Management Guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita
Effectiveness is doing the right things. Efficiency is doing things right. The general principles of effective management can be summed up as:
Forming a vision, Planning the strategy to realise the vision, Cultivating the art of leadership, Establishing institutional excellence, Building an innovative organization, Developing human resources, Building teams and teamwork, Delegation, motivation, and communication, Reviewiang performance and taking corrective steps when called for. Thus, 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 fundamanetalaquestion is found in the Bhagavad Gita; which repeatedly proclaims that" you must try to manage yourself". The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence .
. The despondency of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita is typically human. Sri . . Krishna, by sheer power of his inspiring words, changes Arjuna's mind from a
state of inertia to one of righteous action, from the state of what the French philosophers call "anomie" or even alienation, to a state of self-confidence in the ultimate victory of "dharma" (ethical action.)
When Arjuna got over his. despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna reminded him of the purpose of his new-found spirit of intense action - not for his own benefit, not for satisfying his own greed and desire, but for the good of many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics over unethical actions and of truth
. over untruth.
Sri Krishna's advice with regard to temporary failures is, "No doer of good ever ends in misery." Every action should produce results. Good action produces good results and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore, always act weiland be
. rewarded. All clouds will vanish. Light will fill the heart and mind. I assure him of this. This is the message of Holy Gita.
The purport is not to suggest discarding of the Western model of Efficiency, dynamism and striving for excellence but to tune these ideals to India's holistic attitude of "Lokasangraha" - for the welfare of a many, for the good of many. There is indeed a moral dimension to business life. What we do in business is no different, in this regard, to what we do in our personal lives. The means do not justify the ends. Pursuit of results for their own sake is ultimately selfdefeating. 'Niswartha' or selfness or selfish towards humanity, appreciation of the creator is the essence of success.
"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad - Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will d~rive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day,"
