It might be two years old, but this BusinessWeek article on “Karma Capitalism,” which I’ve just found, remains relevant. Corporate strategists of Indian descent are becoming increasingly popular, it says, and their advice, drawn from ancient texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, causes notable CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (such as Jeffrey Immelt of GE) to salivate. According to the article, it’s becoming the new Eastern management paradigm, replacing the hipness of Sun Tzu’s Art of War, drawing the business world into its comforting novelty. As then-Managing Director at Goldman Sachs Mark Tercek said in the article, “I think the Indians are on to something.”
On to something indeed. And we’ve been onto this something, whatever it may be, for millennia, as controversial self-help artists and strategic consultants, such as Deepak Chopra, have found to their profit. Highly-desired consultants, such as Vijay Govindarajan of Dartmouth’s Tuck Business School, drape old ideas in the modern buzzwords of “innovation” and “change,” uniting disparate fields and winning praise across corporate America. All this, says one of the interviewed management consultants, to create a new kind of capitalism, where corporations have a symbiotic relationship with the world around them.
After paring away the standard corporate fluff, the thing I find most striking is the implicit notion that Hindu scriptures have something different to offer for executives when compared other philosophical traditions. The underlying messages — treat your customers well, do good for society — don’t require much philosophical insight, and similar statements are present everywhere in the Christian tradition. It’s interesting that Eastern authorship strengthens the same ideas. I wonder why things like this fall in vogue among management.
The business world, flowing as it is with money, power, and prestige, sometimes appears to have its own rules for proper, successful conduct. The service these management consultants are providing — an extremely important and surprisingly obvious thing — is reminding executives that they are subject to the same laws for success as everyone else is.
Sometimes I am gripped with a desire for wealth or prestige, but then I remind myself that the achievements in my life of which I am most proud are those where I have fallen by making some moral mistake, and, in rising, developed virtue. Such achievements, being internal, are the ones that bring me the most happiness, and the ones that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I am glad that these management consultants are working to help people realize that.
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One Comment
This was an extremely interesting article!
The Gita has always been a personal favorite because of its complete relevance thousands of years after it was written. I have turned to the Gita many times during the stresses and frustrations of school – especially during the time of college applications in high school. Repeating to myself the message of Gita -do your duty without looking for the fruit of your actions – has helped me has put things in perspective and helped me through those difficult times.
It’s even more fascinating to know that the Gita can be applied to such large scale things – businesses.
For me, this article is a reminder of how much I cherish Hinduism for its flexibility and applicability to daily life.
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