THE FOURTH DIMENSION OF MANAGEMENT

M.S. Srinivasan

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CONTENTS Part I The Paradigms of Consciousness 1. Integral Management: Vision and the Path 2. Steering Higher Growth 3. The Five-Bottomlines of the Future 4. Beauty Incorporated: Aesthetic Ideal of Business 5. Introvert and Extrovert-A Deeper Perspective 6. Harvesting Human Growth: A Consciousness Approach 7. Motivation and Human Development: An Evolutionary Vision 8. Facets of Integrity: Individual and Corporate 9. Ethics, Values and the Bottomline 10. Leadership and Governance: An Integrated Perspective

Part-II Harnessing the Powers of Consciousness 1. Faculties of Consciousness 2. Development of Thinking Intelligence 3. Knowing by Feeling 4. Power of concentration for Improving Productivity Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 6

5. Art of Mindfulness for Enhancing Performance 6. Harnessing the Dynamic Faculties of Action 7. Charging the Human Dynamo 8. Management by Intuition Part-III Case Studies, Examples and Stories 1. Integral Leadership 2. Creative Compassion 3. Building a Responsible Business 4. Self-Awareness and Self-Management Appendix 1. Foundations of Integral Spirituality, Sri Aurobindo 2. Knowing Oneself, The Mother 3. Organizing our Consciousness, The Mother 4. Can Business Be Done With the Spiritual Attitude, Sri Aurobindo

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INTRODUCTION

Has management as a profession come to a dead end? The discipline of management is on the threshold of radical rethinking. A group of leading business and management thinkers and practitioners assembled in May 2008 to lay out a roadmap for reinventing management. The conference was organized by the Management Lab with the support of Mckinsy and Company. In a thoughtful article in Harvard Business Review, well-known management guru Gary Hamel presents the conclusions of the conference with a list of management challenges for the future. Gary Hamel argues that what is called as ―modern‖ management in its traditional form of theory and practice has reached the limits of its possibilities. The traditional goal of maximizing shareholder wealth is ―inadequate in many respects because it lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies.‖ And therefore, ―tomorrow‘s management practices must focus on the achievement of socially significant and noble goals.‖ However in the corporate world it is not enough to have noble and inspiring goals. The company should also be innovative and adaptable. This requires broadening the mental horizons of management with insights from ―fields as diverse as anthropology, political science, urban planning and theology.‖ There must also be a radical change in the language and practice of management from mundane and uninspiring terminology or ideals like ―efficiency‖, or ―advantage‖, to ―deeper, soul stirring ideals such as honor, truth, love, justice and beauty‖ which have ―long inspired human beings to extraordinary achievements and can no longer be relegated to the fringe of management.‖ Interestingly, Harvard Business Review recently put out a special issue, asking in the front page ―What great companies do differently?‖ with a brief answer, ―they create value for society, solve the world‘s problems and still make money too.‖ In an article in this issue, another leading management thinker and corporate sociologist, Rosabeth Moss Kanther, states, ―Articulating a purpose broader than making money can guide strategies and actions, open new sources of innovation and help people express corporate and personal values in their everyday work.‖ Thus, the new paradigm in management has to serve a noble purpose, create value for society, fulfill the higher needs of people and at the same time make money! This needs an integral approach to management which can embrace all the dimensions of the individual and the community-physical, vital, mental, moral and spiritual. The key to this integration lies not in external organisation but in inner Consciousness. This means we must harness all the power and faculties of human consciousness and allow them to express themselves freely and creatively in the outer life. In other words, an approach which moves outwards from within. This requires a reversal of our habitual, externalized approach to life. Most of us live in our externalized minds, in a world dazzled by the marvels of technology. For all our needs we seek external aids and instruments like books, teachers, mentors, gurus or the gizmos of technology. The student seeks for knowledge and information from books and the Internet. The teacher tries to externally impose learning on the student by pushing knowledge Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 8

and information into his cognitive throat.

The manager tries to enhance his efficiency,

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productivity or decision-making through process improvement techniques like six-sigma or data analysis. The leader tries to lead through an externally imposed authority with rules, reward and punishment. In relationships too, we try to resolve conflicts through outer expressions and behaviour. For health we seek a doctor or a healer. All these aids may be necessary and are undoubtedly helpful in our progress. But if we rely heavily or exclusively on these outer supports, we would prevent ourselves from exploring and harnessing the immense powers within our inner consciousness. Whatever we are seeking, in whatever field or activity, there are corresponding powers within our consciousness, which when fully manifested, can help us to achieve the highest effectiveness in that activity. For example, an executive instead of relying solely on data and numbers, if he develops his inner power of concentration and begins to intuitively understand the problems before him, he can considerably enhance his efficiency and productivity as a manager. And a leader, instead of relying on external authority and position, if he can develop his power of inner awareness and self-mastery, he will be a more effective and natural leader. As indicated earlier this doesn‘t mean rejecting external aids or technology. What we are asking for is a shift of emphasis in our approach from an excessive reliance on outer aids to a much greater reliance on inner powers, with external aids or technology as instruments or supports for expressing or enhancing the efficiency of inner powers. All our human potentialities lie within us. If the highest aim of Human Resource Development (HRD) is to develop and actualize the total and highest potential of the ―Human Capital‖ in the organization, the primary emphasis of HRD must shift from external organization to inner development of the powers, potentialities and faculties of human consciousness. The essence of a human being is consciousness. The world we create around us is the expression of our consciousness. The creative and the beautiful as well as the corrupt and degenerate are the outcome of our consciousness. The great thoughts and deeds of Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa are the result of their consciousness. Similarly, the scams of WorldCom and Satyam are also the result of corresponding consciousness. The quality of our consciousness is not determined by the IQ of our intellect. The swindlers behind most of the scams are high IQ guys. The super smart MBA‘s of Lehman Brothers and Anderson were not able to prevent these big companies from sinking into corruption and mismanagement. The quality of a person‘s consciousness depends on which part of the consciousness she lives. There are two parts in our consciousness. First is the lower physical-vital being driven predominantly by self-interest, material needs and sensuous desires, quite often degenerating into greed. The second is the higher mental, moral and spiritual being seeking for truth, beauty, goodness, harmony and unity. The corporate management or governance, to be truly effective and enduring, has to be based on this higher part of our human nature or consciousness. This book is a quest for such an integral approach to management based on a paradigm of consciousness, moving from within outwards and rooted in our higher self. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 10

In this integral approach, the primary stress is on awakening the deeper layers of our consciousness which is the source of our higher mind, ethical, aesthetic and intuitive faculties, and above all our spiritual self. If we want to create a new paradigm of management based on transforming values, we must make this greater self the pivot or centre of integration, around which all other parts of our being have to be organised. The aim of integral management is to make this higher self in us the conscious master of our physical, sensational, vital, emotional and dynamic faculties, in the individual as well as in the collectivity. This consciousness of our higher Self is the Fourth Dimension of performance. The first dimension of performance comes from the physical exertion of the body, like for example hard work which leads to quantitative output. The second dimension of performance is the result of vital energy and skill which leads to more efficiency or productivity. The third dimension of performance comes from the intellect which brings knowledge. The fourth dimension of performance comes from the consciousness of our higher self which leads to greater innovation, creativity, harmony and a higher quality of life and wellbeing. The integral approach to management aims at integrating all these four dimensions of performance but with an emphasis on the Fourth Dimension. This book is not an exhaustive treatise on integral management but only an initial framework for further studies and research on the subject. The first part of the book presents the central vision, basic principles and some methodologies of integral management. The second part contains a few case studies, examples and stories, which exemplify some aspects of integral management. In the Appendix you will find insightful articles of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on the principles and practices of integral spirituality, which is the foundation of integral management.

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Part-I

THE FUNDAMENTALS

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INTEGRAL MANAGEMENT: VISION AND THE PATH Business and Management practices are going through an evolutionary transition. Captains of business are under a barrel of fire. The recent spate of scams and meltdowns has eroded people‘s faith in business and its leaders. Globalization of business has added new complexities and problems, which require a new synthesis. Ethics, values, ecology, quality, customer satisfaction, innovation, balancing the needs of local cultures with global realities are some of the difficult issues facing contemporary business. There is a renewed questioning of existing objectives, scope and contents of management and a search for a greater and more fulfilling synthesis. In the human dimension too an increasing number of people in the corporate world, especially the creative and talented, are seeking for something more than money and career, for an inner fulfillment in the mental, moral and spiritual spheres. This is the context, which creates the need for a new approach to management that can lead to an integral fulfillment of all these trends and needs of the future. This article presents a vision and a path which can lead to such a higher synthesis in management. The Evolving Corporate World Let us take some brief snapshots of the evolving corporate world. When we look back at the early seventies, the dominant corporate values are shareholder value, market-share, profitmaximization, productivity, and competitive advantage. Looking again after another ten or fifteen years, you see some new values like quality, customer service, innovation, knowledgemanagement, and globalization gaining prominence. Presently we see another set of values like social responsibility, sustainability, ethics, and employee development, slowly gaining increasing acceptance among corporate leaders. A new concept, which is popular at present among business leaders, is ―triple-bottom line‖: economic, social and environmental. What is the meaning and significance of this change or evolution in values? Are the present values the highest possible ideals in management? Or is there something higher? What Next? And a Manager may ask, if there is something higher or a next step, why should I take it? How does it affect my bottom line or effectiveness? We can perhaps get some clues to answer these questions if we examine the corresponding or parallel evolution in terms of conception of human nature and motivation theories in management. According to Stephen Covey, evolution of management thought may be viewed in terms of three paradigms (1). First is the scientific-authoritarian paradigm of Fredrick Taylor, which viewed the human being as a physical man or a ―Stomach‖ seeking mainly for economic survival and security. In this paradigm, the path of motivation is through a system of punishments and rewards administered by an authoritarian management style. The second paradigm is that of the human relations school which conceived human beings as a ―heart‖ with emotional needs for appreciation, recognition and affection. The path of motivation lies in treating people with respect, decency, courtesy and kindness. The third paradigm views the human being as a ―mind‖ with its need for knowledge, self-expression and self-actualization. Here, the motivational strategy is based on providing sufficient autonomy and opportunity for Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 13

people to develop and express their mental potentials and talents and harness them for realizing organizational goals. This is the paradigm of the human resource development. The first, Taylorian paradigm is predominantly physical, the next human relations paradigm is social, and the third Human Resource Development paradigm is psychological. And finally, Stephen Covey presents his own principle-centred approach as a ―spiritual‖ paradigm. In this fourth paradigm a human being is viewed mainly as a ―soul‖ seeking for ―meaning.‖ According to Covey, the highest motivation happens when people are given the freedom and opportunity to use their talent to serve a meaningful moral cause. Thus, in terms of organizational development the highest conception arrived in modern management thought is the concept of the ―triple bottom line.‖ And in terms of human resource development it is the principle-centred paradigm of Stephen Covey. We are now in a better position to answer the question we have raised earlier. There is a meaning and pattern behind this change and evolution of values and conceptions in business and management thought. Modern business has gone through a process of natural evolution from the physical-economic, social-emotional to the mental-moral paradigm. Integral approach agrees with Stephen Covey that the next step has to be the spiritual paradigm. But in the integral view Covey‘s paradigm is not entirely spiritual; it is predominantly mental-moral, but it can be a very effective preparation for the spiritual. This brings us to the meaning of spirituality. In the spiritual paradigm the primary emphasis is on the awakening of the spiritual self in man, which is beyond his body, life and mind. But there are two kinds of spirituality. The first one rejects the life of body and mind and the world for a lonely spiritual salvation. The other embraces the life of body and mind and integrates them around the spiritual self. The paradigm of integral management is based on this second type of affirmative spirituality. However the integral view will add an evolutionary dimension to the spiritual vision. Individuals and collectivities are at various levels of development. All may not be ready for the spiritual life. We have to progress towards the idea through various stages. The integral approach will try to understand each human organism as it is in its present condition and help it to take the next higher step in evolution. The first step in this evolutionary journey is to understand the nature of the individual and the collectivity in an integral perspective. The Individual and the Organization: An Integral View In the integral conception, a human organism is a four-fold being with a body, life, mind and soul. Body is the outer most physical dimension of our being. The vital is the source of our sensations, feelings, emotions, desires, passion, and action and the vital energy that animates our body and mind. The mind, in the concept of integral psychology, is made of three parts - rational intelligence which reasons, judges, generates and discriminates ideas and concepts; the pragmatic mind, the source of professional competence and skills, and which works for the practical application of ideas and concepts; the ethical and aesthetic mind sensitive to higher values like truth, beauty, goodness and harmony. And finally the fourth dimension, the soul Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 14

beyond body and vital, above the rational mind, and deeper than the ethical and aesthetic mind is the seat of the higher universal consciousness of the Spirit. However, the primary emphasis of the integral approach is on the psychological and spiritual development of the individual. Psychological development means development of the pragmatic, rational, conceptual, dynamic, emotive, volitional, ethical and aesthetic faculties of the vital and mental being. Spiritual development means awakening the spiritual centre of our being and its higher supra-rational faculties, such as intuition, and makes it the conscious governor of our body, life and mind. Similarly, just like the individual, an organization or the collectivity has a body, life, mind and soul. A collectivity like an organization has a physical dimension made up of material structures like its buildings and machinery; a vital dimension made of its economic, social and political life and its relational power and wealth structures; a mental dimension made up of its information and knowledge structures, decision-making systems and its ideals, values and vision. And finally, every collectivity has a potential spiritual dimension which becomes an active force under the following conditions: first, when the founders of the organization are spiritual personalities with a spiritual consciousness and endow the organization or collectivity with a spiritual purpose; second, when the collectivity awakens to the spiritual dimension in the course of its evolution and its leaders give it a spiritual direction and purpose. This spiritual dimension, when it begins to manifests, will bring three intangible qualities to the organization: first, unity of consciousness beyond or independent of shared goals, values and vision; second, a distinctive psychological atmosphere of peace, harmony and wellbeing; third, a unique and inimitable collective genius. The integral aim of organizational development is thus to integrate the physical and vital life of the organization around its mental and spiritual dimension. In other words, organize the material, economic, social and political life around a progressive mental, moral, aesthetic or spiritual ideal. The central strategic thrust or the Key Result Area in this integral approach will be neither technology nor management techniques such as TQM nor six sigma, but a system of education and motivation based on an evolutionary vision of life. This doesn‘t mean neglecting or rejecting technology or management techniques, which are essential and indispensable to survive and prosper in the modern corporate world. But in the integral approach, systems and techniques have to subserve the values and ideals of human development. Nurturing People So the next step in our quest is to understand the guiding principles of human resource development in the light of an integral and evolutionary vision of human development. A person begins her evolution as a physical being with basic survival needs and instincts like food and sex. As she progresses further, she becomes the vital person with the urge or motives for action, relationships, power, wealth, achievement, enjoyment, success, conquest and expansion. Progressing still further, she becomes the mental person with motives for knowledge, and a seeking for understanding the higher aims, ideals and values like truth, beauty and goodness. As Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 15

she ascends to the highest levels of mental, moral and aesthetic development, she opens her consciousness to the spiritual dimension. In the integral approach, the main aim of education and motivation is to felicitate and accelerate this psychological and spiritual evolution of the human being from the physical, vital, and mental to spiritual consciousness, to awaken her to her spiritual self and the spiritual goals of evolution. This approach to motivation is based on the principle that every individual in the organization has to be awakened to the highest spiritual aim and destiny of life. But for practical purposes, each individual has to be helped to progress gradually towards the next immediate step or stage in the evolutionary ladder, from the physical to the vital, from the vital to the mental and finally from mental to spiritual. As we have indicated earlier, the aim of Integral approach to management is not an exclusive spiritual growth but the integral development of the human potential, including the powers and faculties of his physical, vital, mental and spiritual being. So not only spiritual growth, but also psychological growth, from the physical to vital and from vital to mental consciousness, is an integral part of human development. We must note here, psychological and spiritual growth are not mutually exclusive; they can be pursued simultaneously. In fact they can complement each other. Spiritual development exerts an evolutionary pressure on mind, life and body, awakening higher motives and unmanifest faculties in the person. Sudden emergence of new faculties is a common experience in the path of spiritual growth. For example, the magnificent cave paintings of Ajanta and Ellora in India were not done by professional artists but by Buddhist monks pursuing spiritual discipline. Similarly, psychological development, when it is pursued with the right inner attitude, can make the mind and heart more receptive to spiritual consciousness. However this evolutionary hierarchy does not mean we have to wait until we attain the mental ladder in order to enter the spiritual path. Every human being, in whatever stage of development she is in, can begin the spiritual journey and progress in it by following a path of yoga, which is in sync with her natural temperament, capacity, and stage of evolution. For example the physical person can progress spiritually by pursuing a yoga which is predominantly physical or made up of physical activities like the asanas of Hathayoga, breath-control techniques of pranayama, rituals, external worship, selfless service, all done with simple faith, devotion and surrender. Similarly, the vital person can progress by following a dynamic yoga of consecrated work or self-transcending action or self-sacrificing leadership. The Trigger of Conscious Attention This human growth is awakened and triggered through focused Attention. The extent of growth depends on the quantum and quality of this attention. The quantum of attention is the amount of time and resources spent on the object of attention or growth. The quality of attention is the amount of knowledge, creativity, care and loves the mind and heart bestows on the object of attention. When a human being is considered as nothing more than just a pair of hands and a material body with some physical and economic needs and we pay attention to only this physical-economic aspect of the human being, then naturally the nature of the creative output Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 16

doesn‘t go beyond the level of physical productivity and efficiency. On the other hand if we consider the human being as a vital being with vital, emotional and social needs and pay attention to this dimension of the person, then this part wakes up in the organization and all the creative energies of the vital being are also realized in the corporate life. And again, progressing further, if we consider the human being as a mental, ethical and aesthetic being and pay attention to this part in her, then all the creative energies of this higher mental nature awakens in the collective life, leading to a truly cultured, refined and qualitatively superior corporate life, well poised and prepared for its spiritual destiny. And finally when we consider the human being as a spiritual being and pay attention to this divine element in her, then begins the true spiritual evolution which will lead the individual and the corporate life to its highest potential and evolutionary destiny. The secret of sustainable evolution lies in learning how to give the right attention at the right stage to the right object or part of an organization or person and also when and how to shift this attention. Steering the Organization The principles described above apply equally to organizational as well as to human development. Evolution of an organization has two dimensions, horizontal and vertical. The horizontal evolution is growth at the same level while the vertical is the quantum leap to a higher level. Pursuit of endless growth at the same level leads to saturation and shuts off the organization from the creative energies of the deeper and higher levels of consciousness and life. As a result, all the negative laws of life, like the law of diminishing returns and the law of entropy, begin to throttle the organization. So for sustainable growth, when the organization reaches the point of saturation at a particular level, it has to shift its focus of growth to a higher level. The key to this vertical growth lies in reorienting the goals of the organization, at the appropriate stages of the collective evolution, to deeper, higher and more inclusive ideals, values and aims. For example, efficiency, productivity, profit, shareholder value and diversification are the bottom line values at the physical economic level. Quality, customer service, innovation, technological progress, research & development, knowledge and skills development of the employees are values at a higher vital-mental level. Ethics, social responsibility, ecology, employee well-being, stakeholder values, which include not only shareholders, but also customers, suppliers, employees and the community, are a still higher set of values at the moral level. The Hellenic ideal of a Sound Body in a Sound Mind, with an emphasis on the development of the intellectual, ethical and aesthetic mind of the individual and the community are another set of values at a still higher mental-ethical-aesthetic level. And finally the ideal of the integral approach stretches towards the highest spiritual level. The leadership challenge here is to apply the principle of conscious attention, which we have discussed earlier, and shift the goals of the organization to higher and higher levels at appropriate stages of its evolution. The core principle of modern ecology, which is in attunement with the Laws of Nature, will be an important and integral part of the integral approach to Management. Integrating the human and organizational objectives and practices with the laws of universal Nature, is part of the yogic Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 17

way of life. But the integral approach will aim at not only a scientific and pragmatic understanding of and integration with the ecology of physical nature, but also an aesthetic and spiritual understanding of and integration with the totality of universal Nature in all its dimensions — physical, psychological and spiritual. In the Integral view, a human being is part of Nature not only physically but also psychologically and spiritually. Just like our bodies are made of the physical and biological energies of universal Nature, our psychological and spiritual energies are part of the corresponding energies of universal Nature. So the aim of ecology in this perspective will be to attune integrally the inner being and outer life of the human being with the inner and outer laws of Nature. Integral Prosperity The highest goal of the integral path is Integral Prosperity. Modern economic systems and sciences like business or management are concerned mainly with outer prosperity. This is a legitimate aim of economics and for a business organization, which is part of the economic life of the community. But the main problem here is that outer prosperity is pursued rather exclusively and at the expense of the inner wellbeing and progress of the individual and the collectivity. The integral approach to Management will strive to correct this imbalance; it will aim towards integral prosperity, which means inner as well as outer prosperity. Inner prosperity means a rich and harmonious development of all the faculties and powers of the human being from the lowest physical to the highest spiritual. The prosperity of modern nations and the corporate world is the result of a highly developed scientific, technological and pragmatic mind of the community expressing itself in the outer life. Development of this part of the human mind is a part of the ideal of integral prosperity. But in the modern economic and corporate culture, the other, higher faculties like the ethical, aesthetic and spiritual do not find sufficient opportunity and encouragement for self-expression. The integral approach will give equal opportunity and encouragement to the development and self-expression of these higher faculties. This will lead to a higher quality of corporate life, which will be suffused with the creative vision and values of the ethical, aesthetic and spiritual powers of the human being. Thus in this approach to Management, the inner development and fullness of the individual will be the foundation, and the outer progress and prosperity will be a spontaneous expression of this inner progress and fullness. References: 1. Cowey, Stephen, (1993) ‗Principle Centered Leadership’ Simon and Schuster, London, pp.176-78

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STEERING HIGHER GROWTH In our previous chapter we have discussed the main principles of integral management. The next question we have to examine is how to apply these principles for steering the higher evolution of an organization. At present most organizations live at the dynamic and pragmatic mind level. The next step in evolution has to be towards a deeper dynamic foundation at the higher mental, moral, aesthetic and spiritual level. The Mental Development At the mental level the organization has to strive for a constantly expanding horizon of knowledge, not only in the field of knowledge directly related to business, but also for a deeper and broader understanding of business, their values and aims, in the light of an integral vision of human and planetary evolution. This vision has to be imparted to all employees of the organization at every level and made the basis of decisions and actions. Some new ideas emerging in modern management have taken the first tentative steps in this direction. Let us look at two examples: First is the concept of the "learning organization" by Peter Senge and second is the "developmental organization" conceived by Du Pont. The concept of the learning organization goes beyond accumulating information. ‗Learning‘, says Peter Senge, ‗has very little to do with taking in information. Most fundamentally learning is about enhancing capacity. Learning is about creating and building the capacity to create that which you couldn't previously create‘, (1). The new capacity a business organization has to acquire to progress rapidly into the future is the ability to materialize a philosophic, psychological, ethical, aesthetic or spiritual idea in its outer life. For it is towards these higher levels of growth that future evolution of humanity is heading. In the second example, we see a business organization making a sincere and creative attempt to give shape to philosophical and psychological ideas such as - ‗Being able to utilize every effort to improve performance as an opportunity to develop myself and vice versa‘; and ‗Being able to bring to every decisionmaking process a total perspective that holds within it a reflection of all the critical elements which make up the whole of business and the nested system of which it is a part‘. (2) Culture of the Heart At the emotional level, the organization has to create a social and cultural system leading to a rich, healthy and refined emotional life for its employees. For this to happen, the prevailing corporate social values, which encourage only contractual, impersonal and professional relations, have to be replaced by new values encouraging deep, intimate, personal relations, not only among employees but also with customers and suppliers. In this context some new ideas emerging in modern management, like ‗work-life balance‘ are very helpful. For most of us, the family is a haven of emotional support and every attempt towards a harmonious integration of work-life with family life helps in the emotional development of the individual. But some other new ideas and practices, for example, employability, downsizing and the hire-and-fire culture are not very helpful to the emotional development of an organization. For the emotional growth of an average human being requires building a stable community with enduring relationships, based Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 19

on deep mutual understanding and trust. But some of these new practices that treat human beings as transient and disposable ‗resources‘ or knowledge-and-skill engines are not conducive for building a stable community or group. Ethical and Aesthetic Refinement However, a stable community and enduring personal relationships alone are not sufficient for the higher emotional or psychological development of the individual or group. We have to awaken the ethical and aesthetic faculties of human consciousness and their refining influence in the mind and heart of the individual and group. Ethical development and refinement comes through an inner and outer culture which emphasizes on the values of sharing, giving, empathy and compassion; self-control, especially over negative feelings like jealousy, anger and greed; and dedication to a self-transcending cause. But for a genuine and complete ethical development these values have to be lived not only in behaviour and action but also in thoughts and feelings. These are the principles of moral development which are more or less well-recognized. But what is not equally recognized is the power of art and aesthetics on the emotional and ethical development of the individual and group. An aesthetic culture emphasizing on beauty and harmony in thought, feeling, sensation, action, gestures or behaviour has a deep refining influence on emotions, which in turn has a positive impact on the ethical development of the individual. In fact most of the great ancient cultures of the world, such as ancient Greece, were more or less aware of the importance of the aesthetic sense in human development. But this aesthetic ideal was confined mainly to art, poetry, music, and culture; it was not applied to development of the material, economic and social life of a group. So this is an idea which a modern organization, rising on the ascending curve of evolution, can experiment with for much benefit to the group. To begin with, the aesthetic ideal may be introduced in the education and training of employees and as well as in organizing its material environment. Fostering Spiritual Growth Finally, comes the spiritual development of the group. To implement the spiritual ideal in the corporate life, some important conditions involving leadership have to be fulfilled. The first condition is that leaders of the organization should have a clear understanding of spirituality and their life-transforming potential. For spirituality is, in the popular mind, very much associated with life-denying asceticism and the traditional cross-legged, closed-eye ‗Meditation‘. But the leadership or management, which wants to foster spiritual growth, should understand that spirituality can be practiced and expressed in and through every activity of life. And when done in the right way, can lead to the enrichment and transformation of corporate life as a whole. In other words spirituality or spiritual life should not be viewed as something distinct or separate from the mundane or secular life; it should be viewed as part of life, and as the highest potential of human life. Awakening of the spiritual dimension means the awakening and realization of the highest human potential in every activity of human life. This holistic vision of spirituality has to be established in the collective consciousness of the organization and Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 20

expressed through every activity of corporate life. This integral spiritual vision requires a path different from most traditional paths with their emphasis on meditation. The lonely cross-legged, closed-eye ‗Meditation‘ is not the only path for spiritual growth. This traditional meditative practice is a powerful technique of Yoga and for those who know how to meditate in the right way it can bring about a rapid inner growth. But very few people have the capacity or the temperament for an exclusive, or even a predominantly, meditative path. Thus, for most of us who work in organizations the best path to spiritual growth is not ‗Meditation‘ but Work and Relationships. This doesn't mean discarding Meditation. No spiritual seeker can afford to ignore this great art of internalization discovered by ancient eastern yogis. Recent studies and research around the world have validated the effectiveness of meditation not only for spiritual growth but also for more mundane things like one‘s inner and outer well being or creativity. So every employee in an organization should be encouraged to learn this art of going inward. But any approach that lays excessive, one-sided emphasis on traditional methods of meditation tends to ignore other forms of meditation or spiritual practices which can be practiced in the course of work and action, in dynamic contact with all life. And such practices have a greater relevance for inner development of corporate life than cross-legged, closed-eyes meditation. So for implementing the spiritual paradigm, the central idea, which has to be explored comprehensively, is how to achieve the psychological and spiritual growth of the group through work and relationship. The management has to explore all possible means to implement this idea in thought and action through research and experimentation. There are many methods and disciplines available in ancient as well as modern spiritual teachings, for example the Karma Yoga of the Gita, Mindfulness of the Buddhist Yoga, Choiceless Awareness of J. Krishnamurthy, or Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The management has to arrive at some form of practical synthesis of these methods, and which can be applied for the inner development of the group. The second condition is that management and leadership should make a sincere attempt to live these spiritual values in their personal lives. For spirituality is communicated and transmitted more effectively through the silent living example of a person than through words and ideas. The leaders of the organization have to become living examples of wisdom, compassion and inner strength to their associates. These are the fundamental values of spirituality, representing the triple aspects of the Divine. As we have already indicated, some emerging ideas and practices like downsizing and the hire-and-fire culture is out of sync with a compassionate spiritual culture. In a spiritual, or even in a genuinely humane culture, people should not be treated as "resources" to be dispensed with at the slightest competitive pressure from the environment or internal problems or unacceptable behaviour or performance. People have to be viewed as growing sparks of the sacred and divine essence of life and helped to grow towards their highest potential. Pressures from the external environment should be tackled by harnessing the collective wisdom of the group and opening our consciousness to the supreme Wisdom of Divine consciousness. Downsizing should be resorted to only when it becomes absolutely unavoidable. And even then employees who are asked to leave should be helped to Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 21

find alternative employment. Similarly, problems and difficulties of employees, in their behaviour or performance, have to be treated with compassion and understanding. Management has to make a sincere attempt to understand the root cause of any unacceptable, problem causing behaviour and the erring employee has to be helped to overcome his or her difficulties. This brings us to the question - are there such leaders at present in the corporate world or in the world of NGOs who can be role models for integral management? The answer is - not many. But there are perhaps a small and growing number of corporate leaders who are making the attempt to live and practice higher values - moral or spiritual - in their personal and professional lives. Peter and Kristen Pruzan, two management academics from the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, have edited an interesting book, ―Leading with Wisdom: Spiritual Based Leadership in Business‖, which presents the views and experiences of 31 top corporate leaders form 15 countries who are making the attempt to lead from a base of moral and spiritual principles. Creating an Enabling Environment The other task for implementing the integral paradigm is to create an enabling outer environment which encourages the self-expression of higher values like truth, beauty, goodness, liberty, equality, fraternity, universality in every activity of the corporate life. The key to achieving this task lies in values-driven motivation. The present motivational strategies in the corporate world encourage only techno-economic innovation and excellence. But, for the higher evolution of the corporate world there must be equal encouragement to what we may call ―value-innovation and excellence‖ in the mental, ethical, aesthetic and spiritual domain. In other words, there must be quality circles for promoting higher values. Workers and employees must be encouraged to offer suggestions on how to make the collective organism truer and more beautiful, harmonious, compassionate, creative, progressive. In this task, the house-magazine and the intranet of the organization can be of great help in disseminating higher values in the organization through dialogue, discussion and creative participation. For example, the house-journal of the organization may publish articles, which help in widening the intellectual, ethical and spiritual horizons of the mind. Similarly professional magazines, apart from technical and specialized knowledge related to the specific professional discipline, should also contain a few articles, which help in the mental, moral and spiritual growth of people and their professional activities, for a professional is first of all an evolving human being, and only secondarily an engineer, accountant or manager. References: 1. Senge, Peter (1993), ‗The Art and Practice of a Learning Organization‘ Paradigm in Business, pp.126-37

The New

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2. Sanford, Carol and Pamela Marg, (1993) ‗A Work-in-progress in DuPont: Creation of a Developmental Organization, Michael Ray and Alan Rinzler ed. The New Paradigm in Business New York, G.R. Putnam‘s Sons, New York, pp.230-37.

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FIVE BOTTOM LINES OF THE FUTURE We have now come to the last part of our quest for Integral Management. We need some clear concept of the Key Result Areas by which we can measure our progress in implementing the integral paradigm. Most of the organizations, which follow the old traditional management paradigm measure their progress by the economic bottom line. However, as we have indicated earlier, with the advent of new values like Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, the concept of the triple-bottom line (economic, social and environmental) is gaining increasing acceptance among corporate leaders. But even this broader concept is inadequate for the future because it ignores the crucial, ―people-factor‖ and lacks insight into the evolutionary imperatives of the emerging world. So the integral view presents a wider framework based on five bottom lines: economic, social, environmental and evolutionary. Corporate strategies focusing exclusively on profitability may not be sufficient for the future. But wealth-creation is the most basic and fundamental dharma of business. A business organization, which doesn‘t create wealth for the society, is adharmic, unethical. However for a more sustained effectiveness in this domain we have to go beyond or rather get behind the conventional economic parameters like profit-maximization. We have to focus more on the causative factors which lead to these economic goals, for example, Technology, Productivity, Quality, Customer, Service, Innovation or ―knowledge‖. These are the key-factors of the Economic Bottom line. Next comes the Human Bottom line. The Key Result Areas in this domain are those factors, which lead to a better quality of the work force such as Leadership, Teamwork, Motivation, Creativity, Ethics, Values and Wellness. The third imperative is the Social Bottom line. An organization is an integral part of the larger social environment. In the long-term, well-being of the organization depends on the wellbeing of the society. This is the rationale behind the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is gaining increasing acceptance among corporate leaders. However, here also the concept and practice of CSR has to progress beyond isolated charitable projects to embrace the community as a whole. A business organization is not merely an economic entity but also a social organism, a human community. The highest aim of CSR must be to integrate the communal life of the organization with the communal life of the surrounding environment and harmonize the organizational goals with the developmental goals of the larger community of which it is a part. In this broader perspective, the corporation has to share with the community not only its wealth but also some of its capabilities or expertise. The fourth is the Environmental bottom line. We are not only part of society but also part of Nature. Any human group, which draws energy and resources from Nature, has a responsibility to use them prudently within the laws and limits set by Nature. Here again as with CSR, the highest aim of ecological responsibility is to harmonize the communal life of the group (especially the economic and material life) and the resource-energy management strategies, with Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 24

the laws of Nature and the natural environment. However, for long-term effectiveness, social and ecological bottom lines should not remain as mere decorative, idealistic, showy ―projects‖ at the fringe of the corporate life. They have to become part of the core strategy of the organization. Beyond the four there is a fifth, the Evolutionary Bottom line. This is something, which has not been recognized in the corporate world. We humans, as a species, are an unfinished project. We have not yet realized all the potentials hidden within us, especially in the moral, psychological and spiritual realms of our consciousness. We have to progress or evolve further to reach our highest potential as human beings. The work and life of the modern corporate world provides a rich field of experience not only for professional growth but also for evolution of the individual. For someone who is seeking moral and spiritual development, the corporate world provides a more effective field of experience for accelerated inner growth than an isolated ashram, monastery or forest. The problems, difficulties, challenges, temptation and conflicts of the corporate world are a fertile arena for becoming fully conscious of our weaknesses and strengths and also for expressing our inner potentials. Secondly, modern corporate experiences provide the right anvil for testing the quality and genuineness of our inner growth. But a corporate leader or manager may ask: How can this be called a bottom-line? Why should a business organization bother about the personal growth of its employees, which is his personal business? There are two reasons why. The first reason is that personal growth will have its ultimate impact on the four bottom lines we discussed earlier. Most moral and spiritual disciplines can also make the employee a better professional. For example, the discipline of inner peace, equanimity and loving kindness to all which are common disciplines in all eastern spiritual traditions can lead to greater clarity in thought, better judgement, more effective decision-making, less stress and a more harmonious interpersonal relationship or team-work. Similarly the spiritual discipline of karma yoga can lead to greater efficiency, creativity and skill in action. The second reason is that prophetic insights of seers have perceived this inner growth in the moral psychological and spiritual realms as the next step in human evolution and whichever group takes up this higher evolution as part of its vision and strategy will be among the leaders of the future. As Sri Aurobindo, a modern Indian seer, points out: ―In the next stage of human progress it is not a material but a spiritual, moral and psychical progress that has to be made‖ and therefore ―whatever race or country seizes on the lines of that new evolution and fulfills it will be the leader of humanity.‖ (1) These are the five bottom lines of the future. For an effective and successful evolution in the world of the future every organization has to strive for continuous learning and excellence in all the five simultaneously. In the short-term, a temporary focus on some specific bottom lines may be needed, depending on the evolutionary status of the organization. For example, a start-up operating in a fierce competitive environment may have to focus mainly on its economic and human bottom line. On the other hand an organization, which has achieved a certain amount of mastery in the economic and human bottomline, can give greater attention to the other three bottom lines. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 25

References: 1. Sri Aurobindo, (1972) Collected Works, Vol.1, Bandemataram, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, p. 465

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BEAUTY INCORPORATED: AESTHETIC IDEAL OF BUSINESS There is so much debate in the corporate world on business ethics. But there is a greater connect between business and aesthetics than business and ethics. This article describes briefly the principles of an aesthetic paradigm on business. Towards Business Beautiful We tend to associate aesthetics with art and poetry. But in a broader perspective, aesthetics means creating beauty and harmony in the inner being and outer life of human beings and in every activity of human life or in otherwords making our whole life into a work of art. But what is the rationale for connecting aesthetics with business and economics? Business and economics have a closer link with aesthetics than ethics. The essential process of economics or business is mutual interchange and one of the ideals of economic interchange is to arrive at the highest possible harmony or mutuality in this process of interchange. Similarly in business, a harmonious coordination of various activities, resources and stakeholders to achieve a preset goal is one of the essential processes of corporate management. The present ideal of business is to create wealth for the society through efficient and productive organisation of resources and the outer life. But if business wants to take the next highest step in evolution there must be a shift towards the aesthetic ideal which may be briefly summed up as: “A beautiful and harmonious organization of the outer life on the foundations of a beautiful and harmonious consciousness.‖ The main principles of this aesthetic paradigm of business are as follows: 1. Beautiful and harmonious equipment and organization of the material life from procurement of materials to product design and packaging. 2. Inner and outer harmony among people 3. Harmonious attunement of the outer material and economic life with the ecology of material dimensions of Universal Nature. 4. Harmonious attunement of the inner life of man with the ecology of the psychological and spiritual dimensions of Universal Nature. 5. Harmonious and rhythmic orchestration of the flow of men, materials, energy, resources, information and knowledge around some higher value like truth, beauty goodness, which leads to the well-being and progress of the larger whole. The concept of beauty is sometimes associated with simplicity. The ascetic schools of thought associate beauty and spirituality with bare simplicity of a monk. There is undoubtedly an element of beauty and spirituality in simplicity. But this is only one way of looking at beauty. There is perhaps much greater beauty in a rich and harmonious opulence and an orchestrated diversity. In the ancient Indian thought, the goddess of prosperity is depicted not as a simple ascetic but as a well-adorned, richly ornamented, and crowned Queen of Life. A rich, harmonious and integral development of all the powers, faculties and qualities of human Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 27

consciousness expressing itself through a plentiful, diverse, harmonious and beautiful opulence of the outer life is perhaps the highest and integral ideal of business and economics.

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The Aesthetic Dimension of Quality There is at present an increasing recognition of the importance of the aesthetic quality of the product. There is a perceptible improvement in the aesthetic quality of the external appearance of products like cars or computers. However, as we have indicated earlier, in an integral perspective aesthetics is much more than mere product design or packaging. It means creating beauty and harmony in every activity of human life. In the corporate world it means beautiful and harmonious equipment and ordering of the material and economic environment of the organization. For example, in engineering, technology and production, it means to perform every activity from procurement of material, plant layout, engineering, design, manufacturing, maintenance or erection and commissioning to product design and packaging, with a sense of beauty and harmony. When things are organized and the activities are done with this total aesthetic sense and vision, it creates an aura of subtle beauty in the organization and around the product or service, which has a special attraction for the customer. These are deeper and invisible factors which the ancient wisdom recognised but the modern scientific mind refuses to accept. The scientific mind demands empirical proof. But those things which are beyond the discernible range of senses and the intellect cannot be proved by empirical data. This integral approach to quality is discussed in greater detail in a subsequent article on the dimensions of quality. The Path to the Beautiful: Development of Aesthetic Intelligence This brings us to the question, how to achieve this aesthetic ideal in the corporate life? The path lies in developing the aesthetic intelligence in the work-force. In general, cultivating beautiful, harmonious, gentle and refined thoughts, feelings and sensations and an environment which evokes such higher sensations is the discipline for developing aesthetic intelligence. Nature, art, music, poetry, literature are of great help in cultivating the aesthetic intelligence. But there are many kinds of art and music and not all of them are elevating. The truly beautiful and harmonious brings a deep calm and relaxation and an uplifting impact on our consciousness; it helps us to come into contact with our higher nature. However, as we have said earlier, we must not rigidly associate aesthetic sense with art and music; it is not necessary to be an artist or a musician to have aesthetic intelligence. Every individual can develop his aesthetic sense by making a conscious effort to bring more beauty and harmony to our daily life and into our surrounding environment. For example cleanliness and order in organizing our life and work, beautiful and harmonious organisation of the material environment, resolving conflicts, contradictions and dualities in thought and life into a harmonious synthesis or mutual understanding―all these factors help in the flowering of the aesthetic sensibility. What is the pragmatic utility of aesthetic intelligence for the professional or the knowledgeworker? The aesthetic sense, when it is understood in the broader perspective which we have outlined, leads to an intuition of the harmonious rhythms, mutualities and interdependences of life and the complementing links which connects the various parts of life. This intuition will help the knowledge-worker to arrive at the most mutually beneficial deal or relationship, what is Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 29

called in modern management-speak as the ―win-win‖ situation, in all transactions. For example, a manager will know how to strike at a win-win deal with a competitor, or how to create a team of people with complementing capacities, temperament and skills. This aesthetic intelligence can also be of great help in all tasks, which involves balancing, scheduling and synchronizing activities. For instance, Just-in Time method of inventory management, which requires perfect synchronization of the supply-chain, logistics and inventory, is infact an aesthetic insight of the Japanese mind, which has a natural instinct for beauty and harmony.

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INTROVERT AND EXTROVERT -A DEEPER PERSPECTIVE A well-known concept in modern psychology is the classification of human temperaments into two categories: Introvert and Extrovert. A somewhat similar terminology can be found in Indian yogic psychology but it has a much deeper connotation. This article examines the yogic perspective. Two Facets of Temperament In modern psychology ―extrovert‖ is someone active, dynamic, oriental towards the objective external world of life and action, adventure and exploration. On the other hand ―introvert‖ is someone indrawn and lives more or predominantly in his subjective world of thought and feelings. The modern western culture in general puts a high value and respect on the extrovert and tends to look down upon the introvert as a negative type of personality. There is a similar terminology in Indian Yogic psychology: Antarmukha and Bahirmukha. But literally or superficially there is a similarity between the ancient Indian and the modern western concept. But the Indian yogic concept has a deeper meaning and the values are reversed. Antarmukha means literally someone whose face is turned inward and Bahirmukha is the one whose face is turned outwards. But to understand the deeper meaning of this yogic terminology we must have some understanding of Indian yogic psychology. Three Layers of Consciousness According to the psychology of Indian yoga, human consciousness or personality, is made of three layers: surface, subliminal and the spiritual. The surface being is the one at the fringe of our consciousness tethered to our body; our surface personality is something narrow, limited, mechanical and repetitive, running around its petty thoughts, feelings, desires and sensation, or compulsively externalized with all its energies rushing outwards, incapable of any deep thinking or inward look. Behind this surface level, lies the subliminal self, less externalized or bound to the body, more inward, intuitive, with a much greater capacity for knowledge, feeling and action than the surface being. If we plunge deeper behind and beyond the subliminal and enter into the deepest and inmost core of our being, we will come into contact with the spiritual self within us, which is our true self. This spiritual self in us is in direct contact with the deepest, universal and external truth of all life and all that is. Just like externalization is spontaneous to the surface mind, the inward look is intrinsic and spontaneous and natural to the spiritual self in us. The Inward-looking We are now in a better position to understand the yogic classification of Antarmukha and Bahirmukha in its relation to that of modern psychology. In the yogic terminology the Antarmukha is someone who lives in his inner subliminal or spiritual being, or in some form of a living communion with his inner being. He can see or feel or perceive the deeper, hidden and invisible forces behind the external phenomena which the ordinary man who lives in his surface self cannot see or perceive. So Antarmukha is not the superficial or morbid introvert, unhealthily Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 31

preoccupied with his surface thoughts and feelings. The Antarmukha is a seer and thinker of inner realities, living from within outwards. All the spiritual personalities of the world and also the great geniuses in art, science, thought or literature are predominantly Antarmukha by temperament. They are in some form of a direct or living contact or communion with their spiritual or subliminal being and receive their intuition and inspiration from this inner source. We must note here that an Antarmukha need not necessarily be a monk or an ascetic spending most of his time in inner contemplation. He may live in his inner being or receive his inspiration from it, but outwardly he can also be a dynamic and energetic spiritual teacher like Vivekananda, the ―Cyclonic monk‖ or a powerful personality like Gautama Buddha, acting from a deep ocean of calm and self-mastery. The Externalized The other type is Bahirmukha, externalized. In the yogic psychology, Bahirmukha is the one who lives more or less exclusively in his narrow and limited surface personality, with no contact with his deeper and inner being. When he encounters a failure, difficulty, challenge, sorrow or pain, he may turn to religion, philosophy or yoga but he cannot achieve much beyond some superficial knowledge, belief, piety or devotion. If he takes up yoga and tries to meditate or observe himself he may end up as a morbid introvert closed within the schizophrenic subjectivity of his surface self. The Bahirmukha is predominantly an extrovert spending his outgoing energies feverishly on some small and petty desires of his physical and sensational being. However all extroverts are not entirely Bahirmukha. Most of the great leaders of action like Napoleon, Alexander or JRD Tata are extroverts but they don‘t live entirely in their surface being. Many of them are in some form of living contact with a subliminal source of vital energy, which is the basis of their dynamism and achievement. Behind our surface vital being there is a deeper subliminal vital being with a much greater capacity for feeling, action and energy. Most of the great men of action are in contact with this subliminal vital being. For example, it is said about Napoleon that he had the habit of taking a short nap in a chair for a few minutes and wake up with great energy. It is perhaps not a nap but some form of meditation for going inward and coming into contact with his subliminal vital being. The Integral View In general, eastern spiritual culture emphasized on introversion and gave the highest respect and importance to the Antarmukha. On the other hand the modern secular culture of the West emphasizes on extroversion and encouraged the values and attitude of the Bahirmukha. But in an integral perspective both are one-sided perceptions. A civilization or culture with a too heavy emphasis on an ascetic world-denying introversion will be lacking in the vital vigour of life, which makes it an easy prey to more vigorous and strong invaders. On the other hand a civilization or culture, which tends more or less exclusively or predominantly to extroversion will be lacking in mental, moral, aesthetic and spiritual creativity and will remain gross, crude and barbaric in its outer life, however advanced it may be in its technology, organization or military force. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 32

So an integral approach to human or social development will strive towards a creative balance between introversion and extroversion. However an integral spiritual culture may still emphasize on the inner self as the foundation for a balanced and healthy outer life, because most of our higher potentialities in the mental, moral, aesthetic and spiritual lies in our inner being and not in the externalized surface self. But it will not discourage extroversion in an ascetic spirit. The outer life and action has to be a creative externalization of our inner and higher potentialities of our deeper, greater and nobler self.

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HARVESTING HUMAN GROWTH: A CONSCIOUSNESS PERSPECTIVE A human being is in its essence a consciousness. So all human growth has to be viewed in terms of developing the potential of human consciousness. Here we examine the principles and process of this growth from an evolutionary perspective. Stages of Growth The first step in harvesting human growth is to understand clearly the stages of growth. There are three major stages in human evolution. The first stage of evolution is driven predominantly and compulsively by the instincts, needs and desires of our physical and sensational being. At this stage there is only a modicum of evolutionary progress established by the ordinary experiences of life. And the movement of progress is slow and tedious like a journey in a bullock-cart. At the second stage there is a more conscious effort by our intellectual, ethical and aesthetic being to understand the laws, aims, ideas and values of life and govern our life according to these higher mental verities. This is the stage of evolution guided by the law, Ideas and Ideals, by knowledge and values, through education, science, philosophy, ethics, art, social organisation, etc. There are two sub-stages in this mental phase of evolution. First, the stage that develops the pragmatic mind, which brings efficiency, productivity, power and prosperity to the outer life of the individual and the community. Second, the phase that develops the ideal, ethical and aesthetic mind and brings a better quality to the inner as well as the outer life of the individual and the collectivity. At this stage of evolution the pace of progress is faster, which means a more conscious and rapid flowering of the human potential and its self-expression in life. If the first stage can be compared to a journey in a bullock-cart, this second stage is like travelling in an automobile. The third stage is the flowering of the intuitive spiritual mind in religion, mysticism and yoga. With religion, the spiritual aim of human evolution becomes more or less intuitive but the method and process of realisation are not fully grasped. In mysticism, both the aim and method have become more or less fully conscious and clear. In Yoga, we take a further step with the development of a systematic and scientific path and methodology for a rapid, conscious and selfdirected evolution towards our spiritual destiny, leading to a further acceleration of the pace of evolution, The Yogi is no longer travelling in the bullock-cart of needs and desires or in the automobile of Ideas, but flies jet-set in his soul towards the divine goal. Factors of Growth This brings us to the pragmatic question: what are the factors that bring about this evolutionary progress? We may identify six major factors of growth - Consciousness, Ideals, Concentration, Progress, Liberty, and Wellness.

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The first factor is increasing Consciousness. The essence of consciousness is Awareness. Increasing consciousness means growing self-awareness that is awareness of all the parts and layers of our being, from the lowest physical to the highest spiritual. We have to become fully conscious of our four-fold being - our body, life, mind and spirit - and all their powers, faculties, qualities and potential. First is our material base, the physical organism, the body; second, the life-force in us which is the source of our sensations, emotions, desires and vital energy; third, our mental apparatus made up of thoughts, perceptions, ideas, understandings; and finally, the fourth dimension, our spiritual self, the deepest and innermost essence of our being. This growing self-awareness is the basis of self-mastery, which is mastery over the forces and faculties of our consciousness, for we can only master what we know and command what we have mastered. This discipline of self-management is the foundation for managing others. Someone who cannot manage himself cannot manage others and is therefore unfit to be a leader. Thus, someone who has attained self-mastery is a natural leader because he or she radiates a subtle psychological power and authority, which commands spontaneous respect and obedience. This growth of consciousness should not be confined to the self within but also extend outwards to the world around. An alert, detached, objective, scientific and impersonal awareness of the world within and around us, growing constantly deeper, wider and all-embracing is the nature of the discipline to be pursued to become a totally conscious being. The second factor is an aim or Ideal, which gives unity of purpose to our life and leads to the integration of the individual and collective organism around a focal point. This ideal can be a standard of perfection or a system of values or a vision, mission or goal. The nature of the Ideal and the path of realisation will not be the same for all individuals or the collectivity. It will vary according to the nature of the human organism and its evolutionary status. For example, an ideal and the path that help the individual to progress from the first to the second stage of evolution will be different when the individual progresses from the second to the third stage. The ideal for the third stage is again different, requiring some form of inner spiritual liberation. For the growth from the first to second stage, the motives of the vital and pragmatic mind like power, wealth, enjoyment, achievement or mastery over the forces of life and the environment, but with an emphasis on social responsibility and ethical self-control, could be some of the ideals. This first stage of growth can be achieved with ego and desire but by subordinating them to a higher mental, moral or social ideal. But the progress from second to third stage requires a progressive elimination of ego and desire. Similarly, ideals for the different types of organisations educational, research, religious, commercial, political, social, military or policing - cannot be the same. For example non-violence can be an ethical ideal for a religious organisation, but it cannot be the ideal for a military or policing organisation. However as the human soul passes from the first stage to the second and third stages, the ideals have to be raised beyond mundane and material interests to the mental, moral and spiritual levels. The third factor is Concentration, the ability to focus our will and all the energies of our consciousness on a single task, activity, aim, or ideal, thereby minimising wastage of energy and resources and maximising the possibilities of self-actualisation. The Mind is also a form of Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 35

Energy like Matter and when this mental energy is scattered, diffused in uncontrolled and useless chattering; it is at the lowest and most inefficient level of functioning. On the other hand when this mental energy is controlled, free from useless, wasteful and disturbing thoughts, focused and concentrated at a point, it functions at its highest potential. The act of focusing the mind increases and multiplies the cognitive and penetrative power of its energy. The other important aspect, one not well recognised, is that concentration reduces the time taken to do a task. The fourth factor is Progress, which means a constant effort towards progressive perfection, or to use the management terminology ―continuous improvement‖, in the inner being and outer life of the individual and the collectivity. The outer progress is seen in the constant growth of skills, knowledge, efficiency, productivity and professional competence in work and action. The inner progress means a similar growth in the psychological, moral, aesthetic and spiritual realms, measured in terms of values, character, wellness, integration of the personality, and the faculties, powers and potentials of consciousness. Here the main emphasis has to be on values and character. Light and clarity in the mind; kindness, compassion and generosity in the heart; firmness and strength in the will; courage, energy and enthusiasm in the vitality; harmony between thought, feeling, will and action; aspiration for truth, beauty and goodness in the soul; and the whole being integrated around this higher aspiration of the soul - these are the contours of character. Inner growth means progress in building character. The inner foundation of ethics, morality and character is the spiritual source of our being. Ethical and moral behaviour becomes entirely selfless and perfect only when it flows spontaneously from its spiritual source. This is the reason why in Indian spiritual tradition, moral development is only considered a preparation and a means for spiritual growth and perfection. However in our integral perspective, inner growth at the moral or spiritual level should not remain self-contained within. It must express itself in every activity of the outer life so that individual progress becomes the engine driving social progress. For this to happen all the expressive instruments of consciousness, such as the faculties of thought, feeling, will, action, imagination, intuition and communication, have to be fully developed. The fifth factor is Liberty, both inner and outer. Outwardly liberty means to create an environment in which each individual can grow towards his highest potential, with minimum rules and restrictions and maximum possible freedom, or to use the modern terminology, Empowerment. This includes the freedom to think, innovate, express, decide, organise, experiment and learn by making mistakes. But this outer freedom is not enough to realise the full creative potential of human beings. There must also be inner freedom from psychological bondage. There are three major forms of inner bondage - first is the negativities of various kinds, like greed and lust, selfishness and jealousy; second is the attachment to people and things and to fixed or biased dogmas, opinions, ideas, ideals, prejudices; third is the compulsive habit of the mind towards dispersion, restlessness, aimless and repetitive or mechanical thinking. We must note here that this inner freedom is not a matter of morality or idealism. It has practical consequences for unleashing the creative energies of people. The inner bondages we have described, confines the psychological energies of people within the narrow grooves of their tiny Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 36

little ego, throttles their creative energies and prevents the free flowering of the emotional, aesthetic and intuitive intelligence. So, if we can attain a certain amount of freedom from these psychological bonds through inner disciplines like self-control, concentration, inner peace and detachment, it releases the creative energies of people. The sixth factor is Wellness. Growth without human wellness is unsustainable, for an increasing inner and outer wellness is the sign and index of a true and balanced growth. The corporate world seeks growth mainly in efficiency, productivity, outer expansion and wealthcreation. Though these aims are legitimate for business, when they cause too much stress, strain and tension, turmoil, pain and social disruption then they cannot be sustained in the long run. So corporations have to make as much systematic and planned effort in achieving inner and outer human wellness as they do in achieving bottom-line results like productivity and profit. Yoga of the Future These six factors of growth can be applied to any aspect or activity of human life. For example, any activity performed unconsciously and mechanically, with a scattered mind, without any unifying ideal or effort for progress, belongs to the first stage of evolution. Such an activity brings very little progress for the individual or the collective. But the same activity when it is performed with full consciousness, total concentration, with a clear understanding of its evolutionary purpose, with an effort towards progressive perfection and a striving towards a higher ideal of truth, beauty or goodness or any other ideal in harmony with the eternal and universal laws of life, it becomes Yoga and a means for rapid and conscious evolution of the individual. Such an activity brings spiritual as well as pragmatic benefits. It not only leads to the psychological and spiritual development of the person doing the activity, but also enhances the efficiency, productivity and quality of the activity. For, an activity which is done with consciousness, concentration, knowledge and understanding, is done better and more efficiently than when it is performed mechanically and with a distracted mind. This holistic vision of growth, applied comprehensively to the individual and collective life, will be the Yoga of the future. And in this life-embracing vision of Yoga, the distinction between the ―secular‖ and the ―spiritual‖ disappears. It doesn‘t ask us to outwardly renounce the world and run to an ashram, mountaintop or forest in order to progress spirituality. Every activity of human life - activities of knowledge, production, organisation, relationship, community, workplace, market and the shop-floor - can be a means of yoga, a means for conscious selfdevelopment, progress, learning and experimentation in higher evolution. But for this to happen, all these activities have to be given a higher direction by bringing to them the six factors of progress we have described.

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MOTIVATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: AN EVOLUTIONARY VISION Motivation holds the key for harnessing the human potential in an organization. However, in modern management motivation is used mainly as a strategy for enhancing the efficiency, productivity and performance of the employee. But for a more integral and effective realization of the human potential in an organization, motivation has to be used as a lever for human evolution and development, with enhanced performance as a spontaneous result. This article provides a comprehensive framework for evolving a motivational strategy which will lead to the progressive evolution of human potential in an organization. In this article we will try to integrate modern theories of motivation with ancient Indian perspectives, based on an integral psychology and provide a conceptual and practical framework for understanding and implementing an evolutionary approach to motivation the process of motivation from an evolutionary and developmental perspective. Unfolding Human Potential Motivation is a subject of perennial interest in management, psychology and leadership. However, most modern motivational theories suffer from two inadequacies - a lack of sufficient attention to the higher motives of the mental, moral and spiritual being in man; and a too heavy insistence on performance rather than on growth. What is not recognized fully is that motivation can be a means or lever of human development in the organisation. A human being is not merely a knowledge, skill and productivity engine created solely for filling the coffers of an organization or meeting its bottomlines and deadlines. He is a complex living entity with a sacred essence, created for a higher purpose. Most wisdom-traditions of the world agree that this higher purpose is a progressive unfolding of the human potential, culminating in fully blossomed flowers of humanity. Hierarchy of Motives Equality of people may be a spiritual truth but is not yet an actual fact of life because individuals are at various levels of development. Needs, values and attitudes of individuals depend on their nature and the level of their inner development. The task or challenge of corporate leadership is therefore to understand intuitively this inner spirit of an employee and provide him with an individualized motivational programme that matches his unique needs. But how is this motivational level of each individual employee to be determined? This is where the importance of the well-known ‗need-hierarchy of motives’ model of Abraham Maslow comes in. This model identifies five basic human needs and arranges them in an ascending order. They are - first, biological needs for sex, survival and other physical needs; second, needs for material and emotional security; third, social needs for affection,, autonomy, achievement, status, recognition and attention; and finally the highest need of all, self-actualization. According to Maslow, as each of these needs become substantially satisfied the next need becomes dominant. So the right motivation requires a clear understanding of these motivational needs of each individual and focus on satisfying them. (1) Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 38

This need-hierarchy model of Maslow, after a powerful initial impact on management thinkers and professionals, later went out of favour for supposedly better theories. Maslow‘s idea was criticized on many points. For example, it was accused of ignoring the cultural factor; of lacking empirical validity; and that the needs are parallel rather than hierarchical. All these criticisms can be valid, for no concept or theory can hope to explain or encompass the incredible complexity of human nature and its motives. But Maslow‘s need hierarchy model has two pluspoints over other modern motivational theories. First, it recognizes the process of evolution, viewing the human being as an evolving entity, moving progressively towards higher and higher levels of motivation; second its intuition or idea is broader and more comprehensive than other modern theories. However, from the view point of Indian spiritual vision, Maslow‘s model has two flaws. First it ignores or fails to articulate clearly the higher intellectual, moral and spiritual motives in man; and second, from a holistic perspective, it needs to be integrated with a comprehensive vision of human development. This is where the Indian vision of human development can rectify and complement Maslow‘s model. Evolution and Motivation - The Indian Paradigm According to Indian thought, there are four stages in the evolution of man that takes him towards his spiritual goal. Every human being begins her evolutionary journey as a physical person driven by biological and security needs. She progresses to become a vital being with emotional and vital needs. We use the term ‗vital‘ to denote that part of our consciousness which is the source of our emotions, passions, enthusiasm, energy and the dynamic will for action and execution. There are two sub-stages in the evolution of the vital man. First she becomes someone who lives predominantly in her emotional and pragmatic mind with its need for mutual, harmonious relationships, enjoyment and pragmatic adaptation to life. These social needs are, in the Maslowian hierarchy, only one part of our emotional needs. At the next stage, the vital person becomes a vital being of strong will and abundant vital energy, the leader or the warrior-type, with his needs for power, achievement, conquest, expansion, name and fame. These ‗esteem‘ needs, are again, one part of the needs of the man of will and power in Maslow‘s theory. Alexander and Napoleon are archetypal vital men of power, while in the corporate world, great and successful entrepreneurs and executives like Carnegie and Ford of the old economy, and Gates and Grove of the new economy, are predominantly vital men. As the person progresses further she becomes the intellectual, moral and artistic type of personality with intellectual, ethical and aesthetic needs for knowledge, values, ideals, and vision, in other words, the mental man. She looks beyond her physical and vital needs, seeking to understand the higher aims, values and laws of life and trying to organize his life according to these higher verities. Socrates and Plato, Tagore and Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Confucius and Gandhi are different types of mental men who have reached the higher plateaus of the human Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 39

mind. We use the word ‗mental‘ to denote that part of our consciousness which houses our intellectual, ethical and aesthetic intelligence. A human being can achieve his full manhood, or in other words, becomes the true mental man, only when he develops fully all the potentials of his higher mental nature made of the rational, ethical and aesthetic being and govern the rest of his nature with this higher element in him. This is the reason why in our scheme of human development we have placed the mental above the vital in the evolutionary ladder. Beyond the perfection of manhood there is what we may call the perfection of ‗soulhood‘ which can be achieved only by realizing our spiritual nature beyond mind. One of the major aims of the social philosophy and practices of ancient Indian and Chinese civilization is to create a society governed by the mental and moral motives of Dharma. As the mental man reaches the highest peak of his intellectual, ethical and aesthetic development, he becomes aware of a spiritual reality beyond Mind and awakens to this highest spiritual need for Self-realization, Truth and God. He begins to become the spiritual man. The Vedic and Upanishadic sages, St. Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart and modern age sages like Sri Aurobindo, Vivekananda and Ramana Maharishi are different types of accomplished spiritual men. We must note here that the stages of an individual‘s evolution depend mainly on the dominant temperament and motives which shape and drive his life, and not on his academic status or mental development. In the process of evolution, mind and vital develop more or less simultaneously, although some vital men may be at a transitional stage from the vital to the mental phase of development. Take for example someone like Andy Grove of Intel, the microchip giant. He started his career as a brilliant research engineer with a doctorate in chemical engineering, did some outstanding research work in fluid mechanics and semiconductor physics and wrote six books. But when we look at his later life as the CEO of Intel, we can see his dominant temperament and motives are that of the vital man, with an aggressive push for power, dominance, achievement, name and fame. These four types or stages in human evolution can be placed in a corresponding four-fold motivational spectrum. At the lower end of the spectrum are the outwardly motivated who need the stimulus of external reward or punishment to remain active. At the higher end of the spectrum, first come the self-motivated who feel an intrinsic joy in work and therefore need no external stimulus to remain motivated. Next, come the ethically motivated who feel the need to contribute or serve a higher moral or social cause. The ethically awakened individual seeks not only joy in work but a higher meaning as well. The last and the highest, is spiritual motivation, which develops when the individual is awakened to her spiritual self beyond her body and mind. Let us now try to relate these four stages of evolution to their motivation spectrum. The physical person who is bound to the needs and instincts of his body is at the lowest level of the motivation spectrum. For her higher evolution and development her vital and emotional being has to be awakened by external motivators like the need for wealth, power, enjoyment and success. The vital person is capable of self-motivation and self-dedication to a higher moral or Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 40

spiritual cause. When she awakens to these higher motives and dedicates herself to a higher ideal, she not only accelerates her own higher evolution, but also becomes a dynamic instrument for the higher evolution of the collectivity. The vital person inspired by higher values can be a very effective and heroic leader and crusader for manifesting these higher values in the outer life. Some of the Indian kings like Shivaji, Ashoka, Akbar and statesmen of the West like Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln belong to this category. However, if there is a lack of sufficient mental or spiritual illumination in the mind, the vital person can become an aggressive and intolerant tyrant, forcefully championing a narrow dogmatic idea. Similarly, the mental person when she awakens to the spiritual motive may blossom into a high thinker, sage or a saint sowing luminous, kindly or inspiring ideals in the consciousness of people. But if there is a lack of strength in the will or vital force, the mental or moral person will be ineffective as a leader. So to fully realize moral and spiritual potentials, both the vital and mental person has to pursue a mental, moral and spiritual education and discipline, leading to a deepening, widening and refinement of mind and heart, linking their consciousness and will to a spiritual inspiration and energy. One such discipline is the Karma Yoga or yoga of action of the Indian scripture, Bhagavad Gita. A main principle of this discipline, which has direct relevance for the corporate world, is to renounce the eager and anxious seeking of rewards of action and concentrate all our energies on the present, on the work to be done. If we have faith in God, we may add to this a consecration of all our activities to the divine power. The Karma Yoga path of the Gita leads to motiveless action, driven not by human motives - vital, mental or moral - but by a universal spiritual force, transcending the individual and collective ego. Thus, Indian spiritual vision links motivation with human development in an integrated perspective. This Indian scheme provides a broad and general framework for understanding and identifying the process of motivation in an evolutionary perspective. However, as mentioned earlier, human evolution is a complex process which cannot be rammed into any mental formula, for we are at once a physical, vital, mental and spiritual being. The motives and impulses of all these parts exist simultaneously within us although some of them may be dormant, weak or unmanifest.3 It is the most dominant, conscious or manifest part which determines our stage of evolution. We also admit that this Indian scheme of human evolution is only one among many other possible formulas. Other schemes with different systems of classification are also possible and equally valid but the Indian concept is preferable because we find it integral, embracing all the fundamental elements constituting the human organism. Beyond Job Satisfaction This brings us to one of the major objectives of modern motivational strategies - Job Satisfaction. Job satisfaction happens when the nature of work and the rewards received for this work match the motivational needs of an employee. But mere job satisfaction cannot be the highest ideal for an evolving human being. In an evolving world, growth and progress is an eternal law and a higher need. Anything which does not grow disintegrates and perishes. So we have to create a work-culture which Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 41

consciously promotes and accelerates the progressive evolution of the individual by awakening in him the dormant higher needs. So the aim of motivational strategy has to be not only to satisfy the employee‘s present needs but also to awaken higher needs. This means the physical man has to be awakened to his vital and mental needs and helped to become the vital and mental man; the vital man to his mental, moral and aesthetic needs to bring the light of a higher culture to his life of raw desire and ambition; and the mental or moral man to his highest spiritual goal. The need for this evolutionary transition to higher levels is indicated by a lack of interest in the needs and activities of the present stage of development and a growing interest in the needs and activities of higher stages. Here is an example narrated in the Harvard Business Review illustrating this transition. Mark was a star at the large West Coast Bank where he had worked for three years. He had an MBA from a leading business school and he had distinguished himself as a skilled lending officer. He excelled in every work task the bank gave him. He was smart and knew no other way to approach than to give it his all. The bank paid Mark well and senior managers had every intention of promoting him. But over time Mark grew more and more unhappy. He was seriously considering leaving the organisation. But fortunately for both Mark and the bank, after consulting a counsellor, he was able to identify the cause of his unhappiness. He was no longer interested in his present job which involved number crunching and interaction with customers. He wanted a more intellectually stimulating job. Using this insight he was able to find a new assignment which required conceptual and analytical thinking. Mark is now happy and satisfied (2). It is very difficult to say with precision or certainty what are the psychological factors behind Mark‘s motivational problem. One of the factors could be a shift in his life-motives from the vital to the mental level. However, sometimes this awakening to higher motives may express itself not in the professional life of the person but in his hobbies and extra-professional interests. For example, it was reported in a leading business journal that a top executive from a big business house was very much interested in the field of unified theory in physics and in his spare time read every available book on the subject. The Corporate World in the Motivation Map We are now in a better position to relate the motivational process sketched so far to the present state of the corporate world. Our modern age represents a rapid and increasing vitalisation and mentalisation of the human mass. So the pure physical type of personality satisfied with his basic minimum needs is becoming fewer and fewer for in the hyper-competitive and charged atmosphere of the corporate world, with its new thrust towards empowerment, knowledge, innovation and relentless chasing of deadlines, there is not much scope for the physical man. However, most of the shop floor and clerical workforce in the corporate world may perhaps live predominantly in their physical consciousness but with a growing awakening to the vital and mental needs. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 42

Moving up to the managerial cadre, we have some interesting insights on executive motivation from two psychologists, Timothy Butler and James Waldrop, as elaborated in their article in the Harvard Business Review. According to these two Harvard psychologists, most executives in business are driven by seven basic ‗business core functions‘ related to their deeply embedded life-interests or needs. They are: Application of Technology; Enterprise Control; Managing People and Relationships; Quantitative Analysis; Counseling and Mentoring; Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking; and Influencing through Language and Ideas. The first four factors are predominantly needs of the vital and pragmatic mind while the last three are needs of the thinking and communicating mind. But this classification is based on the expression of life needs of people in their professional life. For a better understanding of the motivational level of people, we have to take into consideration the nature of their extra-professional activity. Moreover, there are probably a considerable number of people in the corporate world who are seeking a moral and spiritual fulfillment or meaning in and through work. For example, the US Academy of Management recently launched a new magazine, Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, focusing on this higher needs and broader issues emerging in the management community. However, motivation is not only individual but also collective. Just as an individual, the collectivity can also move up the motivational ladder in the course of its natural evolution. Contemporary business is perhaps in such a state of evolutionary transition towards some higher mental and moral needs. The first major change is what we may call the people-knowledge factor, a shift in the strategic motive of business from reliance on a mechanical and mass application of technology to the living knowledge or creativity of people or individual employees. As Michael Burns, Chairman and CEO of Mercer Human Resource Consulting points out: ‗The last decade has been technology fuelled productivity. Now is the turn of the knowledge-economy.‘ (3) And knowledge-economy is people-centric. As Christopher Barret of the Harvard Business School explains: ‗We can‘t just manage by systems which are invariably defined in financial terms, we need to focus on people and on developing, managing and building our capacities through them ……… Because they are the ones with the expertise and that is replacing capital as the scarce strategic resource. The new model, Individualized Corporation that we have evolved requires companies to leverage individual competencies, capacities, knowledge and skills. This is going to be the source of competitive advantage.‘ Barret gives the following example of ISS, a Denmark based firm which is in the cleaning business. ‗It is a business with minute margins, so they have to focus on costs. They could have regarded their employees as labourers who were asked to go and do their job, directed in the classical hierarchal form. But what they did instead was to create individual teams that worked together on cleaning contracts. ……… Then they engaged in education ……….. where they took the front-line people through a series of training sets. The first obviously, was teaching them Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 43

how to clean properly; second, to work together in a team; third, they started focusing on quality. Fourth they got their teams to focus on customer service and listening to customers; and fifth, the teams were taught to read financials. Eventually the teams became interested in what the customer wanted and became capable of interpreting data. This is innovation. You get costs down by driving responsibility down the organization, creating entrepreneurial initiative and leveraging ideas across the organization - it‘s a different philosophy.‘ (4) The second factor is the growing interest in ethics. There are two important features in the emerging ethical debate in business. First is the recognition of the motivational power of ethics. As the former CEO of Johnson & Johnson, James Burke says: ‗Here we believe strongly in three things, decentralisation, managing for the long-term, and the ethical principles embodied in our Credo. Credo is the sort of thing that inspires the best in people. I think that all of us have a basic moral imperative hidden somewhere in us. In some people it is more central to their being, but it‘s always there. To tap that well-spring creates energy that you can‘t get elsewhere.‘ (5) The second feature is the growing demand for fairness and transparency. As the well-known founder of Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy states: ‗Investors, customers, employees and vendors have all become more discerning and are demanding greater transparency and fairness in all dealings.‘ (George Skaria, 1999) This shows that the corporate world as a whole is becoming more sensitive to ethical issues. The third factor is the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, which is spreading fast in the business community. CSR seems to be the new fad in business and management. As a columnist in the business section of a leading Indian daily points out: ‗Call it guilt cleansing or genuine concern for the downtrodden; the fact is that from singleminded devotion to bottom line till a few years ago, corporations are increasingly putting their mind and money to the bottom of social pyramid. Philanthropy indeed is fast becoming an integral part of corporate culture. Today nearly every major corporate house is supporting some cause or social initiative. And they are no longer taking it as charity but as a responsibility. In today‘s world being a good and responsible corporate citizen is as important as increasing your business‘. (6) For example in India, most of the major players in the new economy like Sathyam, Wipro, Infosys, and Dr. Reddy‘s Laboratory have their charitable trusts working on social causes. In the US, two icons of the new economy, Bill Gates and Andy Grove have their own foundations. The Path Ahead These mental and moral needs emerging in the corporate mind hold great promise for the future evolution of business but they have to be explored to their highest potential. This requires a deep insight into the psychological and spiritual sources of knowledge and ethics and which must be harnessed for the higher evolution of business. If business can do this, it will give a quantum Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 44

thrust to the future evolution of business. This higher evolution is not a matter of idealism but a crucial choice which will determine the future status of individuals and collectivities. Tex Gunning, a vice-president of Unilever Group, in his valedictory address to the CII national summit on corporate social responsibility, said: ‗Many companies did not exist more than 60 to 70 years because they do not evolve …….. Earning money was essential but it was not the essence of life. Companies have to create social capital, economic capital, spiritual capital and intellectual capital. Companies that don‘t create this kind of wealth would be dissolved or swept away. We have to act now out of choice or have change forced on us.‘ (7) These prophetic thoughts from the mind of a top business executive display an instinctive recognition of what Sri Aurobindo perceived with a more conscious, enlightened and far-seeing vision in the beginning of the twentieth century. ‗In the next stage of human progress‘ said Sri Aurobindo, ‗it is not a material but a spiritual, moral and psychological progress that has to be made‘ and ‗whatever race or whatever country that seizes on the lines of these evolution and fulfills it will be the leader of humanity‘. (8) In the scheme of Nature, whatever that does not evolve either becomes extinct or has to play second fiddle to the leaders who surge ahead. However there is one more important factor related to this higher evolution, which we would like to briefly touch upon before concluding our discussion. Human motivation or action has an inner intent as well as an outer content. The word ―motive‖ is normally used to describe mainly the inner intent. For example if I become moral out of fear of hell in the life after death or karmic consequences, then my motivation is ethical only in the outer content and not in the inner intent which is still the vital motive of fear. In this sense, the mental and moral needs emerging in business are very much mixed. There is a change only in the outer content but not much in the inner intent of still vital needs like productivity, competitive advantage, and the pressure of outer circumstances. However, the human organism is ―psychosomatic‖. Our body and mind, thoughts, feelings and actions have a mutual interaction and influence. An outer action, when it is done with sincerity, persistence and conviction, has corresponding inner results. For example, someone who becomes moral out of vital or material needs may one day become conscious of the inherent joy of virtue and as a result the lower needs may drop away. Or else, as he grows mentally he may awaken to the fact that ethics is an integral part of the higher laws of life, and as a result, a corresponding change occurs in the inner motives of action. For instance, the modern environmental movement is the result of such a mental awakening to the laws of physical Nature. When there is a similar awakening to the psychological and spiritual ecology of universal Nature, and when these higher laws of life are implemented and institutionalized in the corporate life, then it will give a decisive thrust to the higher evolution of the collective life of humanity. The corporate mind in business has to consciously strive for this higher awakening.

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Some Strategic Principles We have discussed so far the broad outlines of an evolutionary vision of motivation. Let us now examine briefly some of the strategic principles for implementing this vision in the modern corporate context. The first principle is liberty. This path of higher evolution or motivation should be held before people as an ideal to be voluntarily embraced and offered for free acceptance or rejection, but should not be imposed on them by the fiat of authority. We must understand clearly that this higher evolution cannot be induced by any external managerial manipulations or compulsions. It has to blossom from within, as a flower blooms through a process of free inner awakening. This means the central core of the strategy has to be education that leads to this inner awakening. This education has to start with every individual in the organization being given a basic understanding of the structure of the human organism and its full potential, the concept of human evolution and development, and the spectrum of human motives. An important part of this education is to learn the art of self-observation, to become more and more conscious of the inner motives, urges and impulses which shape and drive our decisions and actions. Those who are interested in this path of higher growth have to be given special attention and consideration to pursue the path and become living examples of higher motivation to others and become leaders and mentors for the higher evolution of the organization as a whole. This leads us to another important principle of higher motivation - inspired leadership that can communicate its own inner state to others. Someone who is inwardly awakened to a higher motive and lives it in her inner and outer life can awaken the same motive in others. However, those who show no interest in the higher motivation and evolution should not be compelled or punished. They are perhaps not ready for it and we have to wait patiently for the inner awakening to come through a process of natural evolution and the inner pressure of an awakened and progressive higher culture in the organization. Those who are obstinately attached to the status quo and unwilling to progress may perhaps leave the organisation themselves, being unable to bear the pressure of a progressive culture. But the most difficult part of the path is to identify motivational level of individuals and groups in the organization. This requires intuition on the part of the leaders and self-observation on the side of employees. It also requires a lot of research, counseling, mentoring, and patient sympathetic listening. A comprehensive research for understanding the motivational levels of the different demographic, national, racial, professional and hierarchical groups in the corporate world, such as women, knowledge-workers, white and blue collar workers, junior, middle and top management personnel, can be a great help in this task. Once the level of motivation is known, then each individual and the group can be provided with an appropriate developmental package to help them to awaken and actualize the higher motives which will lead to their evolutionary progress. This package should include factors like educational programmes, change, modification or adjustments in job or career, more leave and leisure and coaching session with mentors. In other words, the objective of the package should be to provide the Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 46

knowledge, methods, guidance, incentives and opportunities needed for the higher evolution of the individual or the group. Recent trends in business and management, such as business ethics and the emerging consensus on social responsibility are helpful in the ethical awakening and self-actualization of corporate citizens. But social responsibility is only one aspect of ethics. Intellectual discussion on business ethics, though helpful, does not lead to any deep and lasting ethical awakening. For a deeper and a more comprehensive ethical and spiritual awakening, moral values like sharing, kindness, compassion, self-control, charity, goodwill, mutual helpfulness and spiritual values like inner renunciation of ego, self-knowledge or surrender to the divine have to be internalized in the consciousness of the individual and the group and wherever possible institutionalized in the outer life of the organization. In this context the ancient Indian science of Yoga can provide a scientific, rational and intuitive philosophy and methodology for internalizing the higher moral and spiritual motives in the mind, heart, life and actions of people. There are many paths of yoga and the Karma Yoga or yoga of action expounded in the Bhagavat Gita provides the most potent and effective discipline for converting work and action into a means for the spiritual development of the individual. References 1. Christopher Barret, Interview, Business Today, May 7, 1999, pp.61 2. George Skaria, The Well-governed Corporation, Business Today, Nov.21, 1997, pp.25 3. James Burke, Interview in Thomas R. Horton Ed: What Works For Me, (New York, Random House, Business Division, 1986), p.19 4. Michael Burns, Interview, Business Today, June, 2007, pp.37 5. Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works, Vol.1, Bande Mataram, (Puducherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), p.475. 6. Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works, Vol. 26, Supplement, (Puducherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), p.475. 7. Stephen Robins, Organizational Behaviour (New Delhi, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi), pp.214 8. Tex Gunning, The Hindu, June 16, 2007. 9. Timothy Butler and James Waldrop, Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People, Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1999, pp.41-63.

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FACETS OF INTEGRITY: INDIVIDUAL AND CORPORATE The modern corporate world as a whole is in the process of acquiring a Conscience. Concepts like ethics and social responsibility are becoming part of the main stream of management thought and practice. One of the terms we hear constantly in the current ethical debate, and among corporate executives, is "Integrity". The concept of integrity is perceived mostly in its ethical connotations. But the concept can also be viewed in its psychological and spiritual, individual and collective dimension. This article examines this multi-dimensional significance of integrity in the modern corporate context and in the light of an integral vision of human development. The Ethical Dimension In the ethical perspective, integrity means honesty, truthfulness, transparency and condour in all transactions. This ethical aspect of integrity is now well recognized in business. We hear top executives talking about Integrity as the foundation of long-term effectiveness. Many reputed companies have placed Integrity as a core element in their value systems. As Pramod Bhasin, President and CEO of Genpack, states "For an enterprise to be successful in the long term it has to be founded on a strong platform of integrity and values" and when asked "how do leaders face up to scenarios where there could be a clash between values and pragmatism, especially in the light of competitive pressures", Bhasin answers simply "The choice is easy if you really understand that integrity is non-negotiable". (Bhasin p.2006) However modern business has arrived at this awakening to the importance of integrity mostly through pragmatic and environmental pressures like for example, changing competitive landscape, demands of the investor and customer, green or consumer activism, long-term benefits in terms goodwill and trust, better public image. As the well-known founder of Infosys Narayana Murthy points out: "Investors, customers, employees and vendors have all become very discerning and are demanding greater transparency in all dealings". (Skaria. G, 1999) But to realize fully the spiritual potential as well as the material benefits of integrity, it has to be pursued for its own sake without seeking for any short-term or long-term material benefits, even while knowing that such benefits may come. For an ethical or spiritual value lived in action releases a moral and spiritual force, which brings material results in the long run. The quality, power and effectiveness of this moral or spiritual force and its results depend on the extent of selflessness and disinterestedness in the motive. This is the significance of the constantly repeated assertion in the Indian epic Mahabharata, that Dharma is the source of Wealth (Artha). These are spiritual insights of seers which cannot be fully validated in empirical terms. However there are some executives and entrepreneurs in business, who are spiritually inclined have experienced this phenomenon in their lives. Alvaro Cruz, CEO of the construction company I.C.M Ingeniers Ltd states "Non-attachment to your work attracts more income and better result. The less attached you are to the fruits of your work the more you are likely to get higher profits". (Cruz. A, 2007) And V.V. Ranganathan, a former Senior Partner, Ernst and Young states "If you are able to run any enterprise without selfish motives and with selfless Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 48

service, then I believe that success will fall into place" and explains further "what I mean is that my effort and involvement in doing something is not determined or driven by what I get in return. And I know by my own experience this works" (Ranganathan, 2007) The scientific mind may not accept these examples as valid proof. It may question the connection between the cause and effect. But the scientific mind must have the humility to admit that there are faculties beyond the scientific reason which can perceive truth which it cannot know. The Psychological Dimension This brings us to the psychological dimensions of Integrity. In a psychological perspective integrity means alignment of the physical, vital and mental dimension of the human organism around a focal point of integration. For the individual, the physical dimension is the body. The vital is that part of our being which is the sources of our sensations, feelings, emotions, vitality, energy, enthusiasm and the dynamic faculties of will action and execution. The mental is the source of our thoughts, ideas, perceptions, reason, discrimination and judgement. The vital being in us seeks for power, wealth, enjoyment, success, expansion, achievement, conquest and mastery over the forces of life and nature. A strong and energetic vital is essential for all successful materialization of the ideas and ideals in the mind. The mind or mental being in us seeks for knowledge, understanding and the higher laws, aims and values of life and the standards of right living. Thus in a psychological perspective integrity means for the individual alignment or harmony between inner intention and outer action or as Stephen Cowey puts "intention drives perception which drives behaviour, which then drives results." (Cowey, S, 2007) More comprehensively stated, integrity means harmony between thought, feeling, will and action. I must have the conviction and clarity in my thought, put the power of my will firmly in what I think, passionate about what I think or believe and finally honest and courageous in executing what I think or feel in my action. This integration of the personality is the source of inner power or charisma and effectiveness in action. This is a difficult achievement, which requires much discipline and selfobservation. But it is an ideal worth striving for, because it builds our individuality and helps in achieving our higher potentialities. But Integrity is not only individualistic but also has a collective dimension. Just like the individual, a collectivity like an organization also has a physical, vital and mental dimension. The physical dimension is the material structures like building or machinery and the rules and regulations which govern the material life of the community. The vital being in man expresses itself in the collective organism through the economic, social and political life of the community, like its power and wealth structures, interpersonal relationship or interactions and its systems of execution. Similarly, the collective mind of the community expresses itself through its information systems, knowledge-generating process, decision-making structures, research and development, mission, vision, values and culture. So for the collectivity, integrity means alignment of its physical, vital and mental dimension around a focal point of integration.

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The Dharmic Approach We are now brought to the next question. What could be the focal point of integration which can harmonise the physical, vital and mental dimensions of the individual and the collectivity. Most of the spiritual traditions agree that for the individual the focal point of integration is the deepest and innermost spiritual core or the divinity or the soul in man, which is the fourth dimension beyond our body, life and mind. But this spiritual integration, which is the highest form of integrity, is for most of us a far-off ideal which requires a long and difficult inner discipline. We need a les difficult intermediary ideal which can provide a more practically feasible focal point of integration. Here comes the importance of the Indian concept of Dharma. In this Indian perception, the focal point of integration has to be around some dharmic values. In the Indian thought Dharma means values derived from the laws of human and universal Nature, which lead to the material, mental, moral and spiritual progress, well-being and fulfillment of humanity. In its universal sense, Dharma is all those values, ideas, principles or standards of conduct which are derived from the laws of the highest spiritual nature of Man and the world like truth, beauty, goodness, harmony, freedom, equality interdependence, wholeness, unity, oneness of all existence, and ultimately the source of all these eternal verities, the Divine. Dharma also includes the practical implications of these values for action and behaviour like truthfulness, selflessness, generosity, kindness, compassion, fareness, justice, empowerment, trust, goodwill, service, contribution to the progress and well-being of the larger whole. Among modern management thinkers Stephen Cowey comes very close to this dharmic conception of integrity. ―Personally I believe" states this well-known leadership guru "that the source of the principles that give your life its integrity and its power and its meaning, all of them link up to the Divine. To be a spiritual based leader is to have these universal principles integrated in your inner life and outer action" (Cowey S, 2007). Elaborating further on the nature of these universal principles Cowey says "The principles I am referring to are the basic universal principles that pertain to all human relationship and organizations, for instance fairness, justice, honesty, integrity, trust. They are self-evident, self-validating. These principles are like natural laws and operate regardless whether we decide to obey them are not--- and they provide us with rock-solid direction to our lives and our organization‖ (Cowey S, 1996) But apart from universal Dharma Indian thought recognized two other aspects of Dharma which provides a pragmatic orientation to the concept. The first one is the Dharma of the relative world of change, of which the most important elements is the dharma the stage of evolution. Most of us do not have the inner capacity or resources to realize the highest spiritual potentialities of the universal Dharmas. We have to grow towards them through various intermediary stages of mental, moral and spiritual development. The third face of dharma is the dharma of the unique and intrinsic nature of the individual and the collectivity called, as swadharma.

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The individuals vary in nature, temperament, inclination, capacities and the level of development. Similarly the inner nature or swadharma of a business, political, cultural, educational and spiritual organizations are not the same. For example, while "simple living and high thinking" may be the right system of values for the scholar, saint, thinker and the sage or for an educational, cultural and spiritual organisation, it is not the appropriate system of values for a business organization, or the temperament of a businessman, called as Vysya in ancient Indian thought. The right system of values for the economic, commercial and industrial life of a community is not simple living but a beautiful, harmonious and apulent living or in other words, orchestrating a rich diversity into a beautiful and harmonious whole. Similarly the right dharma for the corporate world is not "high thinking" of the abstract, metaphysical or idealistic kind, but useful, pragmatic, generous and democratic thinking which can bring down power, wealth, knowledge, culture, ideas, ideals and values into the lower levels of the economic and social hierarchy and make them accessible to the masses. Similarly the temperament of a businessman cannot grow and prosper in an environment of ascetic bareness or simplicity. It needs a certain amount of generous enjoyment—sensuous, emotional and aesthetic—of the richness of life for its progress. So the ethical discipline for the businessman or the corporate world has to be based not on an ascetic self-denial, but on the values of honesty, harmony, beauty, justice, fareness, mutuality, philanthropy and charity. So, the Indian thought held the view that we have to take into consideration not only the highest ideals of universal dharma but also the temporal dharma of the present stage of evolution and the unique swadharma of the individual or the community. This requires a dharmic insight which leads to a pragmatic reconciliation of the needs of the universal, temporal and individual dharmas. This insight develops by consciously cultivating the ethical and aesthetic sense and a purified rational or emotional intelligence free from gross forms of ego and desire like greed, violence, lust, excessive selfishness and overweening pride or arrogance. In this dharmic perspective, integrity means for the individual, integration of the body, mind, hart, will and the dynamic faculties of action around some life-enriching dharmic values. Similarly for the collectivity integrity means integration of the material, economic, social and political life of the community around some cultural ideals which are in turn to based on a dharmic insight. For a modern organization the focal point of integration could be what is now called in modern management thought as the Mission, Vision and Values. The Mission is a statement of the purpose of the organization. The Vision is what the organization wants to achieve or realize in a specific time-frame and the Values are the guiding principles for behaviour, action and decision-making in the daily life in the organization. In our dharmic approach, mission, vision and values have to be derived from a dharmic insight and they have to be aligned with the strategy, staff, system structures and procedures of the organization The Spiritual Dimension But to realize the highest level of integrity, we have to raise beyond the ethical and psychological to the spiritual dimension. This seeking for the spiritual begins only when the need for it arises in the individual and the collectivity. Is there such a need in the corporate world at present? Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 51

Moreover an enquiry into the spiritual dimensions of integrity may take us into the metaphysical realms. How far such metaphysical discussions are valid in business? First of all there is at present an increasing number of people in the corporate world who are seeking for a spiritual fulfillment in work and life. They are asking existential questions and are already reading philosophical and spiritual literature. This higher aspiration emerging in business is mostly private, personal and individual. And most of them may not be willing to admit their spiritual aspiration or faith openly in public even when they may be putting into practice in their professional life. As Neils Due Jensen, Group chairman, Grundfos Management, Denmark, states, ―Today a major share of manager in both private and public organizations would not admit if they were managing their organization from a background of spirituality although many would in fact do so unconsciously.‖(Jensen N.D, 2007) So why not bring this higher aspiration, which at present remains suppressed, consciously and systematically into the main-stream of academic and professional thinking and practice in management? Interestingly, this is also happening in business and management. For example, the US Academy of Management has recently launched a magazine, Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, focusing on the higher aspiration emerging in business. This journal in its mission statement says: ―The remarkable explosion of scholarship in the field of management, business, organizations and work provides the opportunity for more specialized interest areas. One area whose turn has come is that of Spirituality and Religion and their role in shaping organizations.‖ This bringing of the higher aspiration from the private space to the public domain of scholarship will do a lot of good to the well-being of the corporate world. For, as the well-known psychologist Carl Jung has said, that one of the major cause of psychological disorders among the people in the west is the suppression of the religious aspiration by the secular and scientific mind of the west. So let us not shy away from the spiritual or philosophical in management thought. The essence of integrity is truthfulness. So to realize the highest level of integrity we have to integrate our whole being around the very source of truth within us. Most of the spiritual traditions and teachings of the world agree that there is a spiritual element or divinity, soul or spirit in every individual, which is the source of all higher values and aspirations in man. According to the Indian spiritual thought, this spirit or divinity within man is the deepest and innermost truth of our being, beyond our body and mind, beyond even our ethical and aesthetic being. This indwelling divinity or soul is an immortal spark of the universal and the eternal Truth. In Indian philosophy the term used for Truth is ―Sat‖ which is the spiritual essence of all that is and That by which all exists The soul or the spirit in man is made of this spiritual substance of Sat. So, in this Indian spiritual conception ―Truth‖ is not merely ethical honesty. To be truthful in a spiritual sense is to integrate our whole being our body, life and mind and all its faculties, around the spiritual centre in us, which is the truth of our individual being and the source of all higher values. This is the highest level of integrity. We can now understand why the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram defines Sincerity as: ―To lift all the movements of the being to the level Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 52

of the highest consciousness and realization already attained. Sincerity exacts the unification and harmonization of the whole being in all its parts and movement around the central Divine Will‖. (The Mother, 1972) But what is this Divine Will and how to know it? The Divine Will is not what is ordained in the Scriptures through right understanding and practice of scriptural injunction are a great help in our spiritual progress. In a spiritual perspective, the Divine Will for the individual is the inner divine guidance and impulsion of the spiritual element in us. How to know this inner guidance of our soul? It is a long, difficult and arduous discipline, full of perils and pitfalls, like for example mistaking the voice of our own mind and heart or some lesser powers of the subliminal mind as the Divine will. But however hard and difficult it may be, every individual at a certain state in her evolution, has to make this journey if she wants to realize her highest potential. But how to realize this spiritual integration? What is the path? The main principles of the path may be briefly summarized on the following lines:  Progressive purification of the mind and heart from all forms ego, desire and attachment; rejection of all negativities like greed, violence, jealousy; and in work and action, renunciation of the fruits of action.  Constant and vigilant self-observation or mindfulness which is very much necessary to become fully conscious of what we are made of, detect and reject all contradictions and self-deceptions within us and unify our being around our central ideal, principle or value which we want to realize  Consciously cultivate those values which lead to peace and harmony within us and the surrounding environment like kindness, generosity, compassion, service, tolerance, understanding, non-judgemental attitude, patience, forgiveness.  Constant Practice of mental stillness along with peace and equanimity under all circumstances  Developing the capacity for introversion by which we can enter deep into our inner being and come into direct contact with our soul. Is this ideal and discipline a little too high and difficult for people in the corporate world? Is there anyone in business and management thinking about or practicing this spiritual ideal in the corporate world? Stephen Cowey comes very close to this spiritual ideal of integrity when he says. ―To me spirituality is three things. First of all you are dealing with the whole person. That includes the person‘s spirit or soul. You cannot separate their body or their mind or their heart from their spirit because they are all so interrelated and there is a synergic relationship between all the four dimensions of our nature. Another dimension would be that you are dealing with principles that are universal and timeless--- certainly principles have a moral and spiritual foundation but no religion has a patent on them—‖ (Cowey S, 2007) And Ramon Olle, President, Epson Europe, Netherlands states: Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 53

―When your leadership is founded on a value and belief system that consider the person as a total unity of the spiritual and the material, you cannot segregate which part of your daily activity is which and just consider one side of your total integrity.‖(Olle R, 2007) And most of these spiritually inclined leaders in the corporate world are probably following some form of spiritual discipline. Peter Pruzan and Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelson in their book Leading with Wisdom which contain interviews of 31 corporate leaders from 15 countries who are making the attempt to lead from a basis of spirituality, state: ―Most, not all of the executives had some kind of systematic spiritual practice----Meditation was a practice mentioned by a large number of the leaders‖ and quotes Niran Jung, CEO of Institute of Human Excellence, Australia: ―I go to meditation retreats,----Meditation for me is throughout the day. It is being mindful.‖(Pruzan P, Mikkelson K.P, 2007) The other spiritual practice, which was mentioned by many executives interviewed in this book by Pruzans, is "looking and listening within". As Ricardo B. Levy Chairman of Catalyca Inc. USA, explains: "learning to quiet my mind and get into my deeper inner self and from that place listen to the voice of God, to give me the signals of my path".(Levy B, 2007) The Collective Dimension We have discussed earlier the process of spiritual integration at the individual level. Can there be a similar integration at the collective level. A collectivity is coming together of individuals for a common purpose. So if we accept the presence of a spiritual element in the individual, then it would not be unreasonable to suppose that there is probably a dormant and potential spiritual dimension in the collectivity. This potential spiritual dimension becomes active under three conditions. First when the collectivity is formed by the divine Power with a specific spiritual mission; secondly, when the founders of the collectivity are spiritual personalities, who give a spiritual purpose and direction to the community; third when the collectivity in the course of its evolution gets spiritually awakened through spiritually inspired leadership. Thus, when the leaders and individuals in an organization practice and realize this spiritual integration within themselves, they will provide the focal point of harmony for the spiritual integration of the collectivity. For, integration of the individual is the basis for the integration of the collectivity. A spiritually integrated individual radiates a spiritual force of harmony which by its subtle, silent and invisible spiritual influence, releases a corresponding force of harmony in the collectivity. And when the leaders of an organization live according to the inner guidance and inspiration of the spiritual source of their being, they will provide the right system of spiritual ideals and values around which the life of the collectivity can be integrated at the highest spiritual level. References: 1. Bhasin P, The Power of Principles in a Leader's Repository, ISBINSIGHT, The Indian School of Business Magazine, December, 2004, p.19, 20. 2. The Mother, Collected Works, Vol. 14, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, 1972, p. 67 3. Cowey S, (1996) Putting Principles First, eds: Rowan Gibson, Rethinking the Future, (Nicholas Brealey, London) Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 54

4. Peter Pruzan and Kristen Pruzan Mikkelsen Ed (2007), Leading with Wisdom, (Response New Delhi), pp.80, 82, 113, 243, 245. 5. Skaria G. The Well-governed Corporation, Business Today, November, 1999.

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ETHICS, VALUES AND THE BOTTOMLINE The scope of ethics need not be confined to honesty. The higher values of our mental, moral and spiritual being have to be properly integrated with the pragmatic values and aims of the socioeconomic and political life. This article examines some aspects of this integration in a holistic perspective. Scope of Ethics The present ethical debate in the corporate world is focused mostly on values like honesty, integrity, fairness or transparency. But the scope of ethics is not confined to these values. Charity, kindness, compassion, trust, forgiveness, generosity, courage, self-control, perfection, service, caring for the welfare of others are also ethical virtues. A company or management which fires an employee for using the company phone for personal talk is strictly ethical. But, a company which treats even a major ethical offence with compassion, trying to understand the deeper cause of the offence and gives sufficient opportunity and chance for the offender to correct or reform himself is perhaps much more ethical than a company which fires an employee for a minor ethical violation. Here are two corporate examples, which bring out the difference between a narrow and a broader ethical culture. An employee of a company got addicted to alcohol. His performance deteriorated and he frequently absented himself from work. The company management fired him. A similar case from Tata Steel. He was a senior manager who took to the bottle because he was denied the promotion he felt he deserved. But the management of the company did not fire him. The erring employee was treated with patience and understanding and was helped to reform himself.(1) Another example from a cultural-spiritual organization. He is a basically nice and decent young man, but somehow got into a state of aggressive infatuation with a woman-member of the community, who felt harassed, threatened and complained to the authorities. The psychiatric experts opined that the young man is psychologically imbalanced and advised temporary suspension of the erring member from the organization, until he is restored to health by undergoing a course of psychiatric treatment. However, leaders of the organizations treated the case with understanding, compassion and patience. And finally, the young man got over his problem and there was no further trouble from him. But a professional manager may express a legitimate reservation to such a compassionate approach. If the erring employee is let off lightly, will it not send a wrong signal to other employees, and encourage the potential offenders? It depends on the sincerity and inner condition of the leaders. If the leaders are inwardly sincere, compassionate and fair without any open or hidden personal bias, this inner condition communicates itself to other employees and they will understand. For example in spiritual communities, the Guru, the Master will deal with each disciple differently according to his or her individual uniqueness, nature, temperament, Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 56

inner needs and evolutionary condition, and sometime for the same error or offense, the master may be firm or severe with one disciple and lenient with another. But such an approach does not cause much resentment among disciples, because they can feel and recognize the superior wisdom and compassion of the Master. Here again the corporate manager may say that such an approach may be fine for a spiritual organization but is it valid for a modern business organization, working in an environment of fast change, intense competition and tough deadlines? But, interestingly, the corporate world is beginning to recognize that a reformist, flexible and compassionate approach to erring employees is perhaps more profitable in the longterm than summary dismissals. As a columnist in a leading business daily, writing about the problem of alcoholism in corporate India, states, ―It‘s easier and cheaper for a company to put an erring employee back on track rather than hire, train and acclimatize a new employee.‖(2) But there are also a few executives in the corporate world, who have followed a compassionate approach to people, not out of practical consideration, but from a moral and spiritual perspective. As Rajan Govindan, former managing director of Banker Trust, US, states: ―The challenge in all this for me was what to do with a person who made the same mistake over and over again ……….. For years, I simply let the people go the first time. But now it would be very painful for me to fire a person ………. I feel much different and would try to help them not make the mistake again. If they did make a mistake second time, I help them find another place in the company where they would be better suited.‖(3) Moreover, the concept of individual uniqueness and the need to deal with each employee according to his or her unique nature, talents and idiosyncrasies is now recognized in the corporate world. This principle applies not only to talents but also to ethical lapses. In the longterm perspective a sincere, patient and compassionate attempt to understand the unique inner and outer causes of individual problems that create the deviant behaviour may lead to much new learning which can be a great help in enhancing corporate wellness and formulating better wellness strategies. However to maximize the moral and psychological well-being of the corporate world, ethics should become a natural and integral part of corporate life. For this to happen, the ethical impulse must emerge from within than imposed from outside. The creative question, which the corporate mind has to ask, is how to do the various activities and functions of the corporate world in a nobler, truer and more beautiful way. There is a moral element even in some of the mundane values of the corporate world like Quality, Customer Service and Continuous Improvement, and Employee Welfare. There is a spark of selflessness in the emerging customer-centric corporate culture. For example, Michael Hammer, the inventor of the concept of Reengineering, while describing the qualities required for success in the future, mentions ―a certain degree of selflessness to focus on the customer‖ as one of the qualities. Similarly the concept and practice of Continuous Improvement, a part of Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy, which if pursued as an integral part of the ideal of progressive perfection can help in the moral and spiritual development of the individual. As Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 57

the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, in one of her letters on Yoga, points out: ―Try to enjoy doing everything you can do. When you are interested in what you do, you enjoy it. To be interested in what you do, you must try to do it better and better. In progress lies true joy.‖ When we seek for a progressive excellence or perfection in every aspect of our work, then it can be a means of spiritual growth. Again as Mother states: ―In works aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality.‖(4) Similarly employee wellbeing is a great ethical value and an organization, which gives priority attention to this value, makes rapid progress in its higher evolution. Thus, when these modern corporate values are pursued with certain selflessness and the right inner attitudes it can lead to the moral and spiritual development of the individual and the organization. In fact, every activity of business or the corporate life can be pursued with an ethical, aesthetic and spiritual attitude and orientation. Values and the Bottomline This is an important principle, which is beginning to be recognized in modern corporate life - the pragmatic significance of values. For a moral or spiritual value lived in action releases a corresponding moral or spiritual force, which in the long-term leads to positive material gains. This is a fact intuitively perceived by all morally and spiritually sensitive minds but difficult to prove in empirical terms. However, there is at present a growing body of research, which indicates that moral ideals can lead to financial and business success. For example, Patricia Aburdene, in her well-known book, ―Megatrends 2010,” states: ―Socially responsible firms repeatedly achieve first-rate financial returns that meet and often beat the market and their peers, proving morals and money may be curiously compatible, after all. For example, Governance Metrics International rated public firms on governance, labour, environmental and litigation policies. Top-ranked firms substantially outperformed the market, while poorly rated firms significantly trailed it.‖ Patricia gives the following example to substantiate her hypothesis. A 2002 DePaul University study found that the Business Ethics 100 Best Citizens (the 2001 list) outperformed the mean of the rest of the S&P 500 by ten percentile points. The DePaul study tracked total returns, sales growth and profit growth. When researchers studied firms that honour stakeholders, not just shareholders, the results were particularly striking. Tower Perrin studied 25 firms that excel in relationships with stakeholders investors, customers, employees, suppliers and communities. From 1984 to 1999 the ―stakeholder superstars‖ beat the S&P 500 by 126 percent. The ―superstars,‖ including firms such as Coca Cola, Cisco, P&G and Southwest Airlines, showed a 43 percent return in total shareholder value versus 19 percent in total shareholder return for the S&P 500. Employees are clearly stakeholders. Does it pay to keep them happy? A Watson Wyatt Worldwide survey of 400 public firms found those with the most employee-friendly practices, such as flexitime and good training, delivered shareholders a 103 percent return (over 5 years), while those with the fewest gained 53 percent in the same time frame.(5) Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 58

However we must note here this link between higher ideals and the bottomline happens only when the pragmatic values are not rejected or ignored but properly integrated with the pursuit and actualization of higher values. But if the higher values are pursued exclusively at the expense of or ignoring pragmatic values like efficiency, productivity or prosperity it will not lead to the integral well-being of the individual or the community. For example, if the people of a nation or civilization - at a certain stage in its history - were carried away by a powerful and lofty but world-denying spiritual philosophy, and neglect or ignore the material and pragmatic aims and values of life, then it will weaken the vital vigour of the nation resulting in poverty in the economic and social life, and weakness in the political life, sometimes culminating in painful and humiliating subjection and conquest by foreign powers. As Sri Aurobindo explains: ―The nation or group is not like the individual who can specialize his development and throw all his energies into one line. The nation must develop military and political greatness and activities, intellectual and aesthetic greatness and activity, moral sanity and vigour; it cannot sacrifice any of these functions of the organism without making itself unfit for the struggle for life and finally succumbing and perishing under the pressure of more highly organized nations …….. No government …….. can really be good for a nation or serve the purposes of national life and development which does not give full scope for the development of all the national activities, capacities and energies‖ (6) This principle applies not only to the development of a Nation but also to any human community like an organization. The mental, moral, aesthetic or spiritual ideals should not be pursued exclusively at the expense of pragmatic values, which lead to economic, social and political vitality and vigour. A strong vigorous, creative and productive vital energy and a beautiful and harmonious plenitude and prosperity of the material life are also part of total wellbeing of the human life. The right condition for integral wellbeing is a harmony and integration of the values of the body, life, mind and spirit in man, organized in a proper hierarchy. In practical terms, it means the values and ideals of the higher mind and spirit should inspire, guide and control our physical and vital life and cast their refining influence on the body and life of our individual and collective organism.

References 1. Mitra. M, ‗One Too Many,‘ Business Today, 2002, February, p.112-113. 2. Ibid 3. Peter and Kristen Pruzan, Leading with Wisdom, Response, p.190-91 4. The Mother, Collected Works, Vol. 14, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, p. 325, 28. 5. Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends, 2010, The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, Hampton Roads, p. 29. 6. Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works, Vol.1, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, p.886

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LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE The concept of Corporate Governance seems to be a new fad in management. Much has been said and written about this subject in management literature. But the essence of governance is leadership, so corporate governance must be based mainly on the essential functions of leadership. The following is a brief outline of a vision of corporate governance based on the basic functions of leadership. The Goals of Governance If it is accepted that leadership is the core of governance, then the goals of governance can be broadly classified in terms of the following functions of leadership: 1. Self-governance 2. Wielding Power under the Yoke of Values 3. Building a Self-governing Community 4. Empowering People 5. Creating Equity 6. Forging Fraternity 7. Promoting the Progressive Evolution of the Individual and the Organisation Self-governing Leadership Most modern theories on leadership are concerned with creating outer change and leading others. But inner change is the foundation of outer change and management of self is the basis of managing others. Someone who cannot manage himself cannot manage others. Conversely, someone who has attained a certain mastery over his own self emanates a subtle inner power and authority, which commands spontaneous obedience from others. So self-governance is the most fundamental function of leadership. This view of self-governing leadership will look at the difficulties faced by a leader in his outer life in a deeper light. Whatever problem the leader encounters in his outer life is a reflection of the difficulty within him. The inner causes are within and if he is able to discover this inner root of the difficulty within him and correct it, then the corresponding outer problem find its natural solution. Wielding Power under the Yoke of Values Governance involves wielding Power - economic, social or political power. There is also psychological power which flows from the leader‘s personality and, as we have discussed earlier, from self-governance. This inner power, which comes from self-governance, is the most of authentic form of power. But all forms of Power, inner or outer, have to be put under the yoke of Dharma, the values derived from the laws of human and universal Nature, which are the foundations of material, moral and spiritual well-being of the individual and the collectivity. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 60

So values should not be chosen arbitrarily according to the personal fancies, or ideals of the leader or cultural preferences like Indian or Western. They have to be based on the universal Dharma of Man and Nature and the unique and intrinsic dharma, the swadharma, of the community. The foundation of all dharmic values is Truth, which has different connotations at various levels. At the ethical level Truth means honesty, transparency, candour and rectitude in deadlines; at the psychological level it means harmony between our thought, feeling, will and action, integrated around some dharmic values which lead to the unity, harmony, wholeness and well-being of human life. At the spiritual level it means living according to the guidance and inspiration of the innermost spiritual core of our being which exists beyond our body and mind and integrating our inner being and outer life around this deepest truth of our individuality. This triune conception of Truth, pursued individually and collectively, lays the firm and enduring foundation of a dharmic life. Building a Self-governing Community Among universal dharma‘s, the corporate worlds of the future have to arrive at a new synthesis of the modern ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity and ecology at deeper and inner levels and create a self-governing community. As Sri Aurobindo explains in his book ‗Human Unity’, liberty, equality and fraternity are not merely social and political values. They are neither ―western‖ nor ―eastern‖ values but part of the universal dharma of humanity. They are in essence ―attributes of the spirit‖ which means intrinsic qualities of the human soul or the spiritual self in man. Each human soul lives in a state of total freedom from all inner and outer bondage, especially the bondage of ego and desire. All souls are equal manifestations of the universal Self or Spirit or the One Divine Being. Every soul feels a concrete sense of inner fraternity with all other souls. All the different political systems like democracy, socialism or communism are outer attempters to translate these triune qualities of the soul in the social and political life, but without making any conscious effort to internalize these values in the consciousness of people. The corporate world can experiment with a new synthesis of these triune values based on the principle of ―within outwards‖. This requires a system of education and a favourable outer environment. First is a system of education leading to a progressive inner realization of liberty, equality and fraternity in the consciousness of people. Second is an outer environment, which allows this inner realization, as it progresses, to organize itself spontaneously in the outer life. Empowering People Liberating and energizing people with minimum rules and maximum freedom - what the management guru Tom Peters called ―Liberation Management.‖ Creating an organizational culture in which each individual is given sufficient freedom and opportunity to think, initiate, decide, organize, achieve, learn and progress towards his or her highest potential and express this potential in his or her work life. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 61

But this outer liberty is not enough. For the future evolution of the corporate world this outer liberty has to be reinforced by an inner liberty from greed, violence, lust, selfishness and other negatives in emotions and attachment to false, one-sided, partial or out-dated dogmas, beliefs, ideas and ideals in thought. This inner freedom is not merely a matter of morality or idealism, it has pragmatic consequences for the corporate world. This inner liberty will open our heart and mind to deeper sources of innovation, creativity and sensitivity to higher values, felicitating the flowering of emotional and intuitive intelligence. Creating Equity Awakening each individual in the organization to the equal dignity or divinity of the human essence, irrespective of position and status in the social hierarchy or variation in capacities and other external factors. Promoting Distributive Justice, i.e. equitable distribution of wealth, power, knowledge, information, culture and the fruits of development in the community. We must note here equitable does not mean equal. Perfect equality of distribution is neither possible nor desirable in economic, social and political life. There can be equal access to resources and opportunities like knowledge, information, education or training and other opportunities for growth and learning but the reward system has to be based on capacity and contribution. Creating an equitable reward system means each individual gets the reward he or she deserves according to his capacities, creativity or the nature and quality of his contribution to the organization‘s goals or to the well-being and progress of the group. Minimize levels of hierarchy and encourage free flow of information and interaction between the various levels of the organization. Sharing of wealth and profits in such a way that there is no large disparity between higher and lower income groups in the organization. This feeling and effort towards equity should extend beyond the organizational community to the larger economic and social environment, as there must be a conscious effort towards creating an equitable and inclusive social order in the world around. Forging Fraternity Creating a sense of inner and outer unity and solidarity among people - between management and employees, among employees, and with other stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, community and finally with humanity and Nature. Professional teamwork, pragmatic interdependence, shared values and ideals can create a certain amount of outer fraternity. But for a more enduring unity we have to create an inner fraternity based on a deeper emotional and psychological solidarity among people. To achieve this, groups like customers, suppliers or employees should not be considered as abstract or professional categories with whom we enter into an impersonal or contractual relation. They have to be viewed as living human beings with inner and outer needs and aspirations, and with whom we are entering into a personal relationship. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 62

Similarly with Nature. Man is a part of Nature, not only physically but also psychologically and spiritually. So Nature has to be viewed not merely as a physical and biological organism but a living conscious Being or a Universal Force of the Spirit with a physical, psychological and spiritual dimension. The integral aim of ecology is the harmony of human consciousness and life with universal Nature in all the dimensions of our being - material, psychological and spiritual. Promoting the Progressive Evolution of the Individual and the Organisation Creating a system of education and motivation, this leads to the progressive evolution of the individual and the organization from the physical, vital and mental to the spiritual dimensions of consciousness. Each individual has to be awakened to the highest spiritual goals and aims of life. However, for practical reasons each individual has to be taken as he/she is in his/her present condition and helped to take the next step in evolution as a step towards his spiritual destiny, for example from physical to vital, from vital to mental and from mental to spiritual. Making a conscious effort to constantly enhance the capacity, creativity and contribution of employees through continuous education, training and co-creation or partnership. The organization as a whole has to be steered toward higher and higher levels of growth by reorienting the goals of the organization towards deeper, higher and more inclusive vision, values and ideals. For example, stakeholder value is a more inclusive ideal than shareholder value; creativity, innovation and knowledge management is a deeper and higher ideal than efficiency and productivity; ecological and social responsibility is a higher ideal than profit maximization for the company; employee well-being is a greater ideal than skills development. In this paradigm of corporate governance, the full, harmonious and integral development of the human potential in an organization at all levels of human consciousness - physical, vital, mental, moral, aesthetic and spiritual - and its harmonious and integral selfexpression in the outer life is the aim of organizational development. Reports on Corporate Governance have to give an account of the status or progress of the organization in all these six functions of Governance. Values of Corporate Dharma We have said that wielding power under the yoke of values has to be one of the guiding principles of corporate governance. But these values have to be in harmony with the unique dharma of the corporate world. The following list is a brief summary of what we may call as the values of corporate dharma. Creating wealth for the society through efficient, economic and productive utilization of resources. Producing high quality products and services at minimum cost. Delighting the customer.

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Enhancing the quality of the larger economic, ecological and social environment through creative giving or sharing of wealth, knowledge, skill, expertise and resources with the community. Employee development not only in terms of skills, knowledge and creativity but also in terms of their material, mental, moral and spiritual well-being. Truth, honesty and transparency in all dealings. Mutual trust and goodwill among members of the organizational community. Fairness and justice in dealing with employee grievances. Patience, understanding and compassion in dealing with ethical, professional and personal problems among employees. Creating a mutually beneficial win-win situation in all transactions. Creativity, innovation and continuous improvement in every activity of the corporate life and progressive perfection in work. Beauty and harmony in the equipment and organization of the material and economic life of the company. Promoting self-knowledge, self-management, compassion and service as primary leadership qualities. Cultivating inner Peace and providing reasonable outer Security, acting as anchors of stability in a sea of change. Providing sufficient rest, relaxation, leisure and inner and outer space to people for reflection, renewal and growth. Every activity of the individual and corporate life, for example, finance, marketing or manufacturing, should have some clearly defined professional, ethical, aesthetic and spiritual standards or ideals of perfection towards which it has to progress continually with a constant uplifting aspiration and effort. Felicitating the triune integration - integration of the body, mind, heart, will and action of the individual around a dharmic ideal or the spiritual core of her being; integration of the personal and professional life of the employee; and integration of the material, technoeconomic, social, political and cultural life of the organization around its mission, vision and values, which are in turn derived from dharma.

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Part-II HARNESSING THE POWERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

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FACULTIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS Knowledge, talent and skill are the source of productivity and performance. But what is not fully recognized in modern management or educational thought is that behind outer forms of knowledge, talent or skill, there are corresponding inner faculties, which are their psychological source. For example behind the genius of Einstein there is a highly developed intellectual, scientific and intuitive faculty of knowledge. Similarly behind the competence, skill or achievement of a high-performing entrepreneur or manager there is a well-developed pragmatic and executive faculty of action. For maximizing the performance of individuals we have to identify these inner psychological faculties and develop all its potentials consciously through appropriate methods. Here is a broad outline of faculties, which have to be developed for realizing the full psychological potentialities of the individual. 

Concentration - the ability to focus all the energies of our consciousness on a point or activity.



Mindfulness - an alert, vigilant and detached awareness of our own inner being and outer life.

     

Conceptual, rational and analytical intelligence - discovers or generates new ideas and concepts. Pragmatic intelligence - solves problems, generates practical innovation and applies ideas for the enrichment of life. Emotional, ethical and aesthetic intelligence - with an intuitive sensitivity to the higher values of truth, beauty, goodness, harmony and unity. Faculties of will and vital-force - essential for executing and manifesting ideas and ideals in life. Imagination - makes abstract ideas concrete to thought and feeling and visualize unmanifest possibilities of the future. Intuition - reconciles opposites, perceives the interconnected and interdependent wholeness of life, sees, feels or senses the truth of problems, situations, ideas, possibilities or people with a direct supralogical insight, and perceives the deeper truth behind the outer appearances. Some of these faculties develop partially, unconsciously and indirectly in the course of study, work, life and action. For example, academic, scientific, philosophical, mathematical studies, research or work, develop the rational, analytical and conceptual intelligence. Similarly technological, managerial, professional and entrepreneurial work develops the pragmatic intelligence. But if we can supplement this mostly externalized process of learning and development by a more inward, direct, psychological process so that our inner faculties of knowledge, feeling and action are consciously and systematically activated, enlarged and developed to their highest potential, then it may possibly lead to a fuller and more accelerated development of our productive capacities. The developments of some of these faculties like concentration, mindfulness are described in greater detail in subsequent chapters. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 66

DEVELOPMENT OF THE THINKING INTELLIGENCE The knowledge-worker is emerging as an influential class in the corporate world. And knowledge-management has emerged as a distinct and specialized field of study in corporate management. However, most of the modern approach to knowledge-management is external, aiming at the outer organization of knowledge through Information Technology. But for a more efficient and effective knowledge-management, we must learn to manage the inner faculties of knowledge. When all the knowledge-workers in an organization are trained in managing their inner faculties of knowledge, it leads to a more creative internal management of its knowledgeresources, complementing and reinforcing the external organization of knowledge. This article presents such a deeper approach to knowledge-management. Need for Purification The first step in this deeper and inner approach to knowledge-management is to have a clear understanding of the nature of the instruments of knowledge. The Intelligent Will, called as Buddhi in Indian thought, is the primary instrument of knowledge. Knowledge can also be received through heart or vital intuitions, but a human being, in her present evolutionary status, is a mental being and therefore the thinking intelligence and will in the higher mind is the highest and most enlightened power available to her in her quest for knowledge. So the first task for a seeker of knowledge is the purification of this faculty of understanding. In our ordinary status of ignorance, this faculty of understanding is not functioning according to its law and nature, true dharma, but involved in the action of the lower faculties like that of our physical, emotional and vital consciousness of the surface ego-personality. These lower faculties are supposed to obey the dictates of the intelligent will like a servant obeys his Master‘s commands. But in our present status of ego-based desire-driven ignorance, master very frequently or most of the times forget her dharma and becomes an accomplice of her servants, who use her as a tool to provide rational justification to indulge in their desires. So the first step in the purification of the intelligent will is to disentangle the faculty from its involvement in the surface play of the physical and vital consciousness. The Triune Mind Before coming to the inner discipline for the purification and harnessing the thinking mind, we must have some understanding of the psychological structure of our mental equipment. According to the conception of Integral Psychology, our mental consciousness pervades our whole being. There is a physical mind, vital or emotional mind and a thinking, willing mind. The characteristic action of the physical mind is an obsessive repetition of habitual mental notions acquired from physical sense-perception. The vision of this physical mind is confined to a life bounded with the sensory perception of the brain. The vital mind brings up an eager, restless and anxious pursuit of desire and emotional attachment into all our mental functioning. This vital mind is always ever ready to provide convenient justifications for the desires of our vital ego. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 67

Beyond this physical and vital mind is the thinking mind. Here also there are two elements in this part of mind. There is an element of pure reason, which is capable of a disinterested pursuit of truth or knowledge and can range freely in the realm of pure abstract ideas. But there is a pragmatic element in this mind, which is oriented towards life and is always interested in utilizing knowledge for application, enlargement and progress in life. Though this higher part of the mind is capable of a relative freedom from desire, it is still subject to ego-sense. In the pure reason this ego-sense creates a strong intellectual attachment to certain ideas or ideals, pre-conceived notions, and an attraction towards particular forms of intellectual, ethical or aesthetic ideals or pleasures. Sometimes an inordinate desire of this part of the mind for a vast accumulation of knowledge for the personal pleasure or satisfaction of the intellectual ego is mistaken as a ―disinterested‖ pursuit of truth. In the pragmatic part of the intelligence, this ego-sense creates a strong inclination to use knowledge as a tool for personal enlargement, benefit and progress of the ego. Intelligent will, Buddhi has to be purified of all these gross and subtle traces of ego and desire and released from its entanglement in the lower forms of energies physical, sensuous, vital, emotional of our nature. Disentangling the Intelligence The first step in this discipline of purification is self-observation. We have to observe carefully the movements, workings, urges and natural inclinations of our physical, vital, emotional, thinking and pragmatic mind. We have to become fully conscious how our thinking intelligence is entangled with and constantly influenced by other and lower parts of the mind. And through a process of constant stepping back, detachment and disidentification, we have to slowly and patiently disentangle the thinking mind and will from the mixture and influence of the physical and vital mind. For example when we are trying to arrive at a decision, judgement or conclusion or solving a problem we must observe how our emotional and vital preferences and desires or personal self-interests enter into it and colour, distort or influence our process of thinking. Similarly, we have to observe the working of the Buddhi, the pure and highest intelligence in itself. We have to see how even our higher intelligence is subtly influenced by one-sided, fixed and preconceived mental, moral and spiritual notions which prevents it from perceiving the truth in its wholeness. When we observe the workings of our intelligence objectively we will find that it has strong mental preference or prejudices for or against some specific idea or ideals. For example, the intellect may get attached to a particular social, political or moral ideologies or ideals like socialism, democracy or non-violence, which prevents it from seeing the truth or validity of a different or opposite perspective. Most of the scientific and secular thinkers have an open or hidden prejudice against the mystical, occult and the spiritual dimensions of life. For instance, the authors of a book which explores some of the obscure chapters of western religious history state: ―We needed to explore the subject matter of occult and mystical writers and place it in its Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 68

true historical perspective while not lapsing into the pitfall of their credulous gullibility.‖ We can see here, behind the apparent pretentions of objectivity, openness and tolerance there is a strong prejudice against the mystical and occult views, which are dismissed summarily as credulous and gullible. Similarly most of the mathematicians who studied the life and works of Srinivasan Ramanujam are unwilling to accept the spiritual inspiration behind his genius, even when Ramanujam himself openly stated that he received most of his intuitions from a Goddess who is his chosen deity. This sort of intellectual preferences and prejudices are great obstacles to the intuitive perception of the totality of truth and the multidimensional reality of life or Nature. The Discipline of Concentration: The second discipline needed for the Intelligence is concentration. Concentration means the ability to focus all the attention and energy of the mind on a particular point and hold on to it as long as it is needed. We must note here that concentration does not mean we must always be tensely focused on something but to acquire and possess the ability to focus our mental energies at will and whenever it is needed. For a more detailed description of the discipline, readers may go through the following article in this book: The Power of Concentration for Improving Productivity: The Mental Silence But the most important discipline in perfecting the instruments of knowledge is the silencing of the mind. A settled immutable peace, silence and tranquility in the mind is an unmistakable sign that a perfect purity is established in our mental consciousness. And only in an utter silence the knowledge of deeper truth of life and things can be heard without any distorting interference. There is a higher intuitive understanding beyond the intellectual understanding of the thinking mind. This intuitive understanding has a direct insight into the deeper truth of things bypassing logic and reason. But to awaken this intuitional intelligence, the intellectual understanding has to be stilled and learn to receive the higher intuition in a receptive silence. Here again for a more detailed description of the discipline of peace and for developing the intuitive intelligence the readers go through the following articles in this book: 1. Building Inner peace and Equanimity for Stress Management 2. Management by Intuition. The Two Facets of Intelligence We have discussed briefly the path for enhancing the power of our thinking intelligence. However there are two aspects or facets to our thinking mind: Conceptual and Pragmatic. These two aspects of our mind need special attention because they have a more immediate relevance to the corporate knowledge-worker.

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Conceptual Intelligence The conceptual intelligence is that part of our cognitive equipment which is capable of abstract thinking and can generate pure ideas and concepts. In the corporate world, advent of Management as an academic discipline and the concept of management consultancy are important landmark in its psychological evolution, because they herald the awakening of the conceptual mind in business. The conceptual mind develops by following activities or discipline:  The scientific method of observation, classification, comparison, analysis and hypothesis.  Theoretical and philosophical enquiry, speculation or studies.  Asking how and why and tracing the root cause of things.  Discerning the underlying patterns behind the outer phenomena  Holistic thinking which tries to view each thing as part of a larger whole and in relation with other parts and the whole.  Arriving at a synthesis of multiple and opposing view-points. This brings us to the question how important or useful this conceptual mind for a knowledge worker in the corporate world who has to do mostly pragmatic work? The conceptual mind, when it is well developed, deepens and broadens the mental consciousness, and as a result, makes it more and more receptive to the large idea-forces of the universal mind. This enhances the creative potentialities of the mind in general and also accelerates the mental evolution of the individual. So, not only the academic and consultant, but also the line-manager, executive and professional has to make the attempt to develop his conceptual intelligence on the lines we have indicated earlier. For example enquiries like ―what is the purpose of business in fulfilling the evolutionary destiny of humanity and earth‖ or ―what is the meaning and significance of higher values like truth, beauty and goodness for business and the various functions of business like finance, marketing or manufacturing‖ can be of great help in developing the conceptual mind. In short, development of the conceptual mind makes a personal deeply thoughtful, which is very much needed for the managers and entrepreneurs of the knowledge-society. Interestingly, Steve Hamm, Senior Editor of Business Week, in his book on Wipro, the Indian software company, makes the following observation on Azim Premji, the founder of Wipro, which brings out the importance of conceptual mind: "Premji's experience at Stanford had prepared him to be a different sort of leader. Unlike Indian engineering programs of the time, Stanford's program required engineering students to take a wide range of liberal arts courses, including English literature, Western civilization, philosophy and psychology. Premji says this made him a thoughtful person." (1) Pragmatic Intelligence The other important faculty of knowledge is the pragmatic intelligence. Problem solving, innovation, improvement, efficiency, productivity, adaptability are core competence of this part of human consciousness. All these are very much part of the modern corporate culture. The corporate consciousness of business lives predominantly in this part of human mind, aided and Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 70

supported by conceptual inputs from the management academia and the consultant community. So, the field executive or a line manager in the corporate world doesn‘t require much of special training in developing her pragmatic intelligence. She is more or less forced to develop her pragmatic mind, by the pressure of the modern corporate culture, more or less unconsciously. However, a conscious systematic attempt to develop all these inclinations and competencies of the pragmatic intelligence to their utmost limits can accelerate its growth. For example a systematic and conscious effort towards time-management or pursuit of continuous improvement in work, trying to do the work better and better, asking every day ―in what way I can improve the productivity and quality of my work‖ enhances the potentialities of the pragmatic intelligence. The other discipline for developing the pragmatic intelligence is to think out the practical implications of theoretical and philosophical ideas for individual, corporate or managerial effectiveness. As we have indicated earlier, for a corporate professional or field executive, theoretical and philosophical studies and enquiries help in the development of her conceptual mind. And when she comes across such ideas in the course of her study, if she can also contemplate the practical implication of these ideas for her own self-development or for enhancing her professional performance or for improving the quality of life of her community it leads to a further enrichment of her pragmatic intelligence. Reference: 1. Steve Hamm (2007), Bangalore Tiger, Tata McGrew-Hill, Newyork, pp. 30

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KNOWING BY FEELING Much has been said and written about the concept of emotional intelligence, a brainchild of the eminent psychologist, Daniel Goleman. However Goleman‘s conception is only one way of looking at emotional intelligence. There is an alternative perspective on the concept and development of emotional intelligence based on yogic psychology, and we examine here its implications for the knowledge-worker. The Feeling Intelligence In the concept of yogic psychology, a human being is in its essence made of Consciousness, which expresses itself as the four fundamental principles constituting the human organism Body, Life, Mind and Soul. Since all these four principles of our self are expressions of consciousness, each of them has its own ―intelligence‖, meaning they are capable of ―knowing‖. So in this concept, knowledge is not confined to ―Mind‖. Though in a general sense, we may say Mind is the source of knowledge, the other parts of our being, such as the emotions of our heart, the dynamic parts of our life force or even the body can also ―know‖ in their own way and can be an important and creative source of knowledge. In this yogic perspective, emotional intelligence is the intelligence inherent in our emotion, in other words, the heart that knows, ―Knowing by Doing‖ is a well-known principle in modern education. The emotional intelligence is knowing by feeling. Can feelings know? Is there such intelligence in our feelings? For example, when we love a person deeply and truly without attachment, we are able to understand the inner condition and the needs of that person with a feeling ―in-sight‖, which is an expression of emotional intelligence. The other example of emotional intelligence is a well-known phenomenon in the world of spiritual seekers. There are seekers who are simple, uneducated, with very little mental development, but with a pure love and devotion to God or their Masters. Such seekers have sometimes a much deeper insight and understanding of scriptures or the teachings of their Masters‘ than erudite scholars who have written voluminous book on scriptures or teachings. In this perspective, emotional intelligence is the faculty, which gives us the ability for a sympathetic identification with the object of knowledge and joy in the act of knowledge. Without this empathy and joy, knowledge-work becomes a dry, arid and joyless exercise, which is harmful for the inner development of the individual. Interestingly, the great scientist and inventor of the concept of evolution, Charles Darwin made the following poignant personal remark: ―Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds …….. gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare, especially in the historical plays. I have also said that formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also lost almost any taste for pictures or music ………. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 72

grinding general laws out of large collections of fact; but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive ……. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature!‖ (1) The old, orthodox science viewed emotional involvement as an obstacle to scientific detachment. But the new thought in science, especially among women scientists, finds no such contradiction between emotion and scientific attitude. As Diane Boy Heger, field biologist and wolf-researcher, states: ―I‘ve concluded that it is ok to have feelings about the animals you study, without risking damage to your scientific credibility - objectivity and passion about study of animals are not mutually exclusive. I wouldn‘t have devoted my life to studying wolves, if I didn‘t love them.‖ Diane quotes further the environmentalist Stephen Jay Gould, ―we cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well - for we will not fight to save what we do not love.‖ (2) We may modify the last sentence and say we cannot know truly an object of knowledge without loving it and emotional intelligence is the faculty in us, which can lead to this ―knowing love.‖ This brings us to the practical question of how to develop the emotional intelligence. The first step is to learn to observe carefully without identification and with the attitude of a witness the inner movements of our consciousness especially our emotional being. The second step is to understand what are the types of thoughts and feelings which obscure darken or distort our emotions and conversely which of them has a positive impact, bringing light and harmony. When we make this experiment we will understand the practical validity of some of the moral and psychological disciplines of Indian yoga. We will find negative feelings like anxiety, restlessness, fear, and anger obscures and darkens our emotions. Conversely positive feelings like peace, benevolence, kindness and compassion clarify and purify our feelings and bring forward the intelligence inherent in our emotions. References: 1. Charles Darwin, Autobiography, Classic Literature Library, http://charles-darwin.classicliterature.co.uk/ p. 26 2. Diane Boyd-Heger, (2005) Living with Wolves, Intimate Nature, (ed) Lindo Hogan, Deena Metzger and Brenda Peterson, Fawcett Books, Newyork, pp.96

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POWER OF CONCENTRATION FOR IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY The capacity for concentration is an important factor in enhancing the efficiency and productivity of individuals. There is at present a considerable mass of literature on concentration based mainly on the ancient disciplines of Indian Yoga. However there is not yet sufficient clarity on how to apply these principles and methods of concentration in the modern corporate environment, and as a means for improving the performance of individuals. Principles of Concentration Concentration means the ability to focus all the attention and energy of the mind on a particular point and hold on to it as long as it is needed. We must note here that concentration does not mean we must always be tensely focused on something but to acquire and possess the ability to focus our energies at will and whenever it is needed. Our so-called ―normal‖ conditions of mind is a state of dispersion, diffusion and wastage of the light and power of our consciousness in a multitude of thoughts, feelings and objects, scattered helplessly in an uncontrolled medley of confusion and disorder. Such a mind is the most inefficient and unproductive. For Mind is also a form of energy like Matter. When this mental energy is scattered and diffused in uncontrolled and useless chattering it is at the lowest and most inefficient level of functioning. On the other hand when this mental energy is under control, free from useless, wasteful and disturbing thoughts, focused and concentrated at a point, it functions at its highest potential. Energy - physical or mental - when focused, enhances its penetrative power. An apt analogy from modern technology is the Laser beam. Laser is the electromagnetic energy of sunlight which falls on earth in a diffused and scattered form but when focused into a coherent and concentrated beam, it can penetrate even steel. This applies equally to mental energy. The act of focusing the mind increases and multiplies the cognitive as well as the penetrative power of its energy; it grows in light, clarity, insight, understanding and also in power, intensity, strength and force of effectuation. In fact some form of concentration is there in all creative and productive activities. All great leaders of thought and action and all those who have attained higher levels of success or excellence in whatever field, business or politics, art, literature or religion, possess this capacity of concentration in an exceptional or above average measure. But the Science of Yoga believes that even an average man can develop and enhance his power of concentration by constant, systematic and methodical practice. There is at present a considerable amount of literature on concentration and its methods of practice, most of them based on Patanjali‘s Yoga-sutra or Buddhist meditational practices. But Patanjali‘s and Buddhist methods of concentration are designed mainly for spiritual seekers aiming at more or less other-worldly aims. Most of these ancient methods of concentration aim at an inward meditative absorption in a world-shutting trance. But our present enquiry is how to Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 74

induce and enhance concentration in modern corporate life, made up of average worldly men and women pursuing worldly aims and in the actual day-to-day work-life of the organizational man. This requires creative adaptation of the basic principles and methods of the ancient meditation techniques to the modern work environment. Let us now examine this problem of concentration in the context of modern work-life. We have to identify clearly the factors which enhance as well as prevent concentration, both individually and collectively, and figure out how to create an environment, which felicitates concentration. Concentration in the Corporate Context In most of us who are not Yogis, an absorbing interest, desire or ambition, drive for success or achievement, chasing a difficult goal or target, induces a certain amount of concentration. Conversely lack of interest in work or life or the urge for wealth, enjoyment, success or achievement, leads to boredom and monotony and a state of slack inertia, which is not conducive to concentration. So an organizational culture which makes a conscious effort to make the worklife interesting, exciting and challenging and tries to harness the motives, desires and ambitions of people in a healthy and creative way towards the progressive evolution of the individual and the organization is helpful and beneficial for achieving concentration. And this is happening to a certain extent in our modern corporate culture, especially in Business. This is perhaps the reason why business is the most efficient and productive among modern social organisms. But in our approach, the ideal we have to strive for is to acquire the ability to concentrate at will with or without factors like the interest or desire we have mentioned earlier. To realise this ideal we have to understand what are the obstacles to concentration and also the positive factors which can strengthen our ability to concentrate. The practical problem is to eliminate or minimize the obstacles to concentration and cultivate the factors which strengthen it. Obstacles to Concentration The opposite of concentration is distraction and dispersion. Our human mind is by nature fickle and tends towards dispersion; it flits from one object to another and runs passionately towards all that is pleasing and attractive to it. There are two major domains of distraction - first are the distractions of the external environment and second are the internal distractions within the mind. All forms of strong gross and provocative sensations are obstacles to concentration. So an external environment, which leads to soft, mild and refined sensations, is favourable not only to our emotional and aesthetic development but also for concentration. In our modern corporate environment physical attraction between the sexes can become a major source of distraction. Here comes in the importance of a dress code. But a better approach would be dress education or training in aesthetics to help employees to dress beautifully without being provocative. Similarly, excessive gossiping and chatting can be a factor of considerable dispersion. These are some of the major external obstacles to concentration. Among internal factors, the first major source of disturbance is the compelling and uncontrollable flow and crowding of thoughts and Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 75

feelings. The remedy to this problem is to cultivate the calm and peace indispensable for effective concentration. No real concentration is possible for a mind like a crowded street in a city. There are many disciplines in Yoga for bringing peace and calm to the mind. First method is to consciously slow down breathing. Indian Yogis have found there is an intimate connection between the rate of breathing and the flow of thought. Second method is to draw back and detach inwardly from the crowding flow of thoughts, take the position of a witness, and allow the disturbance to pass or exhaust itself. Third method is to visualize universal peace, calm and silence pervading all space and call it down into our consciousness by aspiration, invocation and prayer. So before commencing a work requiring concentration, it is always desirable to establish a certain amount of calm and peace in our body and mind; it very much helps in concentration. The other set of obstacles to concentration are worry and anxiety and brooding over the past and future. Worry and anxiety may be due to personal problems or incompetence or the present corporate environment with its threatening deadlines and insecurity. Anxieties and worries created by personal problems or incompetence have to be handled by the individual employee himself, though the corporate management can lend a compassionate helping hand. But the anxieties created by the corporate environment are a difficult problem requiring a more humane, sympathetic and serious attention from the corporate management than the helpless, or indifferent ―can‘t-help-it‖ shrugs. For a state of constant anxiety and uncertainty over the job is not conducive to the concentration or well-being of the work-force. An individual company may not have the power to change market-realities but a conscious combined effort of industry or business associations, government and NGOs can have a definite impact on minimizing the anxiety levels of the work-force created by the down-sizing culture. The other important obstacle to concentration is the inordinate longing for future result, reward or benefit. Constant drifting of the mind to the past or future, for whatever reason; worry, anxiety or the desire and ambition for future reward dilutes and scatters the mental energy. The power of concentration reaches its peak only when all the attention and energies of our consciousness is focused on the here and now. This is a great discipline for the spiritual development of the individual. However by minimizing worry and anxiety and the drift towards past and future, it can also enhance our capacity for concentration. Enablers of Concentration We have discussed so far some of the major obstacles to concentration and the remedies. Let us now look at the positive factors that can reinforce concentration. We have already indicated some of them like focusing on the present, calm and peace. The other important factors are persistent will, a vigilant mind and constant practice. We must keep in mind that there are no shortcuts or quick-fix remedies for concentration. We have to work against the natural urge of the mind towards dispersion and impress upon it the opposite tendency of concentrated focus, through a patient, persistent and undespondent will. The ordinary unfocussed human mind is described in the ancient Indian Yogic literature as a monkey who is at once blind, drunk and Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 76

stung by a scorpion! This image gives some idea of the difficulty involved in dealing with our mind. Initially, it could be extremely tiring to impose concentration on a mind not habituated to it. The mind may revolt violently and react with thoughts and feelings like ―O it is hopeless‖, ―no use trying‖, and ―not worth the labour‖. But these suggestions have to be firmly rejected by the will and the process of concentration has to be repeated again and again, patiently, without yielding to despondency. The steps of the process are simple in paper but difficult to put into practice. The first step is to establish a minimum amount of calm in the mind. Next step is to gather and bring back the vagabonding mind to the focal point of concentration through may be an object, thought, or an activity. Third step is to hold on to it as long as possible, keeping distracting thoughts away with a vigilant mind and a firm will. Herein comes the importance of an alert and vigilant mind. A sleepy and drowsy condition is a great obstacle to concentration. Sometimes a drowsy absorption of the mind on an object is mistaken for concentration. For effective concentration, both the will and awareness in the mind has to be alert, watchful and vigilant to ward off unwanted intruders and keep the mind focused. Practice of concentration during work can be supplemented by other and more specialized practices at home or during unoccupied moments, for example while commuting to office or home, in a bus or train. There are innumerable methods and techniques we can pick up from any good book on the subject and there are many such books. For example gazing steadily over a candle flame is a well-known method in the Indian Yogic tradition. The other method is to inwardly visualize an object or image and concentrate on it. The image can be a religious or spiritual symbol like the form of a deity or a non-religious image like a geometric figure. Here, the practitioner can begin with a simple figure like a square or a circle, then slowly and gradually progress towards more complex figures like a hexagon or a pentagon. The object of concentration cannot be the same for all. It has to be chosen taking into consideration the nature, temperament, occupation and the mental or emotional affinities of the individual. Initially the object of concentration has to be something pleasing and attractive to the mind and heart of the practitioner. Concentration and Inner Growth We have discussed so far how to harness the power of concentration for enhancing productivity. However when this power of concentration is turned inwards, for focusing all our creative energies for realizing a mental, moral or spiritual ideal, it becomes a potent tool for accelerating our inner growth. So readers should use the power of concentration not just for enhancing productivity but more for their inner growth with productivity as the outer result. When this power or capacity is used with this higher aim it can perhaps lead to even higher or more qualitatively superior productivity because it will bring the greater creative energies of our inner being to our work. In this way while becoming a better professional we will also grow inwardly and become better human beings.

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ART OF MINDFULNESS FOR ENHANCING PERFORMANCE There is a treasure house of practical wisdom in the Indian Yogic tradition, which can be of great help to professionals in every field or for developing their full potential as a human being and as a professional. One of them is the practice of Mindfulness, which is a limb of the eight-fold path of the Buddha. Let us examine the practical implications of Mindfulness for enhancing performance and effectiveness of leaders and professionals in the corporate world. Meaning of Mindfulness The practice of Mindfulness has an outer and inner aspect, which may be termed as Observation and Awareness. The outer dimension is Observation. Most of us are very poor observers. We have only a fleeting and hurried glimpse of the things around us. Even when we observe a little more attentively, the outward stimulus produces biased inner reactions, opinions or judgement, coloured by personal likes, dislikes, preferences and prejudices. So we must learn to observe all that is or happens around us with full, minute and detailed attention and also without the distorting personal reactions. When we turn this attention of consciousness from the outer world to the inner world and inner movements of our mind, heart and also the body, it becomes awareness. So mindfulness means to observe the world around us, the objects, events, Nature, people - and the world within us, made of thoughts, feelings, sensations, impulses, motives and inner reactions, with the following attitude: 1. a background of inner calm 2. with an alert vigilance and growing consciousness 3. as a detached witness and spectator without any personal identification with the observed object. 4. without condemnation and judgement, especially moral judgement like good and bad. So the aim of mindfulness is to become fully conscious of the inner mechanism of our mind or psyche and the outer phenomenon of Nature and the world with a scientific and impersonal detachment and moral equanimity. In the following passage, the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, explains with a lucid clarity the meaning of inner Mindfulness: ―We must become acquainted with the mechanism of life within us, with all its tendencies, qualities, faculties and varied activities, very impartially, that is without any preconceived idea of good and bad and without any absolute or arbitrary judgement (for our judgements are inevitably lacking in clear-sightedness), about what should subsist and what should disappear and what should be encouraged and what should be suppressed. Our vision of what we are must be objective, without bias, if we want it to be sincere and integral; we are faced with a universe which we must explore down to its smallest detail, know in its obscure and infinitesimal elements, with a scientific attitude of perfect mental impersonality, that is without a priori judgement.‖ (1)

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The inner attitudes described in the above passage like impersonality, objectivity, nonjudgemental look, apply equally to the mindfulness of the outer world.

Benefits of Mindfulness The benefits of mindfulness for enhancing performance are obvious and many. Someone who is mindful can see things the unmindful cannot see. The practice of mindfulness makes the entire mind alert and sensitive to the deep and subtle nuances of things, events and people in the outer environment like the body-language or behaviour of people, changes in the market, customer needs or demographics. As we grow in the depth and range of our self-awareness, we become aware of the roots and springs of our actions and motives and our weaknesses and strengths. This knowledge can be a precious source of personal as well as professional development. Mindfulness is the foundation of self-management and self-mastery, which is the basis of effectiveness in action. As the Mother points out, ―we can only master what we know and command what we have mastered‖. In other words, first we have to become conscious of what we are and what we are conscious of we can master, provided, we are able to marshal the requisite firmness in the will to do it. Interestingly, Mindfulness is now recognized in Management as a leadership quality. Two eminent management thinkers, Richard Boyatzis and Annie Mckee, consider mindfulness as the central component of ―Resonant Leadership‖ and define it as ―Mindfulness is the capacity to be fully aware of all that one experiences inside the self - body, mind, heart and to pay full attention to what is happening around us - people, the natural world, our surroundings and events.‖ Elaborating further on the practical implications of mindfulness, Boyatzis and Mckee, state: ―Contrary to popular belief cultivating the capacity for mindfulness is not just a nice-to-have or something to be done for private reasons: it is actually essential for sustaining good leadership. It can be one of the most important things we do, resulting in a stepwise change in our effectiveness as leaders. May be most important, when we attend to ourselves by developing our minds, taking care of our bodies, understanding and using the power of our emotions, and attending to our spirituality, however we choose to do so, we can begin to reach our full potential as people.‖(2) However, there are two higher benefit of mindfulness, which are not fully recognized in yogic as well as management circles. The first one is that mindfulness can lead to a deeper understanding of others. As our awareness becomes more impersonal, objective and detached through mindfulness, it extends beyond our personal self to embrace others. We become more and more sensitive to the thoughts, feelings and motives of others, with a certain amount of identification with the consciousness of others. And this is the only true way of understanding others. The modern psychology tries to understand people by analysing their outer behaviour. But this method of understanding is very uncertain, tentative and imperfect. For a truer and a more complete understanding of others we must be able to identify our consciousness with the consciousness of others and know what are the inner forces which make them act or behave in the way they do. This higher way of knowing leads to an enlightened and sympathetic Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 79

understanding of the difficulties, problems and behaviour of others and the right way of dealing with them. The other inner result of Mindfulness is in the realm of values. As we become aware of our inner movement and their inner consequences with a deep, subtle, refined and delicate sensitivity it awakens the taste or rasa for all that is true, beautiful, good and luminous and a spontaneous rejection of all that is ugly, dark, evil and the vulgar. For example when the mind becomes fully aware through the peace and joy and satisfaction brought by good feelings of kindness, generosity or forgiveness or sincerity, then it leads to a spontaneous and effortless rejection of negativities and a sincere, whole-hearted aspiration for truth, beauty and goodness. References: 1. The Mother, Collected Works, vol.2, pp.128 2. Richard Boyatzis and Annie Mckee, (2005) Resonant Leadership, Harvard Business School Press, p.112, 115.

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HARNESSING THE DYNAMIC FACULTIES OF ACTION

The will and vital energy animating our body and mind are the inner horse within us and the source of our dynamic faculties of action and execution. Let us look at the path for harnessing the potentials of our dynamic faculties. Dynamic Intelligence The concept of ―knowing by doing‖ is now recognized in educational and psychological thought. But how can one ―know‖ by ―doing‖? It is because, all the faculties within us are in their essence expression of consciousness and therefore each have an ―intelligence‖ of its own. Moreover, the faculties of consciousness do not exist in distinct and separate compartment. They are mingled together and interact with each other. So, the faculties of action, under certain condition, like when they are exercised with full consciousness and concentration, can awaken the faculties of knowledge. So our dynamic faculties of action are not just a dump flow of energy. There is an intelligence in it. Marshalling the Will The faculty of Will has a mental and vital element. The mental or cognitive element is the act of choice and judgement. The vital or dynamic element is the firmness, persistence, endurance and strength in upholding and enforcing the choice in action, result, realization. What is called Faith is the expression of the intelligence in will. However, true faith is not belief in the surface mind, but the intuition of the deeper and inner being and its will. It is the intuition of an unmanifest potential of our inner being not yet manifested at the surface level. All great men of action have this faith. They persist in realizing a goal, which may appear impossible or totally contradictory to present conditions but they still persist, because the intelligence or faith in their will knows that they have the potential to do it and can do it. This intelligence in the will can be developed by consciously cultivating a hopeful and optimistic attitude and a sunny self-confidence and rejecting pessimistic thinking, which darkens and weakens the will. This capacity for implementation of ideas comes from the dynamic power of will and the energy of vitality, anima. The power of will can be strengthened in the same way as building muscles. We must begin with easy and simple resolutions and tasks, which are within our capacity and move on slowly and gradually to more and more difficult, complex and tough resolutions and tasks. The initial easy masteries or victories build self-confidence, which strengthens the will. The other faculty or power of our consciousness closely related to will is the power of concentration, which means the ability to focus all the energies of our consciousness on an idea or activity. Concentration and will has a mutually reinforcing effect. A persistent and untiring effort to focus our attention on a point develops the power of will, which in turn enhances concentration. Taming the Vital Energy Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 81

The other part of our dynamic faculties is the vital force, which animates our body and mind. This vital force, called as Prana in Indian thought and Anima in Jungian psychology, is the source of energy, enthusiasm, desire, emotional intensity, force and effectiveness in executive action. It is the combined power of will and vital force, which converts an idea or knowledge into a force for material realization. This force and intelligence of life in us grows by joyous participation in all the varied activities of the life around us, building harmonious relationship and also confronting all the problems, difficulties, dualities and challenges of life with equanimity, courage, endurance, faith and hope. Our personal force of life is only the individualized whirl of energy of the universal force and energy of life. So the power and effectiveness of our vital force can be considerably multiplied by opening it to the universal vital energy of Nature. There are many ways of doing this. Exercises like pranayama are the more physical methods, there are also more psychological methods. One of them is visualization, to imagine we are floating in an ocean of vital energy pulsing everywhere, and visualize it as entering into us and energizing us. Certain inner psychological attitudes, when cultivated and established in the thinking, emotional and vital consciousness, can bring about an enduring inner opening to the universal vital energy. Effort for progress, which means making a constant and continuous effort for progressive perfection in work, makes us receptive to universal forces, vital and mental. Positive attitudes like generosity, wideness, self-giving, dedication to a self-transcending cause help us to attune our mental and vital consciousness to the universal energies of Nature. We must note here that an increase in vital force enhances the performance and productivity of not only the faculties of action but also the faculties of knowledge in the mind. For, vital energy is the ―anima‖ which animates body, mind, heart and will. Therefore, as the flow of vital energy increases it can make a dull mind active and a bright mind more creative, energetic and productive. Role of Imagination The faculty of imagination can be of great help in enhancing the potentials of our dynamic intelligence and energies. The essence of imagination is the ability to visualize ideas in concrete images or symbols. Through imagination, abstract ideas can be made sensuous, emotive and concrete to the mind. For example consciousness can be visualized as an inner light revealing things within us. Imagination can lead to intuition of the unmanifest possibilities of the future. Imaginative and intelligent understanding of history and comprehending past events and present actualities in a holistic perspective can intuitively extend itself towards future potentials. An optimistic, hopeful and intuitive imagination of future possibilities when expressed in a creative and evocative language acts as a call to these unmanifest future scenarios and brings them down or hastens their manifestation into the present. The other use of imagination is to lubricate the exercise of will with emotional support. If we are able to visualize clearly the future benefits of a task or resolution, and impress this image on the emotive being, it harnesses the support of our emotions to the task, which in turn felicitates the exercise of will. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 82

CHARGING THE HUMAN DYNAMO The ability to sustain a high level of energy is one of the important factors behind peak performance, productivity and also well-being. Most of the great leaders of action in business, politics or society have this ability for maintaining a sustained flow of energy in work. Energy is not only individual but also collective. When people work together it generates a lot of vital energy in the collectivity. Is there a way to enhance this collective energy level in an organisation? Apart from the pressure of target-oriented work and the energy spent in work, there are other sources of fatigue like commuting to the work place and conflicts in the home and office, which drain the energy of the corporate worker. Can this wastage of energy be minimised? These are important and practical problems of the modern corporate life. So the corporate world needs a comprehensive strategy for human energy management. In this article, we are presenting a conceptual and practical framework for human energy management based on the science of yoga. Sources of Energy: Individual and Universal The spiritual intuition of ancient Indian seers perceived that our human organism is a dynamo of energies. A human individual is made of physical, vital, mental and spiritual energies and each level of these individual energies derive their consciousness, force and substance from the corresponding level of cosmic energies or in other words the physical, vital, mental and spiritual energies of our individual being are indivisible part of the cosmic energies of Nature or Divine. This intuition of Indian Yogis holds the key to an effective and efficient management of human energies. The best and the most effective way of charging our human organism with energy is to learn how to receive from the almost inexhaustible source of universal energy. We must learn how to receive, hold and spend energy in the right rhythm. If the expenditure of energy is more than the energy stored or received then it leads to exhaustion and fatigue. But at the same time if we receive too much of energy which we cannot hold then it also leads to disturbance. We must note here our well-being depends very much on the balance of energy. Much of ill health in our body and mind like for example depression comes from lack of vital energy called Prana in Indian thought. Restoring Prana in those parts of our being which is lacking in vitality sometimes brings the cure. Swami Vivekananda in one of his talks made a significant remark that it is not the faith that cures as most of the faith healers say, but it is the Prana that cures. Faith creates only the right inner condition which makes the human organism receptive to universal energies. But most of us do not know how to receive energy consciously from universal sources. We normally receive from other limited sources like food or relationship. Food is our main source of physical energy. In this field, there is the modern science of Nutrition with its calories, vitamins and carbohydrates etc. The other source of energy in our day-to-day life, of which we are not Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 83

fully conscious, is interactions with people which involves exchange of vital energy. These sources of energy have to be scientifically studied, understood and utilised. But they are limited in their range and application. If we depend exclusively or indulge excessively in these sources of energy, it will diminish our capacity to receive energy from universal sources. Sometimes they can also be harmful. For example beverages like coffee and tea may give temporary refreshment and energy. But they tend to become addictive and when consumed excessively can disturb our health. Similarly in the vital level activities like gossiping brings vital energy but of a very low kind which is not healthy to our body or mind or for harmony in the community. So as we have mentioned earlier, the best and the most beneficial way of receiving energy is from universal sources. This brings us to the practical question, how? Each energy level requires methods appropriate to that particular level. Physical exercises like for example, Hath Yoga, and contact with physical Nature are helpful in opening our physic-vital organism to universal physical energies. At the vital level, there are two aspects or types of vital energy or prana which circulates within our organism. First is the physical Prana which animates the body and the psychic prana which animate our internal organs. Respiration is the main channel through which universal vital energy into our body and gets converted into physical and psychic prana. So breathing techniques like Pranayama can enhance the energy level in the body or the physical prana. But since in our human organism body and mind are closely interlinked, Pranayama can also bring greater energy or psychic prana to our mind and heart. So physical exercises with breathing techniques are a very effective combination for bringing greater physical and vital energy into our organism. But we must also note here than increased vital energy received through physical and vital methods need not necessarily lead to well-being. For the greater flow of energy will impartially intensify whatever that is within us, thoughts, feeling and emotions. And if our mind and heart are full of negative thought, feelings and passion, then more energy means greater disturbance. This is the reason why in Raja Yoga, Asana and Pranayama come after Yama and Niyama which are a regiment of mental and moral self-discipline. In our inner being, sensations and emotions are the two vehicles or conduits through which universal vital energy can be received. For example when we listen carefully with an alert ear to the sounds around us we feel energetic. So beautiful and harmonious sensations which do not arouse passions or excitement can be a very healthy source of vital energy. Similarly, emotions which are generous and not self-regarding can put us into contact with universal energy. The other source of vital energy is relationship with people which involves interchange of vital energy. Harmonious, creative and productive interchange of vital energies enhances energylevels in a group. Mental energy from universal mind is received through reading, study contemplation and creative expression of Ideas which represent eternal and universal truths and laws that govern the world. For thoughts and ideas are not mere obstructions. They are pockets of mental energy. For example after reading a good book which explains things with clarity and force sometimes we feel suddenly energetic. This is because a book contains the vibrations of the consciousness Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 84

of the author and the creative energy he or she has poured into it. Spiritual energy is received through spiritual aspiration and spiritual disciplines like japa, mantra, meditation, devotion and surrender to God, disinterested work done as an offering to God.

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Principles of Energy Management Energy management means learning the art of receiving, holding, and utilizing energy which is available or stored within our individual human organism and also from universal sources. This requires a clear understanding of the laws and principles of the workings of universal energies of nature and also some inner attitudes which lead to a better management of our energies. The first principle is that energy cannot be stored indefinitely. It has to be used and more we use it in a creative, constructive and productive way the more we receive energy or become fit to receive more energy. Energy which is received but not used properly disintegrates and causes fatigue and disturbance. So not only overworking but also laziness and inertia lead to fatigue. We must learn how to receive, retain, assimilate, and expend energy. The second factor is Calm and Peace. This is essential for receiving as well as holding energy. Not much can be received when we are in a state of agitation; whatever little we receive gets lost and spilled over in the restless activity of the mind or heart. The third factor is Wideness. We cannot receive much if we live in the narrow confines of our ego-centric and personal self-interests and our physical and vital needs and desires. We have to expand our consciousness and identify ourselves with something larger, more impersonal and universal than our personal ego. For according to the Science of Yoga consciousness and energy are inseparable principles. Greater or vaster the consciousness more the energy it is capable of receiving or holding. The third factor is self-giving, self-forgetfulness and generosity of the mind and heart. The ability to lose our little ego in a greater self-transcending cause or act can bring us into contact with universal forces. In the Yogic perspective, the ego-centric personal self is a narrow and limited entity closed in upon itself, which shuts it off from universal forces. The more we are able to come out or break away from this self-concentration on our personal ego and its narrow interests and desires by impersonalisation, self-giving or widening of our consciousness, the more we become receptive to universal forces. The fourth factor is relaxation. A calm and relaxed state of consciousness is essential for receiving as well as assimilating energy, we must learn how to relax our body, mind and heart, especially when we are receiving energy. This brings us to another important factor in human energy management, elimination or minimizing wasteful inner and outer movements which drain energy. Elimination of waste is now an established principle and practice in the management of material energies and resources of an organization. But not much attention is bestowed on the wastage of human energies which are atleast as important as physical energies. The factors which cause waste of energy in our human organism are many and varied. We have already mentioned one of them, agitation and restlessness of the body and mind. The other major source of waste are conflicts and quarrels, inner and outer. Even when there is not much of outer quarrels, there remains the inner irritation or indignation we feel at everything we dislike or which do not conform to our ideals. Repetitive, useless and vagabond thoughts and negative feelings like anger, jealously and uncontrolled passion drain energy. Here comes the need for self-control. All these factors which Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 86

waste energy has to be checked and kept under control, if not for moral reasons, but for the pragmatic considerations of energy conservation. Here again concentration, which means focusing the energies of our consciousness in a single point can be a great help in conserving energy. So, the combination of inner calm, concentration and self-control can be a potent factor in human energy management. Brooding over the past and the future, or in other words worry and anxieties about what is gone and what is to come, is a great source of wastage of energy. The remedy lies in the wellknown and oft-repeated counsel of many spiritual teachers, to concentrate all our energies in the present and the now Another important factor is the effort for progress. For we are living in an evolving world, Change, evolution, and progress is one of the eternal and universal laws of life. An organism which doesn‘t progress dies and disintegrates. On the other hand every effort for progress brings energy because such an effort attunes us to the progressive energies of universal Nature. This factor, effort for progress has a greater affinity for the modern corporate world than the other factors. For in our modern age, it is the organ of business which has displayed the highest capacity for change and progress. The concept of continuous improvement and the search for excellence have become the mantras of modern management. The target-oriented workenvironment of the modern business environment compels even the lazy to put forth some effort. However one-sided progress pursued exclusively in a single level or dimension of life at the expense other levels is also not conducive to integral and sustainable productivity and well-being of the work-force. For example progress pursued exclusively in the material, techno-economic or mental levels without a corresponding progress in the social, cultural, psychological moral, aesthetic and spiritual level will be counter productive in the long-run because such a progress will shut-down the human organism to the deeper, higher, finer, subtler and more universal creative energies of Nature. So for a sustained harnessing of energy which leads to the full and integral self-actualisation of the creative potential of people, progress has to be pursued at all the levels in the inner being as well as the outer life of the collectivity—physical, vital, mental, moral, aesthetic and spiritual progress of the human organism and also the economic, social, political and cultural progress of the collective outer life. We have to create a corporate culture which strives for a progressive perfection in all the levels of our individual and collective life. The other set of closely interrelated energisers are interest, concentration and joy of work. When we are passionately interested in what we are doing, it leads to a spontaneous concentration. This in turn brings a flush of energy and with it a sense of warmth and joy in work or action. Even when there is no absorbing interest in work or it wanes, if we can keep the urge for progress trying to do our work better and better, then it may slowly create the interest in work. The French Trinity and Collective Energy Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 87

We are discussing so far some of the principles of human energy management mostly from the perspective of the individual. There is also a collective dimension to energy management. In this collective level, the great energizers are the triple values of French revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. This is something which is not fully recognised or understood. An empowered work-force, unchained with minimum of rules and maximum freedom for individual or teams to initiate, create, innovate, decide and organize their work-life, under the overarching inspiration of some superordinate goals, values vision or purpose, releases a tremendous amount of creative energy in the work-force. Similarly a just, equitable, transparent and open social and political structure with minimum of hierarchy and a maximum of free interaction people driven not by power, authority and bureaucracy but by a feeling of equality, comradeship and fraternity, releases a vast amount of energy in the work-life. Liberty, equality and fraternity are some of the eternal and universal human values and they are part of the highest evolutionary destiny of humanity. So all creative and sincere attempt to realise these values in the human life, brings in the supportive sanction and energies of universal Nature. So an important part of the effort for progress is to strive for a pragmatic manifestation of liberty, equality and fraternity in the outer life of the organisation or the community or in other words towards a more and more free, equitable and fraternal corporate life. However, in our modern age, most of the democratic or socialistic aspiration or attempt in the social, political or corporate life is towards the realisation of these triple values in the outer life of man. But for a more effective and complete realization of these values, there has to be a creative effort towards the inner realisation of these values in the mind and heart of people This will release a much greater energy into the corporate life. For example take the values of Liberty. Much of the creative energy of our mind is locked in our attachment to rigid or fixed ideas, prejudices and preferences. If we are able to free our mind consciously from these forms of mental bondage then it will release a large amount creative energy in the mind. Similarly, with our emotion, vital force and will. We are not aware how much we are bound in our thought, feeling and will by our ego, desires and attachments of various kinds. By a vigilant selfobservation, if we can become aware of these knots of bondage and eliminate it, it will release an enormous amount of creative energy in human life not only in terms of quantity but more importantly in quality. This inner liberty will open the human consciousness to deeper, finer and subtler forces of universal Nature. In a similar way we have to understand clearly the deeper and inner significance of other two values of French revolution, equality and fraternity, and make a conscious attempt to create a corporate culture which leads not only to outer liberty, equality and fraternity but also to the realization of inner freedom, equality and oneness in the consciousness of people. This will lead to the highest possible energisation of the corporate life, and the opening of the collective consciousness of the community to qualitatively superior forms of creative energy.

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MANAGEMENT BY INTUITION We are, as a race and species is at a crucial stage in out evolution. We have reached the utmost limits of our rational potentialities and need a faculty greater than reason to solve all the problems and complexity created by reason. The future evolution of humanity, if it has to proceed safely and smoothly towards its destiny, needs a supra-rational intuition to steer it towards a higher consciousness in which all the complexities, chaos, contradictions and problems can be ultimately resolved in a unity and harmony beyond the mind and reason. The New Recognition The need for intuition is now very much recognized in management. There is at present a growing consensus among management thinkers that effective leadership and decision-making requires intuition. As Stephen Robins points out in his popular textbook on organizational behaviour, ―Intuitive decision-making has recently come out of the closet and into some respectability. Experts no longer automatically assume that using intuition to make decisions irrational or ineffective. There is a growing recognition that rational analysis has been overemphasized and that in certain instances relying on intuition can improve decision-making.‖ (1) Thomas R. Horton, CEO of American Management Association, in a book edited by him, writes: ―Recent research suggests that when making decisions, those at the top call more heavily on right-brain thinking than do managers at lower level. Sound intuition and instinct help form the successful CEO‘s perception. The inner ear hears what others may not. An inside voice speaks. Decisions are often said to come ‗from the heart‘.‖ (2) The Higher Intuition However there is not much clarity on the nature of this intuition, especially the types of intuition, which can build the future world. Sometimes an infra rational gut-instinct is mistaken as intuition. But after reaching the summits of reason, slipping back to the infra-rational instincts cannot be a progressive evolutionary movement. In simple terms, intuition means direct, spontaneous knowledge without the need for rational analysis. However, there are many such inner movements in our mind, heart and in our subconscious, which may give the impression of such direct knowledge, but cannot be entirely relied upon. The true and higher intuition, which can lead us to the higher consciousness beyond reason, has the following characteristics:  an all-embracing global comprehension of the totality of life and the presence of this totality in each part.  a direct perception of the deeper truth of each thing, people, situation and circumstance, not only in their unique individuality but also in relation with others, and the larger whole or the environment or the totality of human and terrestrial life. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 89

 direct knowledge of the immediate and long-term consequences of a decision or action to others, and the larger whole.  Resolution of dilemmas, contradiction, conflicts, dualities of thought and life in a reconciling synthesis. These are the characteristics of the highest form of intuition proceeding from the spiritual consciousness of our soul, which is the native source of intuition. However intuition is not something exclusively confined to the spiritual consciousness. There is an intuition in every part of our being, in mind, heart, will and even in our body, and in every faculty of our consciousness, in thought, sensations, feeling, will, action, ethical and aesthetic senses and the instincts of our body. All these intuitions are partial expressions of the intuition of the spirit and therefore possess some of its characteristics, but very much limited and conditioned by the nature and inner condition of the medium in which it function. A seeker of integral knowledge has to discover and develop all these intuitions but he must keep in mind that the perfect and totality of insight exists only in the spiritual source of intuition, which is the consciousness of our soul. How to Develop Intuition What is the path or discipline for developing intuition? One of the methods is to stretch the faculties of thought, feeling or will to its utmost limits. For example when the rational or logical mind, which is inherently incapable of perceiving the totality, makes the attempt to perceive the wholeness of life, stretching itself to its utmost limits, then it may arrive at some form of an intellectual insight or mental intuition into the whole. Similarly, brainstorming sessions, exploring multiple viewpoints some of them exactly opposites, can sometimes lead to a leap of intuition. And again, when the feeling or will stretches itself in an intense concentration or aspiration to pierce into a problem or an idea or an object, it may result in a leap of intuition. However, these method, though they can be experimented upon, are uncertain and tentative in their results, because they lack the foundation of calm and silence which is essential for receiving intuition without distortion. There is a more effective discipline based on Yogic principles. This yogic path has four facets: inner silence, purity, alert mindfulness and introversion. The need for silence is obvious, and it is now recognized in many of the discussions on the subject. Intuition is a faculty, which belongs to the deeper and higher realms of consciousness beyond the surface intellectual and emotional mind. So to receive intuitions this surface mind has to be stilled. Here is a corporate example, Wayne Silby, founder of the Calvert Group is one of the first and largest socially responsible investment funds. When Calvert‘s competitive advantage was in the verge of being destroyed due to a new government legislation, Silby found an intuitive solution to the problem by meditating in a sensory deprivation tank. As Silby explains the inner state for receiving intuition, ―To get new ideas you need to have a space where your mind chatter and judgements in your mind about who you are and what you are doing are turned down. And you can get in touch with a deeper part of yourself that can start revealing patterns that are pretty awesome.‖ (3) Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 90

However to arrive at a holistic solution or decisions related to higher values, mental silence is not enough. Along with silence there must be purity, which means certain minimum freedom from personal desire, impatience and eagerness for immediate results. The inner aspiration has to be a disinterested seeking for truth and knowledge without any desire for personal benefits and without any eagerness or impatience. The third factor is vigilance and consciousness. When the intuition descends from above or raise from within we must be mindful, vigilant and alert, to receive and assimilates its contents. The fourth factor is introversion. As we have indicated earlier, the source of intuition is the Soul or the spiritual self in us. So we must learn to enter into the depth of our heart and listen to the ―still small voice‖ of the soul, and its unerring inner guidance and truth-sense. Here is a corporate example which comes close to this higher intuition: "In the thick of negotiations to purchase New Age ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's, Terry Mollner, a founder of the Calvert Social Investment Funds who is trying to buy the companycalls a time out. At this point people are ready to give up, walk out and end the discussion over a deal breaker issue. Mollner invites the table of tense, polarized people to be silent for a few moments and suggests that everyone ask themselves, "What is the truth here? What is the highest good for all?" He then opens the floor to anyone to speak. One by one people lean forward and restate their position in a way that accommodates the other side. The negotiations move forward. Mollner repeats the ritual three times during weeks of negotiations, each time achieving the same breakthrough. ―(Aburdene, P. 2007) References: 1. Stephen Robins, (1997) Organizational Behaviour, Prentice-Hall India, New Delhi, pp.154 2. Thomas R. Horton, (1986) What Works for Me, Random House Business Division, Toronto, pp.389 3. Ray, Michael and Alan Rinzler, (1993) The New Paradigm in Business, G.P. Putnam‘s Sons, Newyork, pp. 57 4. Aburdene, Patricia, Megatrend 2010, The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Charlottesville, pp. 68

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PART-III CASE STUDIES, EXAMPLES AND STORIES

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INTEGRAL LEADERSHIP (Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (Dr. V), the founder of Aravind Eye Hospital is an exemplar of integral leadership. He was able to build an institution where spiritual inspiration, social sensitivity and kindly service blend harmoniously with professional excellence, executive skill and corporate efficiency. This case study is a brief review of the achievement of this remarkable doctor-entrepreneur. ) The Sources: This review is based mainly on the following sources: 1. A case-study compiled by Dr. C.K. Prahalad from a more detailed case-study of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. (1) 2. Interview with Dr. G. Venkataswamy, founder of Aravind Eye Hospital and R.D. Thulasiraj, Executive Director of Aravind Eye Hospital by Janat Shah and L.S. Murthy of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. (2) 3. Harriet Rubin‘s article, ―The Perfect Vision of Dr. V‖ in Fast Company. (3) 4. Pavithra K. Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy‘s book on Aravind Eye Hospital. (4) The full details of the sources are given in the reference. The Amazing Performance Let us begin with some of the institutional and performance land marks of Aravind Eye hospital. Beginning in 1976 with a modest 11-bed private clinic with a mission to ―eradicate needless blindness.‖ Dr. V‘s institution has grown into the Aravind Eye care System, the largest eye-care provider in the world. Aravind received the Gates Award for Global Health in 2008 and the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize in 2010; it was listed as one of the world‘s fifty most innovative companies by the well-known business magazine Fast Company. The case study on Aravind is required reading for MBA students in Harvard Business School and in many other Bschools in US. The Aravind Eye Hospital (AEH) in Madurai has grown into a 1500 bed hospital performing nearly 95000 eye surgeries every year. In addition to Madurai there are eight more AEH‘s located in Chennai, Tuticorin, Tirupur, Hyderabad, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Theni and Pondicherry. The Eight hospitals together perform a total of more than 2, 00,000 surgeries every year which is nearly 45 percent of all surgeries performed in the state of TamilNadu and 5 percent of the total in India. The AEH group is not merely a chain of hospitals but a total eye care system consisting of a centre for manufacturing synthetic lenses, sutures and pharmaceuticals related to eye care; an institution for training in every aspect of eye care; an institution for research; an eye bank; a woman and child care centre; a postgraduate institute of Ophthalmology offering MS degree; and a centre for community outreach programme.

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Imagine an organization giving eyesight to 13 million people; an organization performing nearly 1.8 million surgeries in a span of 26 years. It was the single largest cataract surgery provider in the world. While a cataract surgery costs US $1650 in a US hospital, AEH performed the same quality surgery in India, at US $104. The manufacturing division of the hospital, Aurolab, was a leading manufacturer of intraocular lens (IOLs) in the world. In 2003, the division held 10 percent share of global market in IOLs. When other manufacturers such as American Ophthalmic Laboratories, US, IOL, Inc sold these lens at US $100-US $ 150 a piece, Aurolab sold the same quality lens at US$ 4 – US $6 per lens. The other unique and remarkable feature of Aravind is its financial self-sustainability. Aravind is not a for-profit commercial hospital for the rich and upper class patients, nor is it a charitable hospital run on donations. In Aravind, patients are given the choice to pay or not to pay. 70% of Aravind‘s patients belong to the lower income group who are treated free. The other 30% who pay provide the funds for the operations and expansions of Aravind Eye Hospital. Thus despite having a majority of non-paying patients, Aravind had always been financially self-supporting. Even from the beginning it did not depend on government grants or private donations except for the support given by the government for eye camp patients. C. K. Prahalad, a leading management thinker, studied AEH operations over the years. He observed that AEH generated 200 per cent return on capital employed. Dr. V kept the costs low by building efficient, high-volume, assembly-line process to perform surgeries. Not only in financial cost-effectiveness, but also in other managerial parameters like productivity, quality, innovation and process management, Aravind maintains a high-level of efficiency and excellence. We will discuss this aspect of Aravind‘s performance a little later. As we have mentioned earlier, Aravind Eye Hospital is a mandatory case study in Harvard Business School. Pavithra Mehta and Suchitra Sen, writing about the HBR case study on Aravind, states: ―For well over a decade now, each of the 900 or so students who pass through Harvard‘s MBA program every year have been handed In Service for Sight. Since its publication in 1993, the Harvard Business School has distributed more than 150,000 copies to the top 20 business schools in the United States. When the school started a management course for entrepreneurs, the case study was required reading.‖ Kash Raghavan, the HBR professor who prepared the case study states, ―It has longevity. Dr. V‘s passion and vision make it timeless.‖ The Caring Culture However this external corporate performance is only one aspect of AEH‘s achievement. The other more important part of the achievement is the inner quality of the AEH culture. Once an industrialist from Delhi visited AEH and requested Dr. V, "I need to build a hospital, and I'm very much impressed with this one. Could you come to Delhi and start a hospital for me?" Dr V replied, "You have all the money you need. It shouldn't be hard for you to put up a hospital in Delhi." "No," the industrialist said, "I want a hospital with the Aravind culture. People are cordial here. They seem to respect something more than money. There is a certain amount of inner communion or compassion that flows from them. How do you do it?‖ Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 94

A case study on AEH by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad states, ―The overall culture at AEH is one of service, humility, kindness and equality.‖ We can feel this distinct culture of Aravind from our first contact with it when we ring up to the enquiry. The female voice answers all your questions with a genuine politeness, courtesy and patience. And when we enter into an AEH, we can feel the ambience of smiling care, service and compassion in all the levels of Aravind staff doctors, paramedics and nurses. The Eye-care Visionary: Doctor, Entrepreneur and the Yogi We made a brief review of the achievement of AEH. Let us now look at the Man behind the success story, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, Dr. V. Dr. V was born in 1918 in a small village in South India. He received his medical degree from Stanley Medical College, Chennai in 1944. He joined the Indian Army Medical Corps, but had to retire in 1948 after developing severe rheumatoid arthritis – a disease that left his fingers crippled and changed the course of his life. Despite his condition he returned to medical school and earned a Diploma and Master‘s Degree in ophthalmology. With hard work and determination, Dr. V. trained himself to hold a scalpel and to perform cataract surgery. In time, he personally performed over one hundred thousand successful eye surgeries. He joined the faculty at Madurai Medical College as the head of the department of ophthalmology and later served as the Vice Dean. In these capacities he introduced a number of innovative programmes to attack the problem of blindness in India, including the outreach eye camps, the initiation of a training programme for ophthalmic assistants and the world‘s first rehabilitation centre for the blind. In 1950 Dr. V met Sri Aurobindo- a poet, philosopher, and sage. He was influenced deeply by him. Driven by the compassionate urge of his heart to eliminate needless blindness and inspired by the spiritual vision of Sri Aurobindo, Dr. V. set in motion a 30-year old, and still continuing, crusade against blindness – Aravind Eye Care System. At the age of 55, Dr. V first saw the golden arches of McDonald's. That was the beginning of his dream to give eyesight to millions. He reasoned when McDonald's could sell billions of low-cost burgers, he could also sell millions of low-cost sight restoring operations. In 1978, Dr. V started AEH after mortgaging his house. It had 12 beds then. By the end of 2003, this hospital was offering ultra-modem facilities and 3000 beds. Now, Aravind Eye Hospitals are at Madurai, Theni, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Puducherry. Dr. V is a soft and gentle leader who leads not by command and control but by his living example and humility. Here are some illustrative episodes. A new guard confronts Dr. V at the entrance to the hospital, ―Sit down, old man, you‘re blocking people.‖ In walks a senior doctor of AEH and asks, ―Dr. V, what are you doing here in reception.‖ Dr. V replies: ―I was told I can‘t go in, so I‘m waiting.‖ And another one: a doctor of AEH, returns from a camp with high fever and wants to take a day off. As she arrives at the hospital late, Dr. V asks, ―What are you Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 95

doing here.‖ She says, ―I am having high fever.‖ Dr. V replies, ―My fever is 104, how high is yours.‖ However, Dr. V‘s inspiration is not entirely moral and social but mainly spiritual. Dr. V is primarily a yogi who happens to be a doctor and a social entrepreneur. He wrote in his diary, ―I have been doing yoga since 1936, from the age of 18 years consciously or unconsciously.‖ Behind the moral and social vision of eradicating blindness, Dr. V has a spiritual vision based on Sri Aurobindo‘s teachings. Here are some statements from Dr. V‘s talks, interviews and journal entries, which give an indication of the spiritual faith and vision behind his works and achievements. ―I ask God that I be a better tool, a receptacle for the divine force.‖ ―Our effort is to make Aravind an instrument of the Divine Will. We strive to forget our limitations and work with the direction of the Divine Will, not in a vain superficial way but with a deep commitment and faith that guidance comes from a higher level of consciousness. Then one is able to work with the great confidence that comes only with that faith and realization that we are all part of a spiritual capacity or spiritual power. It is then that all of nature works with you. You don't feel that you are a superior being but you are an instrument in the hands of a higher force and it is in that spirit that we meet our day to day struggles and successes.‖ ―We believe that the higher consciousness is trying to gradually give us a system. We are all aware of the parts of the human body as they work. We take in food; we like the taste of it; part of it is absorbed here, part of it there. But we are not aware of it. The higher consciousness works in the same way. Slowly, your system is built around it but not according to human notions. At the hospital we are slowly building an organisation that seems to be linked to higher consciousness.‖ ―To some of us, bringing divine consciousness to our daily activities is the Goal. The Hospital work gives an opportunity for this spiritual growth. In your growth you widen your consciousness and feel the suffering of others.‖ Dr. David F. Chang, regarded as one of the best among cataract surgeons in US, recall what he felt when he first met Dr. V, ―He has an amazing aura. It was like being in the presence of a living legend. He brings a lot of energy and purpose to everyone he comes into contact with. I really think Dr. V‘s spirituality is an important driving force at Aravind.‖ Similarly, Dr. Kash Raghavan, who prepared the cast study on Aravind for Harvard Business Schools, observes, ―Everything revolved around the thing Dr. V was talking about----this man‘s spirituality wasn‘t incidental to the story. It was what everything else hinged on.‖ Most of the corporate studies tend to ignore or underplay this spiritual dimension behind Aravind‘s success. But Aravind‘s success cannot be fully understood without this higher inspiration behind it. As Pavithra Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy rightly point out: Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 96

―Every organization operates with a set of reference points that reflect its ultimate motivation. Aravind too, through Dr. V, has a touch stone. If left unexamined, explanations of Aravind's work and what it offers the world will always be incomplete. Dr. V believes Aravind's work is a manifestation of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's influence. Whether or not this is true is irrelevant. The objectives, systems, and culture of Aravind certainly do not demand belief in spirituality. But the fact remains that they were created and distinctly shaped by one man's sense of an inner reality. This is why you cannot give short shrift to Dr. V's spirituality when tracing the path of Aravind's evolution. It threads through everything: his priorities and perspectives, his vision for Aravind, his leadership practices, and the unique impact he has on the people who work with him. It is what linked this man's individual quest to the evolution of the largest eye care facility in the world.‖

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Culture of Dedication and Excellence But Dr. V‘s spirituality is not merely an in draw personal seeking for lonely spiritual salvation or ecstasy. It is a dynamic spirituality which is translated into a strategic action leading to exemplary corporate performance. This brings us to the question what are the strategic factors behind the success of AEH? There are two major elements: first is the dedication to a higher purpose. As Pavithra Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy describe this deeper, moral factor behind Aravind‘s success: ―There is a gradual, catalytic force unleashed when people put aside personal gain in service to a higher vision, day after day, month after month, year after year. That is why money cannot explain Aravind‘s success. What the hospital has accomplished today is not by virtue of its bank balance but by, in some sense, its virtue-period.‖ In Dr. V‘s perspective this moral factor is not just saintliness but a strategic action which brings material results. Dr. V believed that when you do your work dedicated to a higher ideal and without seeking for personal gain, whatever that is needed to materialise the ideal will come. ―You must do your work‖ said Dr. V ―money will follow----it comes---the ideas, the money, people.‖ Interestingly, this deeper spirit behind Aravind is perceived even by some observers who have no spiritual inclinations. For example, David Roes, an American lawyer, who helped Aravind in legal matters, states, ―At Aravind, I learned its an attitude, more than just the techniques or the business model, its a spirit that needs to pervade everything that we do a sense that we‘re all doing this together and will each do whatever needs to be done. I‘ve become convinced that the kind of attitude that Aravind epitomizes is the secret. Set up the environment for it, model it, and let it pervade. The rewards are built-in.‖ The second factor is a culture of excellence in every activity of corporate life, especially in those vital domains or parameters which lead to sustained organisational effectiveness like for example, human resource development, productivity, quality, innovation, customer service. Let us briefly examine some of these factors behind Aravind‘s phenomenal success in delivering eye-care to the masses. Human Development The HR strategy of AEH has two aspects: professional development of doctors and training of paramedics. For the development of doctors, AEH management encourages its medical professionals to pursue research and publish papers in reputed professional journals. Best practices, improvements or discoveries in surgical techniques, medical knowledge or equipment that happen all over the world are collected, disseminated and shared among medical professional. For example, if a doctor in Boston or Germany discovers a new technique, Aravind doctors go there to learn it or the expert comes to teach the doctors at Aravind. The doctors also have the opportunity to specialize in a specific field in ophthalmology and to acquire professional reputation in the field. AEH is developing centers of excellence in various specialized domains of ophthalmology. For example in Coimbatore, Aravind is trying to develop a centre for treating eye-cancer and it has sent its doctors for training to Newyork. Similarly there are specialized centers of excellence in Tirunelveli for Glaucoma and in Madurai for paediatric ophthalmology. Dr. V admits that retaining doctors is a problem because when a doctor gets sufficient experience and reputation he Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 98

or she leaves for better money. But the management of AEH is trying to tackle the problem, like for example, by paying market rates and having discussions with younger doctors on how to make the job more attractive in term of career growth, working conditions and compensation. The other aspect of HR management in AEH is the recruitment, training and development of paramedics. Here, a great emphasis is laid on inner attitude and commitment. As R.D. Thulasiraj, Executive Directors, Aravind Eye Hospital explains: ―In our selection process, we recruit young girls from the village, who have a certain amount of curiosity and a capacity for hardwork. We interview the parents also and look for commitment, so that we can be sure they will stay on. Most of them continue with us even after they get married because they are respected in the community.‖ The training given to paramedical staff and nurses is something unique and different from that of other hospitals. Apart from professional skills, girls are also trained in cooking, housekeeping, tailoring and other life-skills. This helps prepare them to become good housewives in the future. Voluntary devotional songs and yoga sessions are also organised in the evening. The nurses are encouraged to be kind to the patients at all times and approach them with thankfulness for providing them with an opportunity to serve. The nurses are also asked to save a part of their salary in bank account in their name, so that they have a sizable sum saved for their marriage. And the result is a quality of customer experience which is very different from that of other hospitals. In other hospitals, customer experience is either indifferent or apathetic, with callous nurses and arrogant doctors or at the best, impersonal, efficient and fast service. But in AEH the customer, whether she is paying or, not paying, feels an atmosphere which is caring, kindly and benevolent. Productivity of Surgeons The productivity of AEH‘s surgeon‘s is astonishingly high in comparison with other eye-care centers. While the industry average for a surgeon is around 400 surgeries per year, the productivity of a surgeon at AEH is around 4500. What are the main factors behind the phenomenal productivity of Aravind‘s surgeons? The first factor is a higher and noble purpose which provides the motivation. The second factor is the long working hours from 6.00 a. m to 6 p.m. The third factor is a supportive system which leads to the optimum utilization of a surgeon‘s skill. Those activities which don‘t require the surgeon‘s skill are done by the junior or paramedical staff. Two or more patients were kept in an operation theatre at the same time. A doctor performed a cataract operation in 10 to 20 minutes and then moved on to another patient who was ready to be operated by the time he completed operating on the first patient. As Dr. V explains the system: ―At Aravind Eye Hospital each surgeon works on two operation tables alternatively. We don‘t need to do everything ourselves. There is a team of paramedical and junior doctors to wash the eye, put the suture, give the injections and so on. The surgeon does his part and moves on to the next table.‖ Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 99

The third factor which provides the quantitative base for maintaining high productivity is AEH‘s community outreach programmes. Aravind doesn‘t wait for the patients to come; it goes out into the community and brings patients to the hospital. This approach ensures a steady, constant and uninterrupted flow of patients for the surgeons. Sustaining High Quality Aravind‘s achievement in quality can be viewed interms of three factors: service, products and competence. First is the quality of service. Aravind has a reputation for quality and fareness in treating the patient. The poor patient who is treated free of cost and the richer patient who pays are given the same quality of care and treatment. As Dr. V points out: ―Whether the patient is from the village or a big man from a metro, we tell them honestly what their problem is, what can be or cannot be done to treat and what the fixed rates. Over the years we have built an image that we respect them and we don‘t treat them badly because they are poor. Now, even when there is a choice of three or four camps, they prefer the Aravind camp.‖ What are the main factors behind this reputation for quality? The first factor is a rigorous and thorough follow up and review system which ensures every patient attains complete care. For example, while screening children, AEH staffs have found children are not wearing the glasses prescribed for them. So to make sure they wear the glasses, the teachers are first trained in screening. Then AEH staffs go back to the schools to check if the children are wearing the glasses. The second aspect of quality is that each patient, paying or not paying, is treated according to the nature of his or her problem. As Thulasiraj, Executive Director of Aravind Eye Hospital points out: ―We don‘t take chances whether a patient is paying or free patient. All complicated surgeries are done only by senior doctors. If a patient has permanently lost vision in one eye even a simple cataract will go to a senior doctor because the risk is greater.‖ The second factor is the quality of products. The Aurolab, the manufacturing wing of Aravind which makes IOL lenses is the first Indian company to achieve IOL certification for IOL in India. One of the world renowned researchers in IOL wrote in a noted ophthalmology journal, ―[Aurolab lenses] clearly meet and often exceed world standards of many lenses manufactured in the United States and European countries.‖ The third factor is the quality of clinical competence. Aravind‘s surgeons are regarded as some of the best in the world. "When doctors from the United States see what surgeons from Aravind do, they are blown away," says Dr. Christine Melton, a Manhattan-based ophthalmologist. "I had Prajna (a senior surgeon at Aravind) give a presentation at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary on corneal ulcers one year. After his talk, the faculty advisor told his residents, 'The amazing stuff you just saw-don't try it here. We don't have that kind of expertise.'" Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 100

Flexibility, Adaptation and Innovation Flexibility and adaptation are important aspects of organisational effectiveness. AEH has displayed remarkable flexibility and adaptive skills in steering the institution towards its goals. Backward integration into manufacturing contact lens is an example of flexibility and adaptation. Initially IOL surgeries with contact lenses, which have to be imported, are done only for the paying patients because it was costly. But AEH has found that IOL surgery will benefit the poor patient more than the rich patient. So, keeping its mission of providing equal quality of service to the paying as well as the non-paying patients AEH decided to manufacture the contact lenses in house and do the IOL surgery for the poorer patients. AEH took up the challenge and set up a separate manufacturing felicity with imported technology. AEH was able to manufacture the lenses at a much less cost than the imported price and IOL surgery was made affordable to poorer patients. Constant improvement and innovation in process and surgical techniques are integral part of AEH culture. AEH has made many improvements and refinements to the existing surgical techniques. There is also a constant mutual sharing of best practices between AEH and other leading eye care centers all over the world. Similarly in organisational systems and processes, as R.D. Thulasiraj states, ―We try to find out if there is something we can do differently to improve the system. So that is our mindset to keep on improving process.‖ References: 1. C.K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Wharton School Publishing, Wharton, 2003, p. 265-85. 2. Janat and L.S. Murthy, ‗Compassionate High Quality, Health Care at Low Cost: The Aravind Model‘ In Conversation with Dr. G. Venkataswamy and R.D. Thulasiraj, IMB Management Review, September 2004. 3. Harriet Rubin, ‗The Perfect Vision of Dr. V‘, Fast Company, January 2001. 4. Pavithra K. Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy, (2011) ‗Infinite Vision,‘ Bernett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., p. 26,27, 52, 74-75, 107, 123.

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CREATIVE COMPASSION A profile and a case study on leadership based on the autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, ‘Banker to the Poor’, The University Press. Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel Laureate in Peace and founder of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh) Compassion in Action Most of us are sensitive to the poverty and hunger we see around us and feel sympathy for the poor. But there are a few who go beyond feeling sympathy to creative compassion, which means doing something for changing the lives of the poor. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank is one of them, perhaps one of the most creative and successful. The autobiography of Yunus is an insightful and moving account of Compassion in Action. Interestingly, Compassion is now recognized as a leadership quality in modern management thought. Richard Boyatzis and Annie Mckee, leading leadership consultants, in their book: ―Resonant Leadership‖ published by Harvard Business School Press, describe Compassion, Mindfulness and Hope as core qualities of effective leadership. Richard and Annie define compassion as, ―Empathy in action‖ and describe its main components as: Understanding and empathy for others‘ feelings and experiences. Caring for others Willingness to act on these feelings of care and empathy Muhammad Yunus displays such an active and dynamic compassion for the poor. This case study is not an exhaustive analysis of the leadership qualities, styles or strategies of Yunus. The main objective of this study is to examine an important aspect of effective leadership: an example of how a creative idea or solution is born in the mind of a leader, takes form and gets converted into decisions and action. The case study examines this aspect of leadership in the life of one of the most successful social entrepreneurs of our age. The Nightmare of Poverty The most interesting and poignant part of the autobiography of Yunus is where he describes how the idea behind Grameen Bank germinated in his mind. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from the US, Yunus came back to Bangladesh and took a comfortable well paid job in Chittagong University. He could have easily settled down and prospered in his job and become a top academic or a Vice Chancellor. But he was shaken to the core by the nightmarish famine and poverty he saw in his motherland. People were dying on the streets, yyoung and old, woman and children were simply collapsing and dying of starvation while sitting or walking on the roads. Muhammad Yunus describes poignantly, with deep feeling in his heart, what he saw in Bangladesh. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 102

―The year 1974 was the year which shook me to the core of my being. Bangladesh fell into the grips of a famine. They were everywhere. You couldn't be sure who was alive and who was dead. They all looked alike: men, women, and children. You couldn't guess their age. Old people looked like children, and children looked like old people. One could not miss these starving people even if one wanted to. They were everywhere, lying very quiet. They did not chant any slogans. They did not demand anything from us. They did not condemn us for having delicious food in our homes while they lay down quietly on our doorsteps. There are many ways for people to die, but somehow dying of starvation is the most unacceptable of all. What a terrible way to die. It happens in slow motion. Second by second, the distance between life and death becomes smaller and smaller.‖ Although many might have seen and felt like Muhammad Yunus, only a few might have converted their feelings into action to do something for the poor. Among these few, only Yunus was able to do it creatively and with a substantial impact on the lives of the poor, not only in Bangladesh, but around the whole world. As Yunus saw the grim reality of poverty, his academic mind built around economic theories collapsed. He saw concretely how sterile and useless these theories are for solving actual and grave economic problems like stark poverty. ―I wanted to run away from these theories from text books‖, writes Yunus, ―I felt I had to escape from academic life. I wanted to understand the reality around a poor person‘s existence and discover the real life economics that were played out every day in the neighbouring village-Johra.‖ Birth of a Solution So Yunus wanted to study the real world of poverty instead of theorizing about it. He interviewed one of the poorest in Johra. Yunus describes the simple interview: ―She was in her early twenties, thin, with dark skin, black eyes. She wore a red sari and could have been any one of a million women who labour every day from morning to night in utter destitution‖. 'What is your name?' 'Sufia Begum.' ‗How old are you?' 'Twenty-one.' 'Do you own this bamboo?' I asked her. 'Yes.' 'How do you get it?' 'I buy it.' 'How much does the bamboo cast you?' 'Five taka. ‗That was 22 US cents. 'Do you have 5 taka?' 'No, I borrow it from the paikars.' Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 103

'The middlemen? What is your arrangement with them?' 'I must sell my bamboo stools back to them at the end of the day, so as to repay my loan. That way what is left over to me is my profit.' 'How much do you sell it for?' 'Five taka and 50 paisa.' 'So you make 50 paisa profit?' She nodded. That came to a profit of just 2 US cents. 'And could you borrow the cash and buy your own raw material?' 'Yes, but the moneylender would demand a lot. And people who start with them only get poorer.' ‗How much do the moneylenders charge?' 'It depends. Sometimes they charge 10 percent per week. I even have a neighbour who is paying 10 percent per day!' 'And that is all you earn from making these beautiful bamboos tools, 50 paisa?' 'Yes.‘ This interview gave Yunus the insight into the real and immediate cause of a large mass of poverty and a solution using microfinance. The Doctorate in Economics from University of Colorado, US learnt a great lesson on the economics of poverty from that poor simple, uneducated woman. She taught the learned professor of Economics at Chittagong University that the real cause of the miserable conditions of people like her is not lack of education, skill or hardwork but lack of unexploitative credit. Sufia may be illiterate but she has the skill to make that beautiful bamboo stool and she works hard all day. What she needs is that five taka! Yunus describes what he has learnt from his interview with Sufia: ―I simply tried to understand why she suffered: she suffered because the cost of the bamboo was 5 taka and she didn't have the necessary cash. Her life was miserable because she could survive only in that tight cycle - borrowing from the trader and selling back to him. She could not break free of that circle. Right now her labour was almost free. It was a form of bonded labour, or slavery. The trader always made certain that he paid Sufia a price that only covered the cost of the materials and just enough so that she would not die, but would need to keep on borrowing from him. It seemed to me that Sufia's status as virtually a bonded slave was never going to change if she could not find that 5 taka to start with. Credit could bring her that money. She could then sell her products in a free market and could get a much better spread between the cost of her materials and her sale price.‖ In other words Sufia was not able to break away from the circle of poverty because there was no one to understand her problem and lend her the money she needs or support her until she can manage on her own. The present source of credit to the poor, the moneylender is exploitative. The traditional banking system, government and private, in general caters to the rich and are not interested in the poor. As Yunus explains further: Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 104

―Sufia needed credit because she had no cushion to tide her over the adverse conditions which too often arose in meeting her family obligations, in carrying on her bamboo weaving and for mere survival in times of total disaster. Unfortunately, no formal financial institution was available to cater for the credit needs of the poor. This credit market, by default of the formal institutions, had been taken over by local moneylenders. People were not poor because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial structures which could help them widen their economic base simply did not exist in their country.‖ Thus Yunus came to the conclusion that what people like Sufia need to break away from the clutch of poverty is a new banking system specially tailored to the needs of the poor, and which can provide the financial and institutional support to help them be self-employed. Another unique feature of Yunus‘s approach to poverty is that it views the poor with a healthy, positive attitude. Most conventional approaches to poverty look at the poor as helpless, wretched creatures who need constant external support to stay alive and desperately in need of a ―job‖ from an employer to survive. But Yunus looks upon the poor person as a capable, hardworking individual with innate skills and a potential entrepreneur. A social science like economics, says Yunus, must ―enable and encourage human beings to explore their unlimited potential and not start with the assumption their capacity is given and limited.‖ Commenting further on the present approach of traditional economics to creating employment, Yunus states: ―The whole world agrees on what is the best way to eliminate poverty: it is to be achieved by creating employment. But economists recognize only one kind of employment - waged employment. In their book there is nothing called 'self-employment'. Economists have created a world for us where we are supposed to spend our childhood and part of our youth working hard to prepare ourselves to be attractive to potential employers. The idea of a young human being working hard to make himself or herself useful' to an employer is very repulsive to me...It reminds me of the old days when a young girl would be trained by her mother to become attractive to a young man so that she could find herself a husband. A human life is too precious to be wasted in preparing to find an employer and then devoting one's entire existence to serving that employer. Opening up opportunities for self-employment by creating appropriate institutions and policies is unquestionably the best strategy for eliminating unemployment and poverty.‖ Yunus is a pragmatist but not a narrow-minded one who cannot see beyond his nose. He saw the immediate causes of poverty but without losing the long-term vision. He saw clearly that the immediate cause of poverty of a large mass of people is what he describes as, ―lack of control over capital.‖ They don‘t have sufficient economic freedom to make use of the fruits of their labour to stand on their own legs. They need an understanding, sympathetic and flexible credit system to break away from the exploitative grip of the moneylender and get started on the road leading to descent living, prosperity and a better quality of life. This is the rationale behind the concept of micro-credit, which has become a potent weapon in our battle against poverty. The great success of Grameen Bank in using microcredit has awakened development experts and Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 105

practitioners all over the world to the immense potentials of this financial instrument in povertyeradication. However, Yunus also understands that micro-credit is not the long-term solution to poverty but only an initial ignition to kick-start the growth engine which carries the poor to a better world. He is very much aware that long-term solution to poverty requires a holistic approach which includes education, health, technology and many others. As Yunus sums up briefly his long-term blue-print for elimination of poverty: ―The economic advancement of a poor family needs a broader enabling and sustaining environment. Micro-credit starts up the engine in the family, but that engine now needs refueling, maintenance, expansion of capacity and a good road to make good progress. Reaching the survival point with micro-credit can be accomplished without difficulty. To go much further one needs good a healthcare system, education, a pension plan, good communications, market information. If no such support system is developed the economic advancement made by the borrowers may come to a halt or even slide backwards.‖ In his autobiography, Yunus gives brief descriptions of the initiatives and plans of Grameen Bank for its borrowers in the area of housing, health and retirement, education, technology, energy, communications. But in any new project or undertaking, creating an idea or vision is the least difficult part of the enterprise. The most difficult and challenging part is the implementation and execution. It is beyond the scope of this study to analyse all the decisions and strategies of Yunus that made his Grameen movement a big success. We will confine our discussion to a few major decisions and strategies behind the success-story of Grameen Bank. The Feminine Advantage One of the first major decisions of Yunus in his Grameen Bank is to lend only to woman. This is a radical decision which went against the values of the traditional Islamic society of Bangladesh and also the modern secular values of gender equality. But it is a practical decision, and perhaps a major factor behind the Grameen success story. The distinguished management thinker, C.K. Prahalad states categorically ―Grameen Bank‘s success is based on lending only to woman.‖ Yunus seems to have felt instinctively that women are much more honest, reliable and creditworthy borrowers than men and his instincts turned out to be true. As Yunus points out, ―Our experience with bad debt is less than 1 percent.‖ In his autobiography Yunus devotes an entire chapter to explain, ―Why lend to women rather than to men,‖ and gives many reasons for preferring women over men. Here are some of them: From our experience, it became evident that destitute women adapted quicker and better to the self-help process than men. Poor women had the vision to see further and were willing to work harder to get out of poverty because they suffered the most. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 106

The women paid more attention, prepared their children to have better lives, and were more consistent in their performance than men. Money going through a woman in a household brought more benefits to the family as a whole than money entering the household through a man. On the other hand, a man has a different set of priorities which do not give the family the top position. When a destitute father starts making extra income, he starts paying attention to himself. So why should Grameen approach the household through men? When a destitute mother starts making some income, her dreams invariably centre around her children. A mother‘s second priority is the household. She wants to buy a few utensils, literally build a stronger roof and improve the family‘s living conditions. One of our borrowers was so excited she grabbed a reporter and showed her the single bed she had been able to buy for herself and her family. Harnessing the Power of Groups The other important part of Grameen strategy is formation of borrowers into a group or a community. Yunus recognized the social power of groups. In Grameen Bank, a borrower is a member of a supportive borrower-community. Yunus explains the advantages of a group: ―We discovered that the formation of a group was crucial to the success of our operations. Individually, a poor person feels exposed to all kinds of hazards. Group membership gives him a feeling of protection. Individually, a person tends to be erratic, uncertain in his or her behaviour. But group membership creates group support and group pressure and smoothes out behaviour patterns and makes the borrower more reliable. Subtle, and at times not so subtle, peer pressure keeps the group members in line with the broader objectives of the credit programme. A sense of inter-group and intra-group competition helps everyone try to be an achiever. It is difficult to keep track of individual borrowers; but if he or she is a member of a group, it is much less difficult. Also, shifting the task of initial supervision to the group reduces the work of the bank worker and increases the self-reliance of the group.‖ Yunus describes an interesting and amusing episode illustrating the positive influence of groups sometimes going beyond its members to their families. It is a conversation between Yunus and the husband of a borrower: ―Are you happy that she joined? Or, looking back, do you think it would have been better if she did not?‖ ―No, no, I am happy that she joined. She used to complain that we didn't have enough food, but now she does not complain. We have enough for the three of us.‖ For me this was like getting good grades in the final exam. I was pleased were working well. Both Joynal and I kept walking silently.

that

things

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The long silence was broken when Joynal spoke out in a negative tone: ―There is one thing, however. I used to enjoy beating my wife. But the last time I beat her I got into trouble. The women in Farida's borrowing group came to me and argued with me and shouted at me. I did not like that. Who gave them the right to shout at me? I can do whatever I want with my wife. Before, when I used to beat my wife, no one said anything, no one bothered. This is no longer going to be true. Her borrowing group threatened they will get really mean if I beat my wife again.‖ I tried to console Joynal: ―Well, maybe it is time you left your wife alone. After all, she is working very hard. She needs your support. You can find something else to do to release your tension.‖ In Grameen Bank, this borrower community is not only a social unity but also a cultural entity held together by a system of values, providing a sense of meaning and purpose to its members. There are sixteen values, which Yunus calls ―decisions‖. It is a comprehensive document which can be the guiding principle for any community development project. These are the ―Sixteen Decisions‖ which each member of the borrower community must try to follow: 1. We shall follow and advance the four principles of the Grameen Bank - discipline, unity, courage and hard work - in all walks of our lives. 2. Prosperity we shall bring to our families. 3. We shall not live in a dilapidated house. We shall repair our houses and work towards constructing new houses at the earliest opportunity. 4. We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus. 5. During the planting seasons, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible. 6. We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall minimize our expenditures. We shall look after our health. 7. We shall educate our children and ensure that we can earn to pay for their education. 8. We shall always keep our children and the environment clean. 9. We shall build and use pit-latrines. 10. We shall drink water from tube wells. If it is not available, we shall boil water or use alum to purify it. 11. We shall not take any dowry in our son‘s wedding, neither shall we give any dowry in our daughter's wedding. We shall keep the centre free from the curse of dowry. We shall not practice child marriage. 12. We shall not commit any injustice, and we will oppose anyone who tries to do so. 13. We shall collectively undertake larger investments for higher incomes. 14. We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help him or her. 15. If we come to know of a breach of discipline in any centre, we shall all go there and help restore discipline. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 108

16. We shall introduce physical exercises in all our centres. We shall take part in all social activities collectively. The Business Model Most poverty eradication programmes are philanthropic activities done by charitable or funding institutions or as non-profit activities by government agencies. But in the Grameen model of Yunus poverty eradication is done along business lines. The micro-credit movement pioneered by Yunus is a market-oriented approach where the institution that lends to the poor borrows funds from global financial markets at a low interest rate and lends at a higher rate of interest, generating profit in the process. And this profit is ploughed back to expand further the lending operations. According to Yunus, without profit the lending institutions will not have the financial resources to survive, sustain, expand and reach out to more and more poor people or invest in the infrastructure needed for enhancing the quality of life or living standards of the borrower, like for example what Grameen Bank is doing in education, healthcare, housing, technology, energy. ―If Grameen does not make a profit,‖ says Yunus, ―We will be out of business. In Grameen we always run on profit, to cover our cost, in order to protect us from future shocks and to carry on expansion. Our concerns are focused on the welfare of our shareholders (who are the poor borrowers) and not on immediate cash returns on their investment dollar.‖ Thus in the Grameen model poverty eradication is a market-oriented process run on a forprofit basis. But in this model profit is not an end in itself but only a means for reaching out to a greater number of poor people and for the economic and social upliftment of the borrowercommunity. Poverty, Profit and Beyond The Grameen model of poverty eradication, conceived and executed by Yunus, is a creative, great and admirable effort towards solving one of the most challenging problems facing humanity. Many economic, management and development thinkers and practitioners consider this market-oriented model as the most effective path to poverty-eradication. For example, James D. Wolfenson, former President of World Bank states: ―Micro-credit programmes have brought the vibrancy of the market economy to the poorest villages and people of the world. This business approach to the alleviation of poverty has allowed millions of individuals to work their way out of poverty with dignity.‖ The well-known and distinguished management thinker, C.K. Prahalad in his influential book, ―The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid‖ argues convincingly that the market of the rich is now more or less saturated and the future market and the source of profit lies in fulfilling the needs of the millions of poor people in the bottom of the economic pyramid. Many entrepreneurs following Prahalad‘s clue are now venturing into the low-income sector and finding fertile sources of profit there. This has given birth to the notion that poverty eradication need not be left Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 109

entirely to charitable organizations, NGOs or governments, that business can play an important role in fighting poverty. The advent of business into the field of poverty eradication is very much welcome. In our modern age business is the most powerful, innovative and creative social organism, so active participation of business in our battle against poverty is bound to have a positive and substantial impact on reducing the poverty and inequalities in our society. However we must not rigidly link poverty with profit. Such a crucially important task as poverty eradication should not be tied to profit; it has to be pursued with or without profit. We must keep in mind that elimination of poverty requires not only money and business sense but also moral commitment to the task and sympathy for the poor. There are individuals who have a great moral passion and vital energy to dedicate their lives for serving the poor but they may not have the business sense to create a financially viable model. These individuals need constant financial support from charitable and funding agencies to engage their potential in the task of poverty eradication. On the other hand, there are individuals who have the business sense but no moral commitment. They may enter into the low-income sector lured by profit but they will drop away when the market condition changes and this Bottom of the Pyramid sector loses its profit potential. There may also be individuals like Mohammad Yunus who can combine moral dedication with business acumen. So for a sustained impetus towards poverty eradication we must create an environment where every creative, sincere and dedicated effort towards elimination of poverty, with or without profit, can find sufficient financial support to sustain itself in the long term. We must also think beyond poverty. As increasing numbers of people are delivered from the clutch of poverty and move towards decent standards of living, what next? We, human beings, have a higher destiny beyond economic survival or prosperity. When the basic needs of the body are reasonably fulfilled it awakens to the progressively higher order needs of our emotional, mental, moral and spiritual being. As the individual strives to satisfy these higher needs, it awakens the corresponding faculties and potentials of her mind, heart and soul which lead to her higher evolution. So the task beyond poverty is to create a development framework to promote this higher evolution, with elimination of poverty as an important and indispensable stage in the process.

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BUILDING A RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS A case-study on socially responsible entrepreneurship based on the autobiography of Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop. The Compassionate Revolutionary A mighty soft revolution is sweeping through the world, especially in the corporate world; it is the increasing invasion of women into what is normally considered in the past as male domains, for example in leadership and entrepreneurship. Anita Roddick, founder of Body Shop, is a leading representative of this revolution. She is the archetypal woman-entrepreneur, bringing her feminine passion and a compassionate social conscience into business. If Madonna (not the pop diva, but the virgin Mother of God in Michelangelo‘s famous sculpture, Pieta), represents passion and compassion, then Anita Roddick can be called the Corporate Madonna. She is not a saintly Madonna but a revolutionary one, who constantly went against conventional corporate wisdom. She once said, ―I carefully watch the current trends in business and do the opposite.‖ She is also a courageous Madonna who ventured into the forests of Sarvak to photograph illegal logging and into the Amazons to set up trading links with the Kayapoo tribes. The last part of the intro to her autobiography gives a glimpse of the character and temperament of the author and comes straight from her passionate heart. ―‗Be Kind‘, Keitel writes on Kate Winslet's forehead in the movie Holy Smoke. That's what I wanted to do to the business world - nurture a revolution in kindness. But underlying that ambition has been the recurring theme of my role in the company I founded, now that it has grown into such a huge and complicated organization. So this book actually has another subject as well. It is the story of how I managed to maintain some intimate part of myself - the original core, if you like - in a business gone global. I have had to constantly reinvent the role of the founder-entrepreneur. That's tough when your natural tendency is towards a gleeful anarchy. There are no roadmaps, no instruction manuals. Passion is your guide. Instinct tells you where to go when a challenge arises.‖ The Uplifting Vision ―What‘s Business is all about?‖ This is the title of the first chapter of Anita‘s autobiography. And the author is very clear and firm in her conviction that the purpose of business is ―public good‖ and not ―private greed‖ of the individual or the corporation. But unfortunately, as Anita Roddick points out, ―One of the key-problems of the business world is that greed has become culturally acceptable.‖ Anita is merciless in exposing the soulless hollowness of the hard-core capitalism promoted by WTO and other organizations: ―If you look at the way some businesses are behaving in many corners of the world - the places most business leaders never visit, you can see them alienating humanity in so many ways. I have seen, and still see, corporate crimes in abundance. Industry after industry seems perfectly happy to use sweatshops and the globe is quickly becoming a playground for those who can move capital and projects quickly from place to place. When business can roam from country to Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 111

country with few restrictions in its search for the lowest wages, the loosest environmental regulations and the most docile and desperate workers, then the destruction of livelihoods, cultures and environments can be enormous. The new nomadic capital never sets down roots, never builds communities. It leaves behind toxic wastes, embittered workers and indigenous communities driven out of existence.‖ There is a moral force and passion in Anita‘s criticism because they are not mere words of an intellectual critic barking at business from her mental ivory tower. She was able to create a profitable business based on ―public good‖ in a business environment driven by ―corporate greed.‖ The Body Shop, founded by Anita Roddick in Brighton, England in 1976, has grown into a leading cosmetic company trading in more than fifty countries. Outwardly it is a company that makes and sells naturally inspired cosmetics and skin and hair product but inwardly it is a company with a soul, very different from that of the traditional business organization. There is at present a growing recognition of the importance of ethics, corporate responsibility and sustainability among business leaders. But, except for a few organizations, these new and higher values remain at the fringe and surface of business and the motives behind them are predominantly pragmatic with an eye on the bottom-line. There are still a considerable number of conservative entrepreneurs who do not believe in the concept of social responsibility of business. When Anita Roddick launched her firm in 1976 the corporate environment was still unfavourable or lukewarm to these higher values. In this environment, Anita Roddick built a profitable business organization with ethics, social responsibility and environmental concerns as the very soul and integral part of its vision and strategy. We can see this in the following vision statement of Body Shop:      

Dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change Creatively balance the financial and human needs of our stakeholders: employees, customers, franchisees, suppliers, and shareholders Courageously ensure that our business is ecologically sustainable: meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future Meaningfully contribute to local, national and international communities in which we trade, by adopting a code of conduct which ensures care, honesty, fairness and respect Passionately campaign for the protection of the environment, human and civil rights, and against animal testing within the cosmetics and toiletries industry Tirelessly work to narrow the gap between principle and practice, whilst making fun, passion and social care part of our daily lives. For Anita Roddick, profits and products are secondary results and not part of her vision. She wanted her company to be judged not by its profits and products but by its impact on society: ―One of our greatest frustrations at the Body Shop is that we‘re still judged by the media and the city by our profits and the amount of product we sell whereas, we want and have always wanted Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 112

to be judged by our actions in the larger world by the positive difference we make. The shaping force for us from the start has not been our products, but our principles.‖ The other important part of Body Shop values is the feminine touch. Women and feminist values like care, instinct, community and compassion are given greater prominence than masculine values like reason, hierarchy, individualism and authority. ―I think the Body Shop worked brilliantly because its very, very much female. A lot of feminine principle is endemic with it, like gut feeling, instincts. Interms of ethics, you know, the male is very justice, proprietary behaviour; for woman, its care. We have so many females in the organization that care becomes a natural vocabulary.‖ The Spiritual Dimension The most unique and special feature of Anita‘s vision of business is its spiritual orientation. Anita‘s vision of ethical and responsible business is based neither on ―enlightened self-interest‖ nor entirely on ethical notions; it is based on a clear perception of the spiritual unity of all life. Here are some interesting perceptions of Anita Roddick on her spiritual beliefs: ―There is a spiritual dimension to life that, for me, is the real bottom line. It underpins everything.‖ ―Spirituality, to me, is a very simple attitude that has nothing to do with organized religion. It means that life is sacred and awe inspiring. In my travels around the world, I have been grounded - as millions also have - in the most fundamental of insights: that all life is an expression of a single spiritual unity. We are not, as humans, above everything, contrary to what Christianity tells us; instead we are part of everything. This interconnection has to be sacred, reverent and respectful of different ways of knowing and being.‖ ―We should be evolving into a new age of business with a worldview that maintains one simple proposition: that all of nature - humans, animals, the Earth itself - is interconnected and interdependent. We are all in this together and we are at a crossroads. We have the power to preserve or destroy the sacred interconnections of life on this planet.‖ ―As already mentioned, I believe all life is an expression of a single spiritual unity. We can no longer afford false divisions between work and community, between ethics and economics.‖ In her introduction to a book by John E. Renesch, Anita made the following remarks, which shows that she believes in a spiritual destiny awaiting humanity and earth in the future. ―……… the choice we now face as a species, a choice that may determine whether we become an endangered species or rise to a higher consciousness and accept a destiny we‘ve never even dreamed of.‖

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The Vision in Action Anita Roddick is not an armchair visionary but someone who has translated her vision into action and results. Here is a brief overview of some of the strategic initiatives by which the Body Shop Vision was translated into action.  

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Each Body Shop store has a community project that employees do on company time. The company has a Third World Trade department that goes into the areas of the Third World, creating trade in an ethical way, paying First World prices, making sure the environment and the social fabric is protected. They raise large amounts of money for protecting the rain forests. The Body Shop ethos is embodied in one of its companies, Soapworks. The company sells nearly 30 million bars of soap each year, which used to be purchased from a German supplier. The Body Shop decided to build their own soap factory in Easter house, on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland, an area of high unemployment, urban decay, and demoralization. Soapworks started with a handful of employees. In building Soapworks, Anita Roddick made a moral decision first and a commercial decision second. "I would rather employ the unemployable than the already employed. The soaps are up to 30 percent more expensive, and we will be putting 25 percent of the net profits back into the community. But it is better for my company. It is an example of what keeps the soul of the company alive." Increasing emphasis on renewable resources for raw materials and infinitely recyclable components for machinery, driving towards ―zero-emission‖ of pollutants, not only within the company, but also for suppliers The Body Shop started in Canada in 1980 and by 1992, the Home Office, production, distribution, and training facilities had grown into four separate buildings. From the start, the vision for the new headquarters was of a soul space. First, in keeping with the company's commitment to recycling, a decision was made to recycle an entire building. Instead of demolishing an existing building or constructing a new one, the firm purchased and recycled a thirty-five-year-old printing warehouse in an industrial zone of Toronto. The company never uses animals for testing cosmetics and campaigns against it. The company actively campaigns for human rights causes like violence against woman. The store windows of Body Shop are used extensively for such social and political campaigns Honesty and transparency in marketing and advertising, telling the truth about the products and the benefits without hype and exaggeration. As Anita puts it, ―we sell cosmetics with the minimum of hype and packaging and promote health rather than glamour, reality rather than the dubious promise of instant rejuvenation‖ The work place is considered as a community where people are provided with opportunities for personal growth while working for the common good of all. They are designed to be familyfriendly where parents are served, child development needs are supported and families are welcomed and valued. For example in the Body Shop workplace at Little Hampton, a Child Development Centre was built at a cost of $1 million. It has places for children between the ages of three months and five years. It also runs an after-school scheme, where children are collected from local schools by nursery staff and are involved in various activities until their parents finish their work. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 114

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The company measures its progress and performance interms of its values. Value Auditing The most important of Body Shop‘s strategies is the last part - an honest attempt to measure its performance interms of its professed values. It is in this domain most of the companies, which talk about ethics or CSR or sustainability, fail. They speak loftily about these higher values in their reports but the performance of the company and its executives are measured interms of short-term financial or productivity target. In Body Shop, Anita has made an honest attempt to assess the company‘s performance in the non-commercial domain through a system of ethical, social and environmental auditing she calls ―Values Report.‖ As Anita Roddick explains: ―Auditing shouldn't just be for accountants, after all. If The Body Shop wants the freedom to campaign on public issues, we must first demonstrate our commitment to our beliefs. This means opening up to defined standards of human rights, social welfare and worker safety, environmental protection and, where relevant, wider ethical issues like animal protection. We believe we have a moral responsibility to tell the truth about ourselves and face up to those areas where we fall short.‖ ―We have been trying to bring in new barometers of measurement that show that people and the Earth do matter. Every two years The Body Shop conducts a social audit, which offers a means of evaluation of the social impact and behaviour of an organization in relation to its stakeholders. We have 5,000 stakeholders - anyone involved in or affected by The Body Shop, from the suppliers to the staff to the shareholders to the communities in which we're working to people who have received money from the foundation - and the audit involves them all telling us what they think of the company.‖ ―Ethical auditing is an all-encompassing term that describes social and environmental auditing and any other ethics-related auditing that we may do, such as animal-protection auditing. We began it as an independently verified assessment of the company's performance against our stated values, and in 1995 we produced our first Values Report. The latter involved in-depth interviews and wide-scale surveys with all our stakeholders, ranging from employees to shareholders, from suppliers to local communities‖ ―We also produce an environmental statement, which is our contribution towards providing a measure of progress towards more sustainable operations. It is a public document and allows the flow of information that is so vital to creating a link with our stakeholders, who are very concerned about the future.‖

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SELF-AWARENESS AND SELF-MANAGEMENT (A story which illustrates the process of self-mastery.) Anand, the young Plant Manager at Revathi Engineering, was shouting angrily over the phone at one of his peers, another plant manager. ―Look Rahul, don‘t blame me; it is your fault; you have not kept to your schedule. It is your incompetence …….‖ Anand was interrupted by an equally loud shouting at the other end. A heated argument between the two followed and finally Anand slammed down the phone with his whole body shaking in anger. It took some time for him to recover his poise. He said to himself, ―Let me get back to work‖ and rang up one of his supervisors, Ashok and asked him: ―How much work is yet to be done in the boiler project for Rolex?‖ ―It will take two more days, sir.‖ Anand was again red in the face and said in a sharp voice: ―Two days, what the hell you are saying? According to the production schedule it should have been over yesterday.‖ Ashok muttered, ―But sir, there are some problems in our welding and milling machines.‖ ―No excuses,‖ Anand barked, ―I don‘t know what you will do but you have to finish it today.‖ As he put his phone down and tried to concentrate on his work, it rang. Anand picked up the phone and heard the familiar, crackling tone of his boss, Gopal, the General Manager. ―What is happening in your plant?‖ Gopal asked in a commanding tone. ―I saw your progress chart for Rolex yesterday. It is too slow. You must understand we have to send the boiler to our customer within two months and you have not done even half the work. You have to speed up.‖ Anand said, ―But sir ……....‖ His boss interrupted and said firmly, ―Don‘t give your usual excuses, just speed up.‖ Anand kept the phone down, suppressing all the anger and resentment rising violently within him. Anand wrapped his face in his palms and muttered, ―O, this is becoming too much, I have to consult my mentor.‖ He rang up his mentor, Prof. Ranganthan who was his teacher when he was studying in the Guindy Engineering College. Anand said into the phone, ―Sir, I am Anand, I want your guidance urgently.‖ A calm voice replied from the other end, ―Come to my home at around 8 pm, we will talk over it then.‖ Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 116

As Anand sat before his mentor later that evening, Ranganathan gazed at the face of his protégé for a few minutes and then said with affection, ―My dear boy, you look very disturbed and tired. What is troubling you?‖ Anand narrated what had happened and asked, ―Why am I not able to control my emotions and anger, how can I achieve control over myself?‖ Ranganathan smiled sympathetically and said: ―Before gaining control you must become conscious of yourself. You can‘t control something which you are not conscious of. You are not able to control your emotions or anger because you become the emotions or anger. You are asking, ‗why don‘t I have control,‘ but when you have the emotion or anger, there is no ‗I‘ to control. You are the anger or emotion and there is nothing left of you or the ‗I‘ to control. So the first step in acquiring control or mastery over your emotions is to recover the ‗I‘. When you are having the emotion or the anger, you have to become aware ‗I am having this emotion or anger.‘ When you are able to do this, then the next step is to know that the ‗I am‘ is different from the emotion or anger. You are not the emotion or anger. The emotion or anger is something happening in you, an inner movement in you and you are not that. This is the second step towards control. Tomorrow you put this into practice and tell me what is y our experience when we meet again here at the same time.‖ As Anand tried to practise his mentors words, he found that the very act of becoming conscious of his thoughts and emotions, led to a certain amount of detachment and mastery over them. The next day after he had narrated his experience to his mentor, Ranganathan said: ―Good, you are now aware of a faculty and power in you which you were not fully conscious of before. Now you know that you have a faculty within you which can stand back from the flow of your thoughts and feelings and watch them as a witness. The next step is to make this detachment deeper, more and more complete and perfect. Step back and dis-identify your cognitive mind entirely from the flow of thoughts and feelings. Just watch them raising and falling like waves on the sea. This is your assignment for the next few days. Come back again this Sunday and we will discuss further.‖ Again as Anand tried to put into practice his mentor‘s words, he found how little he knew of his own self and how much is there to know. He was experiencing a growing inner freedom and understanding which comes from increasing self-awareness and self-detachment. On Sunday, when he again met his mentor, Anand said thankfully, ―Sir, I don‘t know how to express my gratitude to you. You have opened a new world of knowledge for me which is bringing practical benefits to my life. I am now more peaceful, conscious, less stressful and more in control of myself.‖ Ranganathan laughed happily and said: Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 117

―Very good, but don‘t remain satisfied with what you have achieved, proceed further. Be more and more vigilant and alert and try to discover the innermost source of your thoughts, feelings, sensations, impulses, volitions and motives. You will find they are coming from different parts of your being. When you have negative feelings like anger or jealousy try to identify the points of ego or desire from which it raises. You will find that most of the negativities and disturbances come either from hurt ego or dissatisfied desire. Similarly you must fully experience the fact that the detached witness you have discovered is not only a mere observer but has the power of control. The witness has a will which can reject those thoughts or feelings which it doesn‘t want, retain others which it wants and cultivate new thoughts and feelings. This will be a life-long inner journey and exploration.‖

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APPENDIX

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THE FOUNDATIONS OF INTEGRAL SPIRITUALITY Sri Aurobindo Our endeavour shall be to prepare the paths and to accomplish the beginning of a great and high change which we believe to be and aim at making the future of the race and the future of India. Our ideal is a new birth of humanity into the spirit; our life must be a spiritually inspired effort to create a body of action for that great new birth and creation. A spiritual ideal has always been the characteristic idea and aspiration of India. But the progress of Time and the need of humanity demand a new orientation and another form of that ideal. The old forms and methods are no longer sufficient for the purpose of the Time-Spirit. India can no longer fulfill herself on lines that are too narrow for the great steps she has to take in the future. Nor is ours the spirituality of a life that is aged and world-weary and burdened with the sense of the illusion and miserable inutility of all God‘s mighty creation. Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit. It is to accept the world as an effort of manifestation of the Divine, but also to transform humanity by a greater effort of manifestation than has yet been accomplished, one in which the veil between man and God shall be removed, the divine manhood of which we are capable shall come to birth and our life shall be remoulded in the truth and light and power of the spirit. It is to make of all our action a sacrifice to the master of our action and an expression of the greater self in man and of all life a Yoga. The West has made the growth of the intellectual, emotional, vital and material being of man its ideal, but it has left aside the greater possibilities of his spiritual existence. Its highest standards are ideals of progress, of liberty, equality and fraternity, of reason and science, of efficiency of all kinds, of a better political, social and economical state, of the unity and earthly happiness of the race. These are great endeavours, but experiment after experiment has shown that they cannot be realised in their truth by the power of the idea and the sentiment alone: their real truth and practice can only be founded in the spirit. The West has put its faith in its science and machinery and it is being destroyed by its science and crushed under its mechanical burden. It has not understood that a spiritual change is necessary for the accomplishment of its ideals. The East has the secret of that spiritual change, but it has too long turned its eyes away from the earth. The time has now come to heal the division and to unite life and the spirit. This secret too has been possessed but not sufficiently practised by India. It is summarised in the rule of the Gita, yogasthah. Kuru karman i. Its principle is to do all actions in Yoga, in union with God, on the foundation of the highest self and through the rule of all our members by the power of the spirit. And this we believe to be not only possible for man but the true solution of all his problems and difficulties. This then is the message we shall constantly utter and this the ideal that we shall put before the young and rising India, a spiritual life that shall take up all human activities and avail to transfigure the world for the great age that is coming. India, she that Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 120

has carried in herself from of old the secret, can alone lead the way in this great transformation of which the present sandhy¯a of the old yuga is the forerunner. This must be her mission and service to humanity,—as she discovered the inner spiritual life for the individual, so now to discover for the race its integral collective expression and found for mankind its new spiritual and communal order. Our first object shall be to declare this ideal, insist on the spiritual change as the first necessity and group together all who accept it and are ready to strive sincerely to fulfil it: our second shall be to build up not only an individual but a communal life on this principle. An outer activity as well as an inner change is needed and it must be at once a spiritual, cultural, educational, social and economical action. Its scope, too, will be at once individual and communal, regional and national, and eventually a work not only for the nation but for the whole human people. The immediate object of this action will be a new creation, a spiritual education and culture, an enlarged social spirit founded not on division but on unity, on the perfect growth and freedom of the individual, but also on his unity with others and his dedication to a larger self in the people and in humanity, and the beginning of an endeavour towards the solution of the economic problem founded not on any Western model but on the communal principle native to India. Our call is to young India. It is the young who must be the builders of the new world,—not those who accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or the materialistic communism of the West as India‘s future ideal, nor those who are enslaved to old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and transformation of life by the spirit, but all who are free in mind and heart to accept a completer truth and labour for a greater ideal. They must be men who will dedicate themselves not to the past or the present but to the future. They will need to consecrate their lives to an exceeding of their lower self, to the realisation of God in themselves and in all human beings and to a whole-minded and indefatigable labour for the nation and for humanity. This ideal can be as yet only a little seed and the life that embodies it a small nucleus, but it is our fixed hope that the seed will grow into a great tree and the nucleus be the heart of an ever extending formation. It is with a confident trust in the spirit that inspires us that we take our place among the standard-bearers of the new humanity that is struggling to be born amidst the chaos of a world in dissolution and of the future India, the greater India of the rebirth that is to rejuvenate the mighty outworn body of the ancient Mother.

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KNOWING ONESELF The Mother (To know oneself and master oneself is the art and science of living. This article describes in a simple language the path to self-knowledge and self-mastery.) Becoming Conscious You are to be conscious of yourself, you must awake to your nature and movements, you must know why and how you do things or feel or think them; you must understand your motives and impulses, the forces, hidden and apparent, that move you; in fact, you must, as it were, take to pieces the entire machinery of your being. Once you are conscious, it means that you can distinguish and sift things, you can see which are the forces that pull you down and which help you on. And when you know the right from the wrong, the true from the false, the divine from the undivine, you are to act strictly up to your knowledge; that is to say, resolutely reject one and accept the other. The duality will present itself at every step and at every step you will have to make your choice Knowing Oneself and Mastering Oneself This means to be conscious of one‘s inner truth, conscious of the different parts of one‘s being and their respective functions. You must know why you do this, why you do that; you must know your thoughts, know your feelings, all your activities, all your movements, of what you are capable, etc. And to know oneself is not enough: this knowledge must bring a conscious control. To know oneself perfectly is to control oneself perfectly. But there must be an aspiration at every moment. It is never too early to begin, never too late to continue. That is, even when you are quite young, you can begin to study yourself and know yourself and gradually to control yourself. And even when you are what is called ―old‖, when you are quite aged, it is not too late to make the effort to know yourself better and better and control yourself better and better. That is the Science of Living. To perfect oneself, one must first become conscious of oneself. I am sure, for instance, that the following situation has arisen many times in your life: someone asks you suddenly, ―Why have you done that?‖ Well, the spontaneous reply is, ―I don‘t know.‖ If someone asks you, ―What are you thinking of?‖ You reply, ―I don‘t know.‖ ―Why are you tired?‖—―I don‘t know.‖ ―Why are you happy?‖—―I don‘t know‖, and so on. I can take indeed fifty people and ask them suddenly, without preparation, ―Why have you done that?‖ and if they are not inwardly ―awake‖, they will all answer, ―I don‘t know.‖ (Of course I am not speaking here of those who have practiced a discipline of self-knowledge and of following up their movements to the extreme limits; these people can, naturally, collect themselves, concentrate and give the right answer, but only after a little while.) You will see that it is like that if you look well at your whole day. You say something and you don‘t know why you say it—it is only after the words are out of your mouth Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 122

that you notice that this was not quite what you wanted to say. For instance, you go to see someone, you prepare beforehand the words you are going to speak, but once you are in front of the person in question, you say nothing or it is other words which come from your mouth. Are you able to say to what extent the atmosphere of the other person has influenced you and stopped you from saying what you had prepared? How many people can say that? They do not even observe that the person was in such or such a state and that it was because of this that they could not tell him what they had prepared. Of course, there are very obvious instances when you find people in such a bad mood that you can ask nothing of them. I am not speaking of these. I am speaking of the clear perception of reciprocal influences: what acts and reacts on your nature; it is this one does not have. For example, one becomes suddenly uneasy or happy, but how many people can say, ―It is this‖? And it is difficult to know, it is not at all easy. One must be quite ―awake‖; one must be constantly in a very attentive state of observation. There are people who sleep twelve hours a day and say the rest of the time, ―I am awake‖! There are people who sleep twenty hours a day and the rest of the time are but half awake! To be in this state of attentive observation, you must have, so to say, antennae everywhere which are in constant contact with your true centre of consciousness. You register everything, you organise everything and, in this way, you cannot be taken unawares, you cannot be deceived, mistaken, and you cannot say anything other than what you wanted to say. But how many people normally live in this state? It is this I mean, precisely, when I speak of ―becoming conscious‖. If you want to benefit most from the conditions and circumstances in which you find yourself, you must be fully awake: you must not be taken by surprise, you must not do things without knowing why, you must not say things without knowing why. You must be constantly awake. Becoming a Conscious Individual in a Collectivity You must also understand that you are not separate individualities, that life is a constant exchange of forces, of consciousness‘s, of vibrations, of movements of all kinds. It is as in a crowd, you see: when everyone pushes all go forward, and when all recede, everyone recedes. It is the same thing in the inner world, in your consciousness. There are all the time forces and influences acting and reacting upon you, it is like a gas in the atmosphere, and unless you are quite awake, these things enter into you, and it is only when they have gone well in and come out as if they came from you, that you become aware of them. How many times people meet those who are nervous, angry, in a bad mood, and themselves become nervous, angry, moody, just like that, without quite knowing why. Why is it that when you play against certain people you play very well, but when you play against others you cannot play? And those very quiet people, not at all wicked, who suddenly become furious when they are in a furious crowd! And no one knows who has started it: it is something that went past and swept off the consciousness. There are people who can let out vibrations like this and others respond without knowing why. Everything is like that, from the smallest to the biggest things.

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To be individualized in a collectivity, one must be absolutely conscious of oneself. And of which self?—the Self which is above all intermixture, that is, what I call the Truth of your being. And as long as you are not conscious of the Truth of your being, you are moved by all kinds of things, without taking any note of it at all. Collective thought, collective suggestions are a formidable influence which acts constantly on individual thought. And what is extraordinary is that one does not notice it. One believes that one thinks ―like that‖, but in truth it is the collectivity which thinks ―like that‖. The mass is always inferior to the individual. Take individuals with similar qualities, of similar categories, well, when they are alone these individuals are at least two degrees better than people of the same category in a crowd. There is a mixture of obscurities, a mixture of unconsciousness, and inevitably you slip into this unconsciousness. To escape this there is but one means: to become conscious of oneself, more and more conscious and more and more attentive. Reference: Vol.3, p.19; Vol.4, p.55; Vol.4, p.56;

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ORGANISING OUR CONSCIOUSNESS The Mother The essence of self-management is to organize our consciousness. In this article Mother explains how to do it. One must be clearly aware of the origin of one's movements because there are contradictory velleities in the being some pushing you here, others pushing you there, and that obviously creates a chaos in life. If you observe yourself, you will see that as soon as you do something which disturbs you a little, the mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself, this mind is capable of gilding everything. In these conditions it is difficult to know oneself. One must be absolutely sincere to be able to do it and to see clearly into all the little falsehoods of the mental being. If in your mind you go over the various movements and reactions of the day like one repeating indefinitely the same thing, you will not progress. If this reviewing is to make you progress, you must find something within you in whose light you can be yourself your own judge, something which represents for you the best part of yourself, which has some light, some goodwill and which precisely is in love with progress. Place that before you and first, pass across it as in a cinema all that you have done, all that you have felt, your impulses, your thoughts, etc.; then try to coordinate them, that is, find out why this has followed that. And look at the luminous screen that is before you: certain things pass by well, without throwing a shadow; others, on the contrary, throw a little shadow; others yet cast a shadow altogether black and disagreeable. You must do this very sincerely, as though you were playing a game: under such circum stances I did such and such a thing, feeling like this and thinking in this way; I have before me my ideal of knowledge and self-mastery, well, was this act in keeping with my ideal or not? If it was, it would not leave any shadow on the screen, which would remain transparent, and one would not have to worry about it. If it is not in conformity, it casts a shadow. Why has it left this shadow? What was there in this act that was contrary to the will to self-knowledge and selfmastery? Most often you will find that it corresponds to unconsciousness - then you file it among unconscious things and resolve that next time you will try to be conscious before doing anything. But in other cases you will see that it was a nasty little egoism, quite black, which had come to distort your action or your thought. Then you place this egoism before your "light" and ask yourself: "Why has it the right to make me act like that, think like that?..." And instead of accepting any odd explanation you must search and you will find in a corner of your being something which thinks and says, "Ah, no, I shall accept everything but that." You will see that it is a petty vanity, a movement of self-love, an egoistic feeling hidden somewhere, a hundred things. Then you take a good look at these things in the light of your ideal: "Is cherishing this movement in conformity with my seeking and the realisation of my ideal or not? I put this little dark corner in front of the light until the light enters into it and it disappears." Then the comedy is over. Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 125

But the comedy of your whole day is not finished yet, you know, for there are many things which have to pass thus before the light. But if you continue this game for truly it is a game, if you do this sincerely I assure you that in six months you will not recognise yourself, you will say to yourself, "What? I was like that! It is impossible!‖ You may be five years old or twenty, fifty or sixty and yet transform yourself in this way by putting everything before this inner light. You will see that the elements which do not conform with your ideal are not generally elements which you have to throw wholly out of yourself (there are very few of this kind); they are simply things not in their place. If you organise everything your feelings, your thoughts, your impulses, etc. around the psychic centre which is the inner light, you will see that all inner disorder will change into a luminous order. It is quite evident that if a similar procedure were adopted by a nation or by the earth, most of the things which make men unhappy would disappear, for the major part of the world's misery comes from the fact that things are not in their place. If life were organised in such a way that nothing was wasted and each thing was in its place, most of these miseries would not exist any longer. An old sage has said: "There is no evil. There is only a lack of balance. "There is nothing bad. Only things are not in their place." If everything were in its place, in nations, in the material world, in the actions and thoughts and feelings of individuals, the greater part of human suffering would disappear. (CWM, Vol.4, p.38-40)

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CAN BUSINESS BE DONE WITH SPIRITUAL ATTITUDE Sri Aurobindo The traditional religious conception views money-making and God-seeking as incompatible pursuits. But in this letter to a disciple Sri Aurobindo explains that in an integral spiritual perspective, spiritual growth does not depend so much on the outer act but on the inner attitude. I may say, however, that I do not regard business as something evil or tainted, any more than it is so regarded in ancient spiritual India. If I did, I would not be able to receive money from X or from those of our disciples who in Bombay trade with East Africa; nor could we then encourage them to go on with their work but would have to tell them to throw it up and attend to their spiritual progress alone. How are we to reconcile X's seeking after spiritual light and his mill? Ought I not to tell him to leave his mill to itself and to the devil and go into some Ashram to meditate? Even if I myself had had the command to do business as I had the command to do politics I would have done it without the least spiritual or moral compunction. All depends on the spirit in which a thing is done, the principles on which it is built and the use to which it is turned. I have done politics and the most violent kind of revolutionary politics, ghoram karma, and I have supported war and sent men to it, even though politics is not always or often a very clean occupation nor can war be called a spiritual line of action. But Krishna calls upon Arjuna to carry on war of the most terrible kind and by his example encourage men to do every kind of human work, sarvakarmani. Do you contend that Krishna was an unspiritual man and that his advice to Arjuna was mistaken or wrong in principle? Krishna goes further and declares that a man by doing in the right way and in the right spirit the work dictated to him by his fundamental nature, temperament and capacity and according to his and its dharma can move towards the Divine. He validates the function and dharma of the Vaishya as well as of the Brahmin and Kshatriya. It is in his view quite possible for a man to do business and make money and earn profits and yet be a spiritual man, practise yoga, have an inner life. The Gita is constantly justifying works as a means of spiritual salvation and enjoining a Yoga of Works as well as of Bhakti and Knowledge. Krishna, however, superimposes a higher law also that work must be done without desire, without attachment to any fruit or reward, without any egoistic attitude or motive, as an offering or sacrifice to the Divine. This is the traditional Indian attitude towards these things, that all work can be done if it is done according to the dharma and, if it is rightly done, it does not prevent the approach to the Divine or the access to spiritual knowledge and the spiritual life. There is, of course, also the ascetic idea which is necessary for many and has its place in the spiritual order. I would myself say that no man can be spiritually complete if he cannot live ascetically or follow a life as bare as the barest anchorite‘s. Obviously, greed for wealth and money-making has to be absent from his nature as much as greed for food or any other greed and all attachment to these things must be renounced from his consciousness. But I do not regard the ascetic way of living as indispensable to spiritual perfection or as identical with it. There is the way of spiritual self-mastery and the way of spiritual self-giving and surrender to the Divine, Copyright: M.S. Srinivasan Page 127

abandoning ego and desire even in the midst of action or of any kind of work or all kinds of work demanded from us by the Divine. If it were not so, there would not have been great spiritual men like Janaka or Vidura in India and even there would have been no Krishna or else Krishna would have been not the Lord of Brindavan and Mathura and Dwarka or a prince and warrior or the charioteer of Kurukshetra, but only one more great anchorite. The Indian scriptures and Indian tradition, in the Mahabharata and elsewhere, make room both for the spirituality of the renunciation of life and for the spiritual life of action. One cannot say that one only is the Indian tradition and that the acceptance of life and works of all kinds, sarvakarmani, is un-Indian, European or western and unspiritual.

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