An ancient, new approach to management
by Miki SaxonI was never thrilled when Sun Tzu’s Art of War became the basis for much of management during the eighties and nineties, so I was delighted by a Business Week article on a new trend in management based on the Bhagavad Gita.
I found it interesting (and heartening) that one part of this philosophy expands on what a brilliant manager told me over 20 years ago. He said that the best managers make their decisions first for the sake of their company, second for the sake of their group and third for the sake of themselves—certainly not the attitude we’ve been seeing over nearly a decade of senior manager greed.
We [RampUp Solutions] have always maintained that business is akin to three legged stool, with employees, investors and customers being the legs, and that if one leg is longer, or more robust at the cost of another, the stool won’t be sturdy and is likely to tip over. The Bhagavad Gita goes a step further believing “that companies should take a holistic approach to business—one that takes into account the needs of shareholders, employees, customers, society, and the environment.”
Three cheers! I’m all for that. I’ve always believed that it would be business, and business-style approaches, not politicians (who never put anything before themselves) that would successfully attack serious problems, such as global warming, the environment, health, etc.
I’ve also always said that the motivation to make this happen would be vested corporate self-interest and, to me, that’s just fine. (I agree with Ann Rand on the subject of altruism.) And guess what? It’s working big-time at companies such as Caterpillar.
October 21st, 2011 at 9:52 am
I love the idea that business is like a three legged stool. It seems like I heard something about that when I was in college – probably in a business ethics class. Very happy that “The Art of War” is making it’s way out of the business circles. haha.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Me too. It’s too bad there are not more stool craftsmen and fewer corporate warriors running large companies.
Thanks for visiting and adding your thoughts. BTW, how did you happen to dig so far into the archives?
October 21st, 2011 at 1:20 pm
ha, I actually found this page through a weird string of Google searches that started as my efforts to learn about Caligula, one of the rulers of Ancient Rome who went mad with power. I think that something about the word “Ancient” brought me here. Haha.
I didn’t even notice that this was an older post. The only references that I really thought about were the Gita and “The Art of War”, both of which have been around for a while and didn’t tip me off that this post was from 2006. Haha, funny how you find things sometimes.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Weird is right or perhaps convoluted is more accurate.
Not being up on men’s fashion I have to ask…do guys really own so many watches they need a special holder?
October 21st, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Oh, sorry. I spend my whole day on the computer so I tend to read a lot of blog posts – and I tend to comment on many of them. I like to give back to the community at large, I guess. I just kind of automatically put my name and link as the website I’m working with on any particular day.
Perhaps using my actual name would be more appropriate, haha.
And to answer your question – yes, it’s actually surprising how many watches some men own. There are actually some watch display cases that hold 250 watches. It’s pretty insane. Necessary? Probably not. haha.
October 21st, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Hi Noah, It’s nice to meet someone who take the time to give back. Your name is probably a good idea, otherwise the comment could be taken as spam:)
I found your website interesting; you must have accumulated a good deal of eclectic information over the years!
October 21st, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Good call. I always walk a strange line with the whole Spam thing. First of all, I hate it. I get tons of it and I don’t like it. But more than that, I hate how rampant Spam has caused so many webmasters to be very critical of comments on their blogs.
I like commenting a good deal and like I mentioned, I usually end up using what seems like a very random website as my url. Sometimes it’s the fault of my browser’s auto-fill, haha. I get a lot of good comments rejected because people are so afraid (rightfully so) of Spam… even if I use my name as the link or link to my personal site.
Anyway, wow, long comment here, sorry. Either way, it’s great to meet a webmaster that is so on top of things. Take care and I’m sure that we’ll speak again.
-Noah
October 21st, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I know what you mean. I sometimes use my product site, http://www.optionsanity.com, when I comment and get blocked.
I like your long comments, it’s fun talking with you.
BTW, I’m not a webmaster, I write the blog and always respond to comments.