Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management (51 page)

Discourses never transform us

Just before the battle of Kurukshetra is about to begin, Arjun loses his nerve. He suddenly realizes the enormity of the situation before him. He is about to kill his kith and kin for a piece of property. He is consumed by guilt and shame. He throws his bow down and refuses to fight. This is when Krishna reveals to him the secret of life in a song thereafter known as the Bhagavad Gita. Enlightened by the wisdom, Arjun picks up his bow and prepares to fight. Or so we are told.

During the course of the war, Arjun loses his nerve time and time again. Krishna has to goad him on to kill Bhisma, the first commander of the Kaurav army. He is then reluctant to kill his teacher, Drona. He is shattered when his son Abhimanyu is killed. He finds it hard to kill the unarmed Karna even when Krishna advises him to. He is hardly the wise warrior, displaying equanimity in the middle of crisis.

We would like to believe that a training programme will transform people forever but it does not. An agreement with a professor does not mean one has understood the subject. What the professor says is smriti—the outer voice that can be spoken, but is not necessarily heard. What is ultimately heard is shruti—our inner voice, which is heard but can never be spoken.

Haider has attended many leadership-training workshops. At the end of each workshop he feels charged and motivated. When it comes to actually leading people though he fails miserably. No one listens to him. Then one day, he asks himself, "Why should people follow me? What am I offering that makes me attractive?" As he ponders over the question, his understanding of himself and those around him improves. He is more interested in playing boss he realizes and not really in taking people along with him. Moreover, he is only interested in his goals with no interest in the goals of others. This stems from his fear of being ignored. The more he introspects, the more the frameworks he's learned in the classroom start making sense. The smriti becomes shruti. And the penny drops.

Crisis increases the chances of learning

As Ram, Vishnu is king in the Ramayan, but as Krishna, he is kingmaker in the Mahabharat. With Krishna's help the Pandavs built the city of Indraprastha. But as soon as he is gone, the Pandavs gamble this kingdom away. Thus, they learn that having a kingdom does not necessarily make one a king. A yajaman is determined not by what he has or what he does, but by who he is.

The vana-vaas or forest exile that strips the Pandavs of all their status, wealth and power is a time for learning. They realize that in the forest they are neither kings nor princes, just predator or prey. Emotional turmoil makes them more receptive to new ideas. Arjun is defeated in a duel by a kirata or tribal (Shiva in disguise) and learns that skill has nothing to do with social status. Bhim is unable to lift the tail of an old monkey (Hanuman in disguise) and learns to never underestimate those you encounter. A stork (Yama in disguise) asks questions and Yudhishtir answers them; the answers are subjective not objective, but they are his answers and Yudhishtir stands by them, thus learning that in order to be a decisive leader he must take decisions and not be paralyzed by doubt.

In their final year of exile, the Pandavs, former kings, live in another king's palace disguised as servants. This is not humiliation but rather darshan: they are seeing how the world looks from the bottom of the pyramid.

At the end of the exile, Krishna goes to the Kauravs to negotiate peace. The point is not to punish the villain but to invoke the Narayan in him so that he realizes the value of coexistence and generosity. Unfortunately, Duryodhan refuses to part with even a 'needlepoint of land'. This territorial behaviour makes Duryodhan an animal, a pack leader not a yajaman. Since he behaves like a beast he needs to be killed by any means. Krishna declares war.

The final lesson is imparted during the war itself. What is the goal of the war: to win back the kingdom or to expand the gaze? The war, like any other, has terrible consequences that the Pandavs have to face. They have to kill their elder (Bhisma), teacher (Drona), brother (Karna) and suffer the death of their own children. They learn the cost of being territorial.

In the forest, the varna of the Pandavs changes. They are no longer conditional leaders. They become unconditional leaders who conduct the yagna not to dominate or domesticate the devatas for their own benefit, but to uplift them for everyone's benefit. In the war, this growth in varna is severely tested.

During interviews, Arvind only asks candidates to talk about their failures. He wants to see how they reacted in adverse situations. Did they bemoan the loss of Lakshmi and Durga, or did they gain Saraswati to enable future success? As far as Arvind is concerned, the tathastu of Saraswati is most available during vana-vaas when we feel we have failed in the system and find ourselves out in the wilderness with no direction or purpose.

Power play underlies the process of teaching

When Vishnu approaches Bali as the child Vaman and asks for three paces of land, it is in the third step that he turns into a giant. With the first two paces he covers all that Bali possessed. "Now where do I place my foot to claim my third pace?" he asks. Bali bows and offers his head. Vishnu shoves him to Patala, the nether regions where asuras belong.

Why does Vaman turn from dwarf into giant? Is it to dominate Bali and show him who the alpha is? Is it to domesticate Bali and compel him to respect cosmic rules? Or is it to make Bali open his eyes: make him realize that the answer to life's problem is not in Narayani (the availability of resources), symbolized by the gift of three paces of land but in Narayan (the human potential), symbolized by the dwarf 's ability to become a giant?

The answer rests with Bali: how does he receive Vaman's action, Vaman's intention notwithstanding. Bali's bowing could be indicative of his surrender to Vishnu, his submission to the rules, or a genuine expression of gratitude following the expansion of his mind. Only he knows.

Sandeep was a successful businessman who insisted that his son Vikas use public transport till he finished college. He wanted his son to learn the realities of life, learn that wealth and power are privileges and not entitlements. Unfortunately, Vikas does not see things that way. His friends would tease him every time they saw him at the bus stop; their parents had provided them with drivers and cars. Vikas felt his father was old fashioned and stingy. Sandeep never understood why there was so much a distance in his relationship with Vikas.

To teach, we have to learn to let go

While searching for Sita's whereabouts Hanuman sets aflame the city of Lanka of his own volition. This displeases Ram as he had no desire to hurt the residents of Lanka for the crime of their king. Not wanting to displease Ram ever again, Hanuman swore never to take any decision without consulting Ram.

This absolute obedience became so intense that it alarmed Jambuvan, the wise bear, who also served in the army of animals raised by Ram to defeat Ravan and liberate Sita. When Hanuman was being given instructions on how to find the Sanjivani herb that could save Laxman from certain death after being injured in battle, Jambuvan told Ram, "Make sure to tell him clearly that he has to come back with the herb after he's found it. Otherwise, he will find the herb and simply wait by the mountain in complete compliance." This was not good, Ram realized. The situation had to be rectified.

As is related in the Adbhut Ramayan, during the course of the war, Ravan's cousin Mahiravan, a sorcerer, managed to abduct both Ram and Laxman and took them to Patala. Only Hanuman had the intellectual and physical prowess to rescue them. He had to rely on his own wits, as there was no Ram around to instruct him. He was on his own. Jambuvan realized this situation was of Ram's own making. Hanuman was being forced to rise to the challenge.

At one point during the rescue mission, Hanuman had to simultaneously blow out five lamps located in five corners of Patala. He solved this problem by sprouting four extra heads: that of a boar, an eagle, a lion and a horse. With these five heads he could blow out the five lamps easily. Eventually, Hanuman succeeded in rescuing Ram. He had been transformed from an obedient servant to an astute, independent decision-maker. He had been transformed from being a Ram-bhakt to Mahavir, from god to God, worthy of veneration in his own right. Ram had thus created a leader.

A time comes in every leader's life when he has to create leaders around him. This involves making one's team members competent enough to take independent decisions. This is not easy, as every decision has consequences, not all of which are acceptable to a leader. It demands tremendous restraint and maturity on a leader's part to not intervene and change the decision taken by a junior.

Hanuman's decision to burn Lanka displeased Ram. And so after that, Hanuman stopped taking decisions. To rectify the damage done, Ram had to remove himself from the scene so that Hanuman could rediscover his decision-making abilities. A leader need not agree with a junior's decision. They are two different people and so may not see the same situation in the same way. But to imagine that a subordinate will think just like them, is many a leader's folly.

Sanjeev's brilliant decision-making abilities have resulted in his becoming a partner in a consulting firm at a very young age. Now he has to nurture his managers and nudge them to take on more responsibilities. One of his managers, Sebastian, decided to follow up on the status of a business proposal with a client on his own. "Why did you do that?" shouted Sanjeev, "It could put them off." Another time, Sebastian gave a half-day's leave to a management trainee who was feeling unwell. "Why did you do that?" screamed Sanjeev, "There is so much work to do." After this, not wanting to upset his boss further, Sebastian stopped taking decisions independently. He only did what Sanjeev told him to do. During appraisals, Sanjeev said, "You need to be more proactive," much to Sebastian's astonishment and irritation. As a result of his own actions, Sanjeev is surrounded by obedient followers and not leaders.

Only when teachers are willing to learn does growth happen

Shiva is self-contained. So he has no desire to open his eyes to the world. With great difficulty, Gauri makes him open his eyes. She has questions that only he can answer. Shiva reveals why thoughts matter over things, and gaze over skills. As Gauri clarifies her doubts, Shiva begins to appreciate the fear that prevents a Brahma from letting go of things and skills, of all things tangible, of his limited worldview. The conversation provokes empathy in Shiva, transforming him into Shankar-Shambhu, the benevolent one.

Education and learning tend to be linear. In education, the burden of teaching rests with the teacher. In learning, the burden shifts to the student. Both education and learning can be made cyclical, especially in business, when the trainer and the mentor gives Vidyalakshmi and gets Sharda in return, even without the active participation of the participant. The yajaman can learn from the devata even if the devata refuses to learn from the yajaman. The yajaman can learn what makes a devata curious and eager for knowledge and what stops him from being curious and eager. This learning reveals to him the human condition, widens his gaze, makes him a more dependable and understanding yajaman.