Indian Ethos

Explain Relevance of Indian Ethos

The philosophy of Indian Ethos is highly regarded by scholars in the management field as one among the most efficient ways of Management, advocating implementation of the learning from the Hindu Culture, Vedic Wisdom and other Indian Values in dealing with all the issues at professional as well as personal front. Indian ethos can be relevant to the management through the following aspects:

1. Holistic way of life
• The key to the Management through Indian Ethos is The Holistic view of life ie looking at everything in totality without compromising the human values at the cost of overly ambitious professional goals. This relates to the attitude of top management towards ethics and values. Top management must have belief in value-oriented holistic management of business. Management must help all stakeholders to realize their expectations and desires. This not only guarantees success and a win – win situation for all in present, but also prepares a solid foundation for a sustainable business in a long term horizon.
2. Self-management
• The manager must understand how to manage and control himself. He cannot control and manage others without exercising self-management and comprehending its intricacies. It is like using an Ayurvedic medicine, which takes care of an illness by treating the root cause of the problem leading to holistic health of a person, unlike allopathic treatment, which cures only the symptoms of a disease and is inefficient at curing it permanently by removing the ultimate root cause of the disease.
3. Long term goals
• Indian Ethos focuses on long term goals rather than short term profit. It says the means to accomplish an end is as important as the end itself. Today various corporate organisation judge their employees on the basis of the performance indicators reflecting in the annual business figures, but they do not realise the value of means and ways employed for achieving those figures, which is more important to sustain the business performance year after year. Indian Ethos says that long term sustainability of any business depends totally on how strong its processes are, and whether the company depends on external market environment & customer demands to achieve its business goals or it has really laid down certain set of processes, certain marketing and promotional campaigns, trained and developed its employees for a long term commitment to sustain the business goals in long run.
4. Meditation
• Meditation attempts to resolve many complex problems of management and organisation demanding higher consciousness. Dynamic meditation is a process of transforming lower consciousness into higher consciousness. This leads to better decisions, better implementation of those decisions and growing awareness about the business role in elevating the life of its various stakeholders.
5. Process oriented approach
• If the processes are strong and concrete, if the employees are motivated and dedicated to follow them wholeheartedly, if ethics are the central values of a company, it is destined to succeed in long run no matter what the challenges of the external market. Even if the organisation does not have control over the market and the economy of the nation, but it can surely have capabilities to strengthen their own processes and prepare themselves to cope up with the changes in the market scenario.
6. Spirit of mutual cooperation
• Indian ethos proposes the concept of ‘Paraspar Bhav Yantah’. It is believed that upliftment of the whole society can never be achieved by competing with one another but can only be achieved by collective efforts of all cooperating with each other, trying to do better than their previous performances, thus progressing towards displaying excellence. This will happen only when we will stop depending on other’s shortcomings for our success and collaborate and cooperate with others to utilise each other’s strengths and expertise.
7. The process of Mind Enrichment
• All the ancient Hindu Scriptures advocates the holiness or sanctification of mind before taking up any important assignment. This is done to confirm that the goals desired for that assignment are accomplished, and one may not lose sight for his goals in the midway itself. As per vedic lessons, mind is an important and effective tool, which one may use to achieve his goals in life. Famous Patanjali Yog Sutras which have been guiding one to practice Ashtanga Yoga for achieving its final stage of super – consciousness have prescribed two essential steps to achieve before taking it to advanced steps. These are ‘Yama’- Purity of Mind & ‘Dhyana’- Meditation to achieve concentration of mind. This is what can be defined as Enrichment of human mind.
• If a person has control over his mind and is self motivated, he does not need an external incentive to do his work. Rather, he motivates others by setting himself as an example for them to emulate. Indian Ethos believes as we do not have control on the incidents of ever changing world, then the only option that is left with us is to control ourselves, introspect, review and act on our own strategies to achieve a goal. This can be achieved only if we have developed a habit of mind enrichment where no external stimuli can affect our attitude & willingness to succeed in our assignments. This is what is called by the vedic scriptures as Skills in Action – ‘Yog Karmasu Kausalam’.

Explain Principles practiced by Indian companies.

1. Each Soul is a potential God
• A human being has a soul, a spark of the Divine. The divine resides in the heart of a person. The Divine means perfection in knowledge, wisdom and power. Therefore a human being has immense potential power or energy for self – development. Thus human efforts can achieve even an apparently impossible goal and convert the impossible into a reality. The partnership of God and Man can bring about extraordinary or miraculous results; only if man chooses willingly to collaborate with God and actively participates in the affairs of the society by right action under his guidance and grace. He can bring about not only personal development, harmony, happiness but also prosperity of his own organization and the society without injustice to others.
• To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of all creation as oneself.
• – Gandhi
• A true devotee of the Lord hence need not have any cause to worry because the Lord will always take care of him whenever he has any trouble or worries. We need to have faith that God is always present to bail us out of all our problems. There is a wonderful quotation that goes..
• “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
• God is present in every living being and he, who serves others, serves God.
• – Swami Vivekananda
2. Karma Yoga
• It is yoga of selfless service to others. Karma Yoga is all about identifying your priorities and trying to achieve them. Also, a person should have accountability i.e. he should always hold only himself responsible for whatever goes right or wrong. This brings about the union of human being with the Divine.
• Gita says that do your duty without ego and without calculations of gain or loss. One should believe in Nishkama Karma i.e. fruits of work should not be thought of while performing the duty.
• The memorable words of Gita are “ To work only you have the right and you have no right to the fruits of work”. However, this does not mean that one should work day and night and the returns that he gets should be almost negligible. What the Gita tries to say is that let not the fruits of action motivate you as they might just divert your attention from work. When you are doing a job, put your heart and soul in to it. One has no control over the future hence never waste your present in useless dreams of future hopes and fears of present actions.
• Why Do I Work?

5. For my own salvation and personal growth.
6. For the good of the world.

• The inner joy of doing something gives the doer a sense of achievement and also helps him in respecting himself more than he used to. Money is important but running behind money all the time leads to tension, stress and total loss of peace. Self-motivation can assure self-development. When work is performed without passion, hatred, arrogance and desire we have individual development and social good.
• Indians always had two great truths of successful, harmonious and happy life :

9. Divinity of life can be used through self-development for personal growth and also for social welfare.
10. I cannot cheat you and nature without cheating myself. Working for harmony and peace results in a sense of fulfillment.
11. Karma Yoga is not just meant for the common man but also for leaders and managers who if act responsibly will in turn influence the behavior of a number of people.
2. Yogah Karmashu Kaushalam

• Yoga means excellence at work. Seek to perform your assigned duty or work in an excellent manner.
• Kaushalam denotes doing work with devotion and without attachment i.e. without being a work-a-holic.
• Such detached attitude enhances its values and improves the concentration and skill of the worker. You work with smartness, determination and ability. Your head, heart and soul co-operate with your hands. You do not hanker over the fruits of action. You have no anticipation of reward, or personal gain. You become a tool of God to perform the work. Any work carried out with full concentration, dedication and with all abilities that a person has, becomes valuable and the person also becomes valuable to others as well as to society.
• In total quality management (TQM) Karma Yoga and Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam provide valuable contributions. Under this slogan we have one hundred percent concentration coming from within. The extrinsic incentives e.g., money, other perks, etc. play a very minor role as motivators.
• Yogah karmashu Kaushalam, Samatvam yoga uchyate: He who works with calm and even mind achieves the most.
3. Self discover / Know yourself - Who are U?
• It is wisdom to know others. It is enlightenment to know one's self." -Lao-Tzu
• Self Discover : To know yourself is your first priority.
• How can you set goals, go about life, and have relationships if you don't know who you are or what you want? You really can't.
• To not know yourself leads to confusion and wasting much time in hit and miss situations. We tend to underestimate the importance of knowing ourselves. Many of us go through each day reacting to events and just getting by rather than making conscious choices based on who we are and what we want.

• When we don't know where we are headed it's hard to set goals, get motivated and determine the best course of action. Before we can do any of these things we must establish who we are.
• To know yourself :
• Be aware of your strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes
• Observe and be aware of your moods, reactions and responses to what is happening around you
• Become aware of how these moods and emotions affect your state of mind
• Examine how you interact with others
• Observe how your environment affects you
• Knowing and understanding yourself better, in turn, leads to better decision making, setting and reaching appropriate goals and altogether living more productively. All of us are part of the supreme power (God) and hence all of us have all the divine qualities like integrity, forbearance, patience, courage, loyalty, forgiveness, service attitude in us. So, if we try to develop ourselves by improving our qualities, we will not only make ourselves happy but also the whole society (world) we live in.
• So, Understand Yourself!!
3. Equal Importance to Subjectivity / Objectivity
• Indian ethos for management distinguishes between subject and object.
• Subject is subtle and intangible.
• Object is concrete and tangible or visible.
• We have the concept of the third eye, the eye of wisdom. It can see even that which the normal two eyes cannot. It can see the intangible i.e. invisible.
• Human and ethical values or qualities such as courage, vision, social awareness, fearlessness, integrity, pure and clear mind, truth, etc. are subjective, subtle and intangible concepts. These subjective or subtle qualities are as important as money, materials, machines, information or data as well as human skills. Inner resources of human beings are more powerful than external resources.
• Creator is subjective. Creation is objective. Insight i.e., creator is more important than Outsight i.e., creation. Our body, senses, intellect, mind, etc., are objective, seen, tangible. But our soul atman is unseen, intangible, subtlest and subjective. Hence, wisdom manager/ worker is much more important and valuable than knowledge manager/ worker.
• Therefore, manager must develop his third eye, ‘Dyana Chakshu’, the eye of Vision intuition, insight, foresight and such other divine qualities or values. This is the essence of Indian ethos for management.
4. Self –development
• Self development is a continuous process. It continues throughout one's life. For those seeking to develop themselves, the progress of the process, itself, is thrilling.
• Development, like virtue, is its own reward. Right from the time an individual enters an organization, to the time he retires, he has to continually update his knowledge and skills to maintain his effectiveness. All development starts with self-development, and hence, self development remains the essence of human resource development (HRD) of every organization.
5. Perfection in work
• Bhagwad Gita emphasizes that while doing your present duty; we should use our judgment and perform with utmost concentration.
• Do work without expecting what will be the result.
• Doing our work perfectly is in our control, so do it with total dedication.
• While doing something think of its effect or benefit to the society, your organisation, to the business ethics, service quality.
• If we take action to the best of our ability and everyone’s interest, we can attain perfection.
• So, Do the work for the sake of your organisation result will follow automatically.!!
• When Sachin Tendulkar touched the milestone of 35th century to create history Sunil Gavaskar (previous record holder of 34th test centuries) described him "the closest thing to batting perfection the game has seen". Sachin got an immortal place in world cricket with an attitude to enjoy hard work and aim for perfection. He is totally dedicated to the game, and ready to give his best to the game. And he uses his experience and brain to shine out. Although he is an icon in cricket world yet he is always at the beck and call of his coach and enjoys practice at the net.
• Pioneer of modern Indian industry billionaire Dhirubhai Ambani also said," If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow."
• Success secret of Shahrukh khan - It is almost impossible to achieve anything in life without a strong dose of discipline and hardwork. Directors like him because he reaches on the sets on time, is very cooperative with them, and works very hard on his work. Also he makes everyone around him feels special and therefore they support him whole-heartedly .Due to his habit of discipline and hard work he is respected everywhere. He is a shining example of this quotation of
• Albert Einstein: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
• Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions— Why am I doing it? What the results might be? And Will I be successful?-Chanakya
6. Present moment
• Future depends on what action we are taking at present.
• When we dwell too much in the past, it affects our future. In the same way, when we get too carried away by thinking about the present, we lose our focus on the work at hand. Now, why do we dwell too much in our present? Because we feel that it would affect our future. In this way, what we exactly end up doing is just not thinking about the present at all, as we become future conscious. In the end, what we manage is neither.
• The present moment is what we have right now, it won’t be there after a moment!!and hence it becomes utmost important to meticulously and worthily spend the moment at present. When we keep worrying about our present, we make it our past, and when we rack our brains about the future, we still let the present slip away.
• Remember!!!
• Think only about what is there in front of you at present.
• We cannot change the past or predict future.
• So, have total focus and involvement in present situations and challenges.
• Don’t take unnecessary stress of work, take it as a play.
7. Self motivation
• Self-motivation occurs when a person has the desire and willingness to do something and is internally motivated to do it. One of the most difficult aspects in life is to remain constantly motivated under any circumstances. It is rather difficult as situations and people often come our way to water our fire of enthusiasm, or they bring gushing winds to blow out the flames. And under these circumstances we need to fight harder to keep the flames ablaze.
• Help may come from various sources, but the fact is that one is motivated only when they wish to be motivated. There has to be that desire to want to be on enthusiastic side of motivation. Incentives, rewards, achievements, praises, etc., are all external forces that function as motivators, but yet there is nothing more powerful than self motivation. In fact, there are people who achieve all they want to, but yet there is a spark missing – the spark that actually drives them into action – the intrinsic motivation that keeps them smiling.
• No one can encourage us for long.
• Nobody can encourage us more than our self.
• “Work should be worship “.
• If we love the work we do it will bring happiness and effectiveness.
• “Do what you love to do and love what you are doing”.
8. Day to Day balanced life
• Indian believes in spiritual power. Spirituality helps us to treat everyone equally, respect, love them and understand them. Hence in India there is a fine blend of spirituality with materialism.
• A wise manager should have balanced life, should be contented and happy person.
• He should not attach himself to materialistic gains, because he will be angry if he does not gain them.
• An angry man does not take right decision.
• The manager should do his duty whole heartedly, without materialistic attachment.
• He should understand work situation, fellow –beings and be ready to provide best possible service.
• He should have balance between his personal satisfaction and his duties.
• The following two verses from The Gita, which reflects the Samattwa and the Nirdwandwa approaches:
• ‘sukha-sukhe same kartva – labhalabhau jayajayau…’ [To regard pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as alike]
• ‘yo na hrsyati na dvesti – na socati na kankasati – subhsubha – parityagi…’ [He who neither rejoices nor dislikes nor grieves nor desires, who renounces good and evil]
• To live a balanced and fulfilling personal life (by the way that’s the purpose of coming to work) we need to utilize our time very effectively at work so we can enjoy the benefits of our labour in our personal time. Late hours at work, increasing stress levels and the general feeling of breakdown can all be traced to ineffective time management.
• “Your mind is great friend if you control it But your mind is your greatest enemy if it controls you.”- Bhagwad Gita
9. Dignity of Work
• Dignity of work is much important as far as Indian ethos is concerned.
• No work is great or small.
• Each work whether it is a peon’s job or General Manager’s job, is of equal importance, worthy & honorable.
• To become an effective organisation , make employees realize dignity of work.
• It lays stress on “Sarvabhutastha Atmanam Sarvabhutani Chatmani” which means to treat all as equals.
• The organisation need to give emphasis on how one is performing. & must respect the individual who work with integration and dedication.
• See how well you do the work, not what work you do.
• Archet dana manabhyam : Worship people not only with material things but also by showing respect to their enterprising divinity within.
• It can be observed that in many corporate as well as government offices, employees working at a lower post are more respected by everybody in the organization on the basis of their conduct, skills and experience. In the Indian culture too, we see old servants treated with utmost respect by their young bosses.
• Companies like TATA conduct a performance management system process by which the deserving employees get rewarded irrespective of the positions they hold in the company.
10. Holism in management
• The Holistic approach in management based on spiritual principle of unity, oneness, non-dual concept speaks about an integrated human personality of self-developed manager and worker can assure best and competent management of any enterprise, involving collective works and efforts.
• Ramkrishnna order founded by Swami Vivekananda works on the motto that “Atmano Mokshartham Jagat Hitaya Cha” (i.e. Attain perfection in individual life as well as for the welfare of the world).
• Indian management believes that we all are inter-connected!!
• So, we should live and work in peace and understand each other.
• We should behave in the same way, we expect from others.
• Efficiency and effectiveness in an organisation will increase only when there is co-operation, team –spirit and positive energy in employees.