Leadership

Published on 6th August, 2021, in Economic Times. Four hundred years ago, the people of Kerala began telling the story of how Kerala emerged from a mysterious past. They spoke of how Parashurama reclaimed land from the sea and gave it to the Brahmins. But the Brahmins could not collaborate with each other since they were very competitive. So it was decided that they would import kings from lands beyond Kerala, to deal with matters of governance. In other words, when the Brahmins enjoyed the acquisition of land, they couldn't be trusted to protect the land rights of fellow Brahmins. For that, they needed kings ..

Published on 6th February, 2021, in The Economic Times. When the Romans went about conquering, they did not destroy local temples or reject local gods. They simply demanded that those conquered owed libations to the Roman emperor, while carrying on with their own religious practices, to show their allegiance to Rome. They even tolerated the Jewish people, who refused to worship the Emperor. But they did not tolerate the Christians, a new faith, with a new idea – evangelism. The apostles of Christianity were spreading the ‘good word’ and asking people to follow their prescribed way if they sought Heaven in the afterlife. This was ..

Published on 11th December, 2020, in Economic Times. In the forest, chasing the deer (mriga) creates a path (marga). Hence in Vedic texts, deer embodies a goal: the object of desire. In the Manusmriti, kings are warned not to indulge too much in deer sport. In ancient India, hunting deer was a major pastime and the kings would spend a lot of their time in the forest, enjoying the thrill of the chase, rather than focussing on boring governance, like politicians preferring the thrill of elections to the mundane world of administration, and CEOs chasing the next acquisition rather than building resilient systems. In Vedic ..

Published on 22nd August, 2020, in Economic Times. In Meso-America, the Aztecs sacrificed humans to their gods. This was deemed barbaric by Spanish conquistadors who arrived there in the 16th Century. It became the reason to label them savages, justify their conversion into Christianity and market the conquest of their land as a civilizing mission. Yet, today, historians challenge this simplistic reading of human sacrifice that eclipses the even more barbaric nature of the European conquest of the Americas. It is becoming increasingly obvious that ritual sacrifice had a strategic political role. It was a powerful political lever to establish elite groups, subjugate conquered tribes ..

Published on 2nd November, 2019, in Economic Times How many of us convert corporate behaviour into self-help lessons? Considering that corporate behaviour is shaped by the knowledge and experience of many hundreds of management experts, surely it makes sense to use corporate principles as guidelines to build our life? For example, how many of us have a plan for 2030 for our lives? How many of us have sat down with our family members and asked where do we want to be 10 years from today? How do we double the family income, or halve the family expense, buy a house, or car, or retirement ..

Published on 15th June, 2019, in Economic Times. Kalki, the tenth avatar of Vishnu, is very popular amongst young people, who visualise him as an Avenger, part of a cosmic end game. He is visualised as riding a white horse, brandishing a fiery sword, cutting down people. The story about Kalki is not very wellknown; but the general belief is that he destroys bad people and restores the good world order, very much like a superhero. However, that is not the case. The tenth avatar of Vishnu is seen as the form before Pralaya. He is mentioned first in Mahabharata and is linked to Parashurama, ..

Published on 6th October, 2018, in The Economic Times. A simple way to harness power is to keep a secret. This tendency, of being covert, has been used across time and space, around the world, in myth and in reality, in politics and in romance. Take for example, the idea of the Electoral Bonds: Although you are a citizen of India, you have no idea about who funds your political parties because the state has decided that the funding of political parties shall be kept a secret. So, the source of the funds could be a foreign power. It could be a criminal organization -we ..

Published on 18th May, 2018, in The Economic Times blog. Everything in nature has an expiry date. Even the sun. Talk to an astrophysicist and they will tell you when the sun will eventually die. Nothing lasts forever. We know that. Yet, culture is all about ‘built to last’. The obsession with defying mortality, defying nature, being immortal is at the heart of human madness. It is what destroys society and ideology and relationships. The richest man in the world, the most powerful technocrats of the world, are going to die, even if they are being treated by the best dieticians and gym trainers and ..

Published on 20th April, 2018, in The Economic Times. Modern management tends to homogenize things on principle: it is embarrassed to differentiate skills on the basis of culture, for it goes against the doctrine of equality. However, diversity is all about being different. China is different from Australia and Europe is different from America and Arabia is different from Africa and India is different from Latin America. How does this difference in culture contribute to difference in leadership? Since life is different in each of these countries, do people in these cultures learn different skills to negotiate through life? And does that change when they ..