A New Mantra

Suddenly, Hindu seers are management consultants, and management consultants are sounding more like Hindu prophets. At Himachal Futuristic Communication (HFCL), the directors and the staff get together for an hour in the evening on every alternate Thursday for classes conducted by Yogi Brahmanandji (who also conducts classes for army personnel at Ladakh). When high-profile consultant Dr Mrityunjay Athreya talks to his clients, his speech is peppered with age-old Indian concepts like Amritasya Putrah (the children of immortality), tamas (sloth) and satva (refined excellence).

The Mount Abu-based Hindu women’s order, Brahmakumaris, has conducted self-managing leadership classes for more than 120 employees ranging from clerical staff to the president at Godrej & Boyce’s locks division in Bombay. They teach the use of raja-yoga to improve the power of listening, tolerance, adaptability, decision-making, cooperation and withdrawal. Says Edul Kalwachia, president of the locks division: "Backed by about 3,500 branches all over the country, Brahmakumaris take out ‘car yatras’ in different cities. Industrialists who watch them, invite them."

At IIM Calcutta, the Management Centre for Human Values (MCHV), dedicated to developing a management philosophy rooted in the Indian ethos, will be formally inaugurated soon. The MCHV is funded by industry, and has already raised Rs 2.5 crore from enthusiasts like the Tata group, Unit Trust of India, the Housing Development Finance Corporation, the Bhilwara group and Indian Oil. "The demand for conducting workshops and courses is so high that at times I am incapable of coping with the stream of requests," says Professor S.K. Chakraborty, who is the brain behind the MCHV.

Is this just a fad? A neat gimmick by consultants trying to grab the attention of an insecure Indian business community? Are they the same much-bandied-about Japanese concepts dressed up as new improved panacea? Or are we on the threshold of a peculiarly Indian management philosophy which will give our industry a competitive edge?

The proponents claim it is indeed a distinct philosophy which is better than existing management schools of thought and not just an alternative. Western management concepts, they say, have facilitated material achievement but the fallout negates their success. "The West is succeeding and yet unhappy," says Athreya. The West’s stupendous levels of consumerism have left the planet wounded environmentally. Besides, high rates of divorce, violence, and child abuse belie the success story. "Their calling us underdeveloped is a shame because they themselves are underdeveloped in many ways. They need to learn from us about mental peace and happiness," says Arun Wakhlu, managing director of the Pune-based management training and consulting firm, Pragati Learning System.

The West, however, is not being condemned entirely. "Ours is not a blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress," adds Wakhlu. It is an attempt to synthesise the logical, quantitative and financial concepts which have been developed in the West, and Indian culture-based approaches of dealing with the human aspect of business. And, says Janak Mehta, managing director of the Delhi-based TQM Consultants India: "The West may not talk about spiritualism but they practise it more than we do. For an individual in India, between the organi-sation and himself, who is more important? As far as the three fundamental values of Indian philosophy—respect for people (ahimsa), self control ( brahmacharya), and intellectual honesty (satya)—are concerned, the West is ahead of us." Well, the back-to-the-roots trend which is threatening to turn into a major management movement intends to narrow that gap.

At its simplest level, something like yoga or meditation helps a worker—blue-collar or white—overcome the physical and mental corrosion brought on by long work hours, over-eating and stress. "Meditation has benefited our employees a lot. Self-introspection helps in self-discipline and self-improvement," says R.S. Dabas, general manager, corporate HRD, at HFCL. "And better individuals make a more productive and cost-effective organisation."

At NOIDA, near Delhi, the Maharishi Institute of Management, part of the group founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, besides imparting regular business education, trains its students in yogic techniques described in Vedic literature for developing human consciousness. "Our students meditate for 20 minutes each in the morning and afternoon," says Scott R. Herriott, a visiting consultant to the institute, who is vice-president and professor at the Maharishi University of Management at Chicago in the US. "We don’t preach human values or ethical principles in business as the term spiritualism may suggest. Our aim is to develop the consciousness, and alertness of the individual through transcendental meditation. The students find tremendous improvement in themselves within the first few months."

The group reaches out to corporates through its Maharishi Corporate Development Programme (MCDP). Tim Jones, the international director of MCDP at the group headquarters at Maharishi Vedic University in Holland, elaborates on the gains: "It results in increased intelligence, creativity, learning and problem-solving abilities—unlocking the immense potential of the human mind, only 5-10 per cent of which, on an average, is used."

Agrees Dabas of HFCL: "A lot of human potential lies unutilised because of the mindset. We concentrate on the strength of a person." Of the 15 companies in the group, eight have joint ventures with foreign partners, yet no liquor or non-vegetarian food is served at their meetings and parties. The promoters mix around with the staff. The canteen is common for all. Not a single person has been sacked so far.

The back-to-the-roots trend has a lot to do with the current business environment. "Recent Indian history has gone through a discontinuity of 200 years of foreign colonial influences and 40 years of changing ideologies," says Athreya. "With economic liberalisa-tion, and in the context of a fiercely competitive global economy, India has to focus on distinctive strengths. We are now in a position to re-establish links with the heritage, ethos and cultural strengths of one of the world’s most enduring civili-sations, with a continuity over thousands of years." In the wrong economic model that pre-liberalisation that India followed, says Athreya, "two mayas blinded us: one, that science and technology can solve all problems and two, the Government will take care of everything".

Devotees claim that the fruits of the spiritual strategy are already showing up on the balance sheet. Says R. Subramaniam, chairman of the Madras-based Sterling group: "Operating on Veda-ntic concepts has resulted in not less than 100 per cent growth every year for every company in the group, and corresponding profits too. Besides, several management consultants who worked with our companies found our employees happier than those in other organisations."

 Says Anil Sachdev, managing director of Eicher Consultancy Services (whose spiritual guru is Swami Chinmayananda, a journalist who got interested in spiritualism while researching to expose self-styled godmen): "At Eicher, we were trying to make people bring about change. But we realised after talking to the Japanese that the change has to be brought about within oneself." Employees, especially at the shop floor-level, can imbibe principles related to the Indian scriptures and mythology better than the systems borrowed from the Japanese.

"A lot of Indian examples borrow heavily from Indian mythology, literature and folk songs," explains Sachdev. For instance, workers could be made to understand the underlying philosophy of vishwakarma puja (machine worship). Instead of chanting mantras, they should understand the sig-nificance of what they are saying. "Tat twam asi (Thou art that) means the machine has to be treated like an extension of oneself. The sense of care will automatically follow and keep the machine in good condition," says Athreya. "Why should we cite examples of Lee Iacocca and Jack Welch when we have role models like Arjun and Bharat." Leaders should strive to emulate Lord Shiva, who drank all the poison that came up from the bottom of the ocean during the amrit manthan. Similarly, leaders should encourage debates and bring out all the resistance that there may be to an organisational change.

"Our scriptures have sensible concepts," says Athreya. "The father-son conflicts in Ranbaxy Laboratories would not take place if at 60-65 years the father opted for vanaprastha and left the business for the next generation. So much of the Chugh versus BAT problem was rooted in personal hubris and anger, which Indian philosophy condemns throughout." He believes that the recourse to spiritualism will give rise to an Indian approach to management which will be based on concepts such as Moksha—"not just in the other world but in this world, to release oneself from bondage". Says he: "We don’t have to imitate the Russians, the Americans or the Japanese. We can’t succeed by imitating. Indians have been made to feel apologetic, over the years, about their history. But, now there is an element of con-fidence. The combination of pride and threat will make us follow something distinct, and congruent with our ethos, which will give us a competitive edge."

"Our aim is not to copy but to develop our own philosophy," says Dabas. "The West concentrates too much on individualism and the Japanese on teamwork. We should be able to develop something where both can be balanced." Adds Sachdev: "Indian philosophy is the root cause of the Japanese economic miracle." For that matter, even the teachings of western thinkers find reflections in Indian scriptures. For example, the three pillars of corporate planning—vision, mission and strategy—find their parallels in gyan, bhakti, and karma (see box).

Management thought grounded in Indian philosophy is suddenly big in the West too. After all, didn’t Steve Jobs, who set up Apple Computer, get the idea of making easy-to-use desktop computers while on a self-discovery trip as a hippie to India? Chakraborty of the MCHV has conducted six-week-long courses on management effectiveness and the Indian ethos at the Stockholm Business School and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Silicon Valley, the nerve-centre of the world’s infotech industry, probably has more meditation centres than any other place in the world. Management gurus like Peter Senge and Stephen Covey have drawn liberally from Indian texts in their quest for the learning organisation and ethical management, respectively. Peter Block, author of best-selling management books, The Empowered Manager and

Stewardship, visits India to "charge his spiritual batteries". Is this how the West will be won?