditions. These movements are influencing the corporate world leading to emergence of a new integration of Yoga and Management. In fact, Yoga, Meditation and Spirituality (YMS) are emerging as new areas of research in the field of management. In due course, this may be acknowledged as distinctive contribution of Indian Management' to the world of management. With this acknowledgment, Indian Management' would acquire its distinctive identity.

New Institutional Initiatives: Application of Indian Management Wisdom has found

institutional support in the form of several initiatives e.g. Management Centre for Human

Values (MCHV) at IIM Calcutta, Women's Institute for Studies in Development Oriented

Management (WISDOM) at Banasthali University in Rajasthan, Indian Business Academy (IBA)at Bangalore and Greater Noida, Yoga and Management Division at Swami Vivekananda YogaAnusandhan Samsthana (SVYASA) University at Bangalore. These Centres (Knowledge Dhams)are making significant contributions to further development of Indian Management Wisdom.

Management Lessons from Indian Epics:

Management of any type, whether in business or some other human activity, in simplest of words according to Koontz is "Getting work done through and by the people in formally organized groups" Broadly speaking management is defined by the following functions

Planning

Organizing

Staffing

Leading

Directing

Controlling

Coordinating

There are number of books, journals, articles etc available, which talks in elaboration about various management theories. But way before the modern day management gurus gave their theories, principles and concepts of management, the great writers like Tulsidas, Valmiki etc had explained them in the ancient Hindu epics.

If one studies these mythological books, then one can easily make out about the various management lessons which are taught in them. Every incidence teaches us a new lesson and in itself is a classic example of putting management at its best use and getting the work done.

Lessons from the Ramayana

As the controversy over the existence of Ram prevails , there is indeed no doubt of the numerous management lessons our B-School students and corporate leaders can take from Prince Ram to succeed in the present environment of globalised economy.

The use of management principles is very clearly visible in that of Hanuman going to Lanka. His mission was to locate Sita there and give her Prince Ram's message. When it became clear that Sita was in Lanka, Jamvant asked Hanuman to go there. He helped him in realising his true potential and motivated him to go into the enemy's camp. Once mentally prepared for the job and reached there, first thing which Hanuman did was to completely analyse the situation in Lanka. He did a complete study about the Lankans, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, the various threats and opportunities, which he had in the enemy's camp.

This is what management is all about

Defining the goals, or job to be done.

Getting mentally prepared for it.

Having a right plan.

Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the competitor and what threats and opportunities are there in the business.

This SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threats) analysis is one of the most important aspects of modern day management. Moreover Jamvant motivating Hanuman is a classic example of a good Manager helping his personnel to realise their potential and acting accordingly.

In the war ,Rama's group of men and monkeys were no match for the evil Ravana's forces and weaponry. Or so thought Vibhishan, Ravana's brother who had defected to Rama's side. Unable to contain his concerns, he questioned Rama: How will you defeat this huge army with your limited resources? Rama told Vibhishan , who listened with rapt attention; you have to make sure you have a clear vision, and a cause worth fighting for. In the case of Ramayana, the cause was to rescue his beloved Sita and the vision was to defeat the evil forces. The reply that Rama gave stands out as a great lesson in leadership

Many prominent industry leaders today opine that you need not necessarily have a vision; rather, taking one step at a time could be a much more practical way of going about, but I think that unless you have a vision, you will never be able to follow a trajectory. In the words of the great Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, "The world steps aside to a person who knows where he or she is going." In that parlance, unless you know where you are going, how will the world step aside and aid you in your pursuit?

No doubts that the great Dhirubai mbani , APJ Kalam were also motivated by their vision too.

The other instances which are obvious are: teamwork an important principle in management, and Rama applied the same in search of Sita and was successful in the mission. Another one is in an organisation one must be treated affectionately which Rama did when he met Guhanand Vibhishana.As one can see the characteristics of a bad manager visible in Ravana who never heeded to his ministers , one can also see the characteristics of a good manager in Ram as he follows principles such as encouraging lower category of employees, rewards for good work, self-motivation, decision-making, recognition, market survey, market exploitation, time management and the art of communication are aligned with instances in the epic.

Lessons from the Mahabharatha

Noted as the second largest epic of the world has innumerable revelations on various fields like astronomy, geography, mathematics, complex military formations and strategies, philosophy, psychology, sociology, spirituality, religion, politics, and, even modern management lessons.

Both the Pandavas and kauravas had made powerful alliances. Especially the Pandavas who were on exile for 13 years , had no wealth or power of their own .But then How were they able to win the war?The lesson is they had made powerful alliances all over India like Panchala through Marriage with Draupadi, Dwarka through marriage with Arjuna and Subhadra, Magadh through marriage of Shadeva and Vijaya, Chedi through marriage of Nakula and Karenmayi, Kasi through marriage of Bhima and Balandhara . and the like.This clearly indicates that making powerful alliances is a winning strategy.

No doubt our corporate leaders have swung into action making mergers and acquisitions the norm of the day , be it Reliance , Tatas , Wipro , Airtel , Maruti and its likes.

Yet another relevant lesson from the Mahabharatha is the spirit of team work which is the essence of modern management .Ample instance reveal that the Kauravas did not show team work.They all fought their own individual wars . Say Bhisma for his vow to protect the throne of Hastinapur, Drona and kripa owed allegiance to the throne.Shalya was simply cheated by Duryodhana , Karna to prove his friendship for duryodhana.more over they didn't get on well with each other.

Bhishma and karma

Bhisma and Sakuni

Karna and Shakuni

Karna and Shalya

Shalya and Bhisma

They were like bees , hornets and mosquitoes put together in a jar.

While the Pandavas were a one team, one goal. As men, they all had huge respect for Krishna and Yudhisthira. While as warriors they were in complete awe of Bhima and Arjuna. Most of them were close relatives cousins,brother-in-laws, father-in-laws. More than that, they all were part of the decision-making process. It was their"common" war. This indeed shows the success of team work.

The Mahabharatha has many more lessons for the modern day manager like :

Subordination of individual interest to achieve common goal

Commitment of Team members

Assigning of the right man to the right job

Leadership as an art of inspiring team members

Analysis of Opportunities and exploiting the situation and many more.

Lessons from the Gita

The Holy Gita has become a secret driving force behind one's life. The Holy Gita is a practical psychology of transformation which offers us the tools to connect with our deepest intangible essence. We must learn to participate in the battle of life with right knowledge.

Management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence. The critical question in all managers'minds is how to be effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad-Gita Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that "you must try to manage yourself." The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd.

The Gita is a valuable resource of numerous values relevant for the manager of today like

Amanityam Humility

Adambhitvam Pridelessness

Arjavam Simplicity

Kshanti Tolerance

Anahankara Absence of ego and several more values to be explored.

Lessons from the Vedas

The Vedas, which represent the storehouse of our ancient value systems, talk about the following key values as very important: (a) Satyam Truth; (b) Tapah Austerity; (c) Damah Sense control; (d) Samah Tranquility of mind; (e) Dharmah Righteousness; (f) Danam Charity; (g) Daya Mercy; and (h) Nyasah Renunciation.

The Vedas insist on proper distribution of wealth. Wealth earned by 100 hands has to be distributed to 1,000 hands (Atharva Veda Samhita iii-24-5). They encourage us to give charity in plenty with utmost faith and humility (Sraddhaya deyam! Sriya deyam! Hriya deyam! Taittiriya Upanishad I-11). Thus the social obligations are also taken care of.

The Vedas also inspire us to innovate and improve upon (Rig Veda Samhita i-31-8), and also to succeed in trade (Atharva Veda Samhita iii-15).

Surely today our corporate leaders like the Infosys have ventured into their role of Corporate social responsibility through their community welfare projects and many more have to realize this aspect.

Lessons from other Scriptures

Various Upanishads, Vedas, Smrutis, and other ancient Indian scriptures also contain teachings which can be directly or indirectly applied to management. The Kathopanishad is one of the most popular of all Upanishads. The "ability to take decisions" is the real test of a manager's caliber. The mantra in this Upanishads mentions, at every stage in a man's life he is confirmed by the necessity to choose between two courses of action. One is sreyas which seems painful in the beginning but painful in the end. In managerial terms, sreyas may be regarded as the hard option while preyas is the soft option. The Taittiriya Upanishads lays down the qualifications of those who are worthy of being looked up to as precedents. In the Yaksha Prashana episode,Yaksha asks "which path to choose?" and Dhramputra answers: The path that great men of yore had traversed in the past is the path we should follow.

The Vedas contain various concepts such as knowledge management, relationship marketing, quality system, change management, time management, etc. in terms of Social responsibility; the Vedas specify that the poor and the needy shall be duly protected. They call upon one not to cause injury to others or covet the wealth of others.

No wonder Corporates like Microsoft , Apple , Berkshire Hathaway corp. , Infosys , Wipro, Tatas etc today spend a considerable proportion of their profits in charity foundations and their activities of social relevance.This has indeed been the norm of the day in the past itself . The Vedas stress upon moral and ethical conduct and appeal to every one to be guiltless and blemishless. They give the clarion call for value-centric business practices.The individual value system of the various employees together shape up and determine the value system of an organization to which they identify themselves with. Vedas also stress that "work itself does not cause frustration, but something else causes frustration, it's the expectation of result". A short story reveals the"attitude towards work" in which: a lady asks three workers, who were cutting stones for the construction of the temple. First says," I am doing this horrible job of cutting stones", Second says,' I am working to get money for my family" while the third says, "I am building the temple". All the three men are doing the same work but for the first one, it is "hell"; for the second, it is a "duty" while for the third one, it is a "blessing". This shows attitude towards work.

Conclusion

We can see how relevant and important aspects of Management and Business Knowledge and practices we can discover from our scriptures.They also have numerous lessons to be learnt on various functional areas of business also.As we move towards a globalised Indian economy it is time that our would be managers of the corporate world get back to basics. Even as society appears to be getting increasingly corrupt and criminal; many are beginning to realize that you cannot aspire to create value without deeply cherishing a sense of values. For instance, chairman of Wipro systems and Wipro InfoTech, Azim Premji, once called for a meeting. A senior general manager of the company was leaving, because he had inflated a travel bill. The amount involved was not huge. Nor was the general manager's contribution to the organization insignificant. And yet, he was leaving because of one act of misdemeanor. It was a question of principles, of values. To add a lot of interest to your principal, you need to stick to your principles. To sustain your competitive advantage in an increasingly corporate world, you need character. Morals are more important than money, materials, marketing and management."The winner of any corporate competition is the company whose moral purpose best fits the prevailing environment. Through core values and principles, we can reach the zenith and we students being the prospective entrants in the corporate world, must inculcate these values from the very beginning and there is no dearth for them in our ancient scriptures.

References

Yog Raj Singh ,Ankur Bhatnagar(2010) "Management and Business Ethics through Indian Scriptures and Traditions" Shriram Institute of Management & Technology, Kashipur AIMS International Conference on Value-based Management August 11-13

http://www.valuequotes.net/chronological.html

Swami Nikhilananda (1990), The Upanishads: A New Translation Vol.I, at 3-4 , 5th Ed.

www.indyarocks.com/blogs/blog_visiterview_main.php?

Rabindranath Bhojan (2007), "Management lessons on how the Mahabharatha war was won" , www.badaga.org

Dr.S.Kannan (2009) , "Ancient values for modern managers" , The Hindu Businessline , February 2

M.P. Bhattathiri , "Bhagavad Gita and Management :World Management Lessons from India " ,www.vinayahs.com

www.indiayogi.com

Indian epics: Knowledge and Wisdom - Transcending into Millenium management Practices

By: A.Bharathy

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