World Class Management Based on Mahabharata
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WORLD CLASS MANAGEMENT BASED ON MAHABHARATA Catherine Diana A Assistant Professor, Dept. of MBA, Sri Krishna Institute of Management, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India . ABSTRACT— One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is Holy Gita which is the outcome of Mahabharata. The Bhagavad-Gita is preached in the battle fields’ kurukshetra by lord Krishna to Arjuna, as counseling to do his duty, while multitudes of men stood by waiting. Mahabharata has got all the management tactics to achieve the mental equilibrium and to over come any situation. Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in government. In all organizations, where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort. The modern management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad-Gita. There is one major difference. While western management thought too often deals with problems at material, external and peripheral levels, the Mahabharata helps to tackles the issues from the grass root level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results. The critical question in all managers’ minds is how to be effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in Bhagavad-Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that “you must try to manage yourself”. Key words: Bhagavad-Gita, management principles, quality of actions. 1. INTRODUCTION The Bhagavad-Gita , written thousands of years ago, enlighten us on all managerial techniques leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of affairs in place of the conflict, tension, poor productivity, absence of motivation and so on, common in most of Indian enterprises today and probably in enterprises in many other countries. Within its eighteen chapters it revealed a human drama. This is the experience of everyone in this world, the drama of the ascent of man from a state of utter dejection, sorrow and total breakdown and hopelessness to a state of prefect understanding, clarity, renewed strength and triumph. Mahabharata, one of the greatest epics of all times, is not just the story of a fratricidal war or a fount of wisdom for philosophers; it is also a comprehensive manual on strategy. The Mahabharata deals with eternal values and truths, making its message relevant today too. The analogy between kingship and leadership and the application of kingship to modern business practices, makes Vyasa’s epic poem a pertinent handbook on management. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. The western management philosophy failed to ensure the betterment of individual life and social welfare and lead to the poor quality of life for many. Hence there is an urgent need for management – by- values that can be done through the management concepts in the light of Bhagavad-Gita. The holy Gita makes practical psychology of transformation, it offers us the tools to connect with our deepest intangible essence and we must learn to participate in the battle of life with right knowledge. 2. Management guidelines from Mahabharata Kauravas Pandavas Bhishma Arjuna Drona Bhima Karna Dhrshtadyumna Shalya Abhimanyu Kripacharya Ghatotkach Ashwatthama Shikhandi Duryodhan Satyaki 2.1 Preparation The two generals of the Mahabharata Kauravas and Pandavas started preparing for the war. The preparation was started when the pandavas were exiled for 13 years. Karna an efficient member of Kauravas team went on a country wide military mission subdued the different kingdoms and acquired wealth, whereas Pandavas turned their attention to improving over their weakness. Arjuna set out a mission to acquire the Divyastras. Thus the first lesson of management science is to identify the weakness and start preparing to overcome those things to achieve success. “Turn your weakness into your strength”. 2.2 Allies Kauravas had centralized power system, the greatest empire of the time, but not many powerful allies, except from old relations from far off places like Gandhara, Sindhu, and Kambodia .The pandavas had no wealth and no power of their own at that time, but they had powerful allies all over India .They had allies in Panchala through marriage with Darupadi, Dwaraka through marriage with Arjuna and Subhadra, and in Magadh, Chedi, Kasi, Kekaya, Matsya etc the powerful allies helped a lot at the time of war. “Make Powerful Allies” 2.3 Leadership Kauravas followed centralized leadership .One head of army at a time, who has supreme authority of 11 akshouhini of army. Pandavas had only seven akshouhini and they had distributed leadership .Seven commanders for the seven divisions with Dhrshtadyumna as the commander in chief, Arjuna as supreme commander and Krishna as Arjuna’s charioteer and counselor, which helped them to share their responsibilities, to destroy their enemies in a well planned manner. One akshouhini is equal to 21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 horses and 1, 09,350 foot soldiers (in a ratio of 1:1:3:5). “Share your responsibilities” 2.4 Team Spirit Kauravas had no team spirit; they all fought their individual wars. Bhishma fought for his vow to protect the throne Hastinapur. Drona and Kripa, they owed allegiance to the throne, Shalya simply cheated by Duryodhana to be there, was originally a Pandavas ally. They did not gel with each other. Pandavas was one team, had one goal. As men, they all had huge respect for Krishna and Yudhisthira. While as warriors they were in complete awe of Bhima and Arjuna, most of them were close relatives, more than that they all were part of the decision making process. It was their common war “Team work succeeds where individual effort fails” 2.5 Individual Motives In Kauravas team except Duryodhana, nobody wanted war .All the four main generals had strong ties with the Pandavas. Bhishma the great grandfather does not want to kill Pandavas, he decided to kill a thousand soldiers each day, Drona the mentor of Pandavas decided only to capture them. Shalya the maternal uncle of Pandavas loved them and covertly helped them by humiliating Karna. Karna, the brother of Pandavas promised not to kill any of the other Pandavas .Thus the kauravas team became a team of traitors. Whereas Pandavas had a common goal and individuals had their individual targets. Their individual agenda became the team’s agenda. Like Dhrshtadyumna: Drona, Shikhandi: Bhishma, Arjuna: Karna, Bhima: duryodhana and his brothers, Sahadeva: shakuni and his sons. “Get the right man for the right job” 2.6 Commitment Bhishma a part of Kauravas team, himself gave away the secret of killing him to the Pandavas, he prolonged the war by killing only inconsequential soldiers. Drona too gave away the secret by saying he was invulnerable as long as he held a weapon, Karna did not kill Yudhisthira and Bhima when he got the chance, and all of these are because of the big emotional attachment, which doubts the commitment to job. In Pandavas’ team Abhimanyu, a 16 year kid ventured beyond enemy lines alone. This was suicide mission but he still went in and took a great part of the army down with him. Ghatotkach even in death took with him almost half of the army, Yudhisthira, he knew, he could not face karna in war, but still went in to set an example. Thus it’s clear that, to win, the interest of individual should never exceed the team interest. “The best man for a job is not the one with the best capabilities but one with the greatest commitment” 2.7 Right Managers Pandavas took up calculated risk of knowing the weakness of their enemies and exploit them. They were ready to sacrifice everything in order to have Krishna – The greatest Crisis manager the world has seen, in their battle field, who empowered the Pandavas because of their ethical values and committed nature. Yudhisthira, the low key strategist, on the first day of the war, he played a master game, went over to the enemy side to seek blessings from elders. In reality he made a covert deal with them, where in all of them agreed to help him and unfolded the secrets of defeating them. While coming back he took a calculated risk. He made an offer to all the assembled people to change sides if they wanted to. He knew well of the lack of cohesiveness among the Kauravas .Yuyutsu, son of Dhrtarashtra crossed over to the Pandavas. This exposed the weakness of the kauravas for all to see. “Inspire, invigorate, and counsel your team in moments of need” 2.8 Know the reality The Princes of Kauravas were brought up in the comfort of the royal palace, matured on romanticized ideals of power, fame, courage and valor and they had no experience of ground reality. Pandavas spent their greater part of their lives in poverty, spent their childhood in the Himalayan foot hills among Rishis. Thirteen years of exile, this includes 12 years of vanvas and 1 year of agyatvas. Experienced ground reality and had contact with people from various strata of the society like Sannyasis(celibate monks), Acharyas(householders, teachers), poor Brahmanas , lower caste potter, different races of people, Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Apsaras, Nagas and people from different regions like uttarkuru, Bengal etc, they had the sense of sharing and brotherhood with everyone.