Review Article: Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management
Introduction
"Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management," authored by Subhash Sharma, presents an intriguing perspective on management principles through the lens of Indian philosophy and tradition. The book, grounded in the rich heritage of Indian thought, offers a unique synthesis of ancient wisdom and contemporary business practices. This review explores the key themes, insights, and relevance of the book in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.
Overview of the Content
The book is structured around the concept of "Sutras," which in Sanskrit refers to aphorisms or concise statements that encapsulate profound truths. Sharma draws parallels between these ancient principles and modern management practices, arguing that the wisdom embedded in Indian philosophy can provide a holistic framework for addressing contemporary business challenges.
The author delves into various topics, including leadership, decision-making, human resource management, and the ethical dimensions of business. Each chapter begins with a foundational Sutra that encapsulates the theme, followed by practical examples, case studies, and reflections that illustrate its applicability in the business world.
Key Themes
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Holistic Management: One of the book’s central tenets is the notion of ‘holism’ — the idea that businesses should not operate in isolation but as entities connected to larger social and environmental systems. Sharma emphasizes the importance of recognizing the interconnectedness of various stakeholders and the ecosystems in which businesses operate.
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Ethical Leadership: The Sutras advocate for a leadership style that is not just directive but also empathetic and ethical. Sharma critiques the often cut-throat nature of modern corporate culture, proposing that leaders should embody virtues such as integrity, compassion, and humility. This aligns with the broader Indian ethos of ‘Dharma,’ or righteous duty.
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Innovation and Adaptability: The book acknowledges the rapidly changing global business environment and the necessity for organizations to adapt. Sharma encourages a mindset that embraces change, fostering innovation while remaining rooted in core values.
- Empowerment and Learning: Sharma posits that empowerment of individuals at all organizational levels is key to harnessing creativity and driving performance. He draws on Indian traditions of learning and mentorship to illustrate how conducive environments can be created for knowledge sharing and personal growth.
Relevance in Contemporary Business
In an increasingly globalized and fast-paced business world, where traditional management theories often fall short, "Business Sutra" offers a refreshing alternative. The integration of age-old Indian philosophies into modern management serves not only to enrich the dialogue around effective practices but also encourages a deeper reflection on the purpose of business beyond profit maximization.
The concepts of ethical leadership and holistic management are particularly pertinent in light of rising concerns regarding corporate social responsibility and sustainability. The book’s emphasis on ethical considerations aligns with the growing demand from consumers and stakeholders for transparency and accountability in business operations.
Critique
While "Business Sutra" presents a unique perspective, it may not resonate with all audiences, particularly those accustomed to Western management paradigms. Some readers may find the philosophical underpinnings dense or challenging to integrate into pragmatic business scenarios. Additionally, certain concepts might feel idealistic in the context of high-pressure corporate environments.
However, these critiques do not detract from the book’s overall value. Instead, they highlight the need for an open mind when approaching the intersection of philosophy and business.
Conclusion
In "Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management," Subhash Sharma invites readers to rethink business practices through an introspective lens shaped by Indian tradition. This book is a compelling exploration of how ancient wisdom can inform modern management, urging leaders to incorporate ethics, empathy, and holistic thinking into their strategic frameworks. As businesses navigate the complexities of the 21st century, the insights gleaned from "Business Sutra" offer a relevant and meaningful pathway for fostering sustainable success. For those willing to embrace its teachings, the book is not merely a guide but a transformative journey towards a more responsible and integrated approach to management.
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Business Sutra: A very Indian Approach to Management is a radical, nuanced approach to management, business and leadership in a progressively polarized world. In this landmark book, bestselling author, leadership coach and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik shows how, despite its veneer of objectivity, modern management is rooted in Western beliefs and obsessed with accomplishing rigid objectives and increasing shareholder value. By contrast, the Indian way of doing business, as apparent in Indian mythology but no longer seen in practice accommodates subjectivity and diversity and offers an inclusive, more empathetic way of achieving success. Great value is placed on darshan, that is, on how we see the world and our relationship with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Business Sutra uses stories, symbols and rituals drawn from Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology to understand a wide variety of business situations that range from running a successful tea stall to nurturing talent in a large multinational corporation. At the heart of the book is a compelling premise: if we believe that wealth needs to be chased, the workplace becomes a rana-bhoomi – a battleground of investors, regulators, employers, employees, vendors, competitors and customers, if we believe that wealth needs to be attracted, the workplace becomes a ranga-bhoomi – a playground where everyone is happy. Book Features: By Devdutt Pattanaik, the author of more than a dozen bestselling books on mythology and management, leading columnist for business newspapers and one of the country’s foremost motivational speakers The book takes a practical and distinctive look at management and business practices, using stories, symbols and rituals from Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythologies Devdutt Pattanaik hosted widely popular TV show Business Sutra on CNBC. His TED talk on mythology and management received over 8, 10,000 hits online Business Sutra carries creative and informative illustrations by the author that elaborate the concepts being discussed Plenty of insightful anecdotes and examples of people from all walks of life that readers can relate to Booklets with excerpts, business cards, posters and an extensive tour by the author to top management institutes, business schools and leading corporations as part of the marketing plan to promote the book
From the Publisher
Conversation with Devdutt Pattanaik
Introduction
Connecting Belief to Business
In the monsoon of 2008, I was made Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group. The idea behind this unusual designation was deliberate and simple: to startle people and make them see the critical role of belief in business.
There was the risk of being mistaken for a pastor, a guru or a priest, for many equate belief with religion and spirituality. Some were even convinced that my role was that of an evangelist or a propagandist: to help the organization manipulate the beliefs of employees and customers until they were more enterprise-friendly.
My job, however, was to neither judge nor change beliefs; it was simply to articulate them. The intention was to expand the mind of those involved in business so that they could see the misalignment between business practices (that they blindly followed) and the beliefs of people (that they remained oblivious to).
When the mind is expanded, we are able to see more frameworks, understand the world better, take better decisions, ones that ensure a viable, sustainable and happy business.
The 3B Framework
Belief is subjective truth, my truth and your truth, the lens through which we make sense of the world.
Animals do not have beliefs. Animals want to know if the other is food, a mate or a threat. Humans, however, are consumed with notions of what is true (satyam, in Sanskrit), good (shivam) and beautiful (sundaram). Belief establishes these. Belief enables us to qualify people as heroes, villains and victims. Everyone believes their subjective truth to be the objective truth, and clings to it firmly, as it determines their self-image and their self-worth.
Belief plays a key role in business: it determines choices and propels the decisions of buyers and sellers, regulators and shareholders, investors and entrepreneurs, employers and employees, vendors and customers.
It determines how we do business, and what ultimately gets done.
As is belief, so is behaviour, so is business. This is Business Sutra. We can call it the 3B framework. Sutra is a string that connects the dots; here the string connects belief with business.
Why How What
Non-measurable Measurable Measurable
Intent Task Target
Management science, however, steers clear of belief. A child of the scientific revolution and the industrial era, it shuns the intangible, subjective and non-measurable. It pays greater value to objectivity. Hence, greater attention is paid to institutional values, arrived at by a team through consensus following a logical process. These belong to no one but every constituent member of the institution is contractually obliged to adhere to them, even at the cost of personal beliefs, at least during office hours. Organizational values are mapped to particular behaviours: the assumption is that certain behaviours reflect certain beliefs.
This assumption allows the pretender to thrive in corporations, for as long as you are polite or mindful of protocol and respectful of rules, no one really cares what you feel or think. Belief may express itself in behaviour, but the reverse may
not be true. Respect (intangible belief ) may manifest in politeness (tangible behaviour), but politeness may not always reflect respect. When corporations speak of growth, they speak of institutional growth not individual growth. And growth is always seen in terms of accumulation of wealth or equity or skills, never in terms of emotion or intellect. By doing so the corporation invalidates the personal, celebrates the professional, and creates the divide between work and life. This is what dehumanizes corporations, and is the root cause of many of the problems facing organizations today: from lack of initiative and lack of ownership to the lack of ethics. Failure to recognize this is the greatest shortcoming of modern management studies. Despite the veneer of objectivity and logic, management science is itself firmly rooted in a cultural truth, the subjective truth of the West, indicated by its obsession with goals. Targets come first, then tasks, then people. The value placed on vision, mission, objectives, milestones, targets and tasks in modern business practice resonates with the Greek quest for Elysium, the heaven of heroes, and the biblical quest for the Promised Land, paradise of the faithful.
This is not surprising as the purveyors of management science are mostly engineers, bankers and soldiers from twentieth century North America, which is deeply entrenched in the Protestant work ethic, a unique blend of Greek and biblical beliefs. And like all believers, they are convinced that goal-orientation is logical, hence the universal solution to all business problems. But it is not so. In fact, there are cultures, like India, where this goal-orientation is seen as a problem, not a solution. This is obvious to any student of mythology. But who studies mythology in a world where most managers are engineers? Belief, Myth and Mythology
Belief is the seed from which sprouts every human enterprise, every culture, every act of human kindness and cruelty. Every belief is irrational and hence a myth. Therefore, the study of stories, symbols and rituals to decode the beliefs they communicate is called mythology. There are secular mythologies in the world, such as the stories, symbols and rituals of a nation state, or a corporation, as well as religious mythologies.
For the believer, his belief is objective truth; he therefore rejects the notion of myth, and shuns the subject of mythology, a key reason why belief remains an invisible unacknowledged lever in modern business practices. We convince ourselves that our beliefs are rational hence right, while those of others are irrational, hence wrong.
To have beliefs, we need imagination. Imagination springs from the neo-frontal cortex, or the enlarged part of the brain that is located behind the forehead. This exists only in human beings. Some animals, like the dolphin and the chimpanzee, may imagine, but nothing on the scale that humans can.
It comes as a surprise to most people that the imagination is a neurobiological function specific to the human species, not a universal phenomenon. It means accepting that every human being inhabits his own customized personalized subjective version of reality that no one else has access to.
Every animal looks at the world differently but the human gaze is especially different because the reality of nature is being constantly compared and contrasted with imaginary reality inside the head. We can control the subjective world in our head but not the objective one outside. This leads to conflict as the imagination seeks a world that is much more controllable, hence delightful.
Conflict is further amplified because every other human we encounter has their own version of imagined reality and each person is convinced that their imagined reality is the ‘correct’ version of reality. What is true then? This brings about awareness of the self (my view versus the view of others), and the need for language, creativity and reason (to communicate my view and convince others of my view).
Humans have the ability to control fire, water, plants as well as animals, something that no other living organism can do. But we struggle to control the human mind: our mind as well as the mind of those around us. Control makes us feel powerful; lack of control makes us feel powerless. And so we are left to wonder: what is the purpose of our abilities, who are we, and what happens after death? Nature offers no answers. We only have our beliefs to guide us, structure our lives, give it meaning, and direction. Most people follow beliefs prescribed by others; a few design their own. As we agree upon what life can be or should be, we are driven to work, establish businesses, create civilizations and leave behind legacies.
Publisher : Aleph Book Company; Second edition (16 September 2015)
Language : English
Paperback : 448 pages
ISBN-10 : 9384067547
ISBN-13 : 978-9384067540
Item Weight : 520 g
Dimensions : 2.46 x 13.97 x 21.59 cm
Country of Origin : India
