Radhakrishnan Pillai - Corporate Chanakya on Leadership

Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai - 400 001
www.jaicobooks.com

Radhakrishnan Pillai & SPM Foundation

CORPORATE CHANAKYA ON LEADERSHIP
ISBN 978-81-8495-307-7

First Jaico Impression: 2012
Second Jaico Impression: 2012
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

Printed by
Rashmi Graphics
#3, Amrutwel CHS Ltd., C.S. #50/74
Ganesh Galli, Lalbaug, Mumbai - 400 012
E-mail: tiwarijp@vsnl.net

The book is dedicated to
My Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda,
who inspired me to study our ancient scriptures that
offer solutions to all our modern day problems.

Authors Note

The journey of Corporate Chanakya has been encouraging beyond belief. For a debut author, writing the first book itself was a challenge. But seeing it grow into a national bestseller has been more than a dream come true! The team at Jaico did a fantastic job of publishing and distributing the book.

As a leadership trainer, I have been travelling across the globe teaching at various universities, business schools, corporates and government organisations. The media consistently carried fantastic reviews for the book. It has been heartening to always see it on the 'Most Recommended' or 'Best Sellers' shelves in bookshops.

Inspired by the book, Shemaroo, the entertainment company made Chanakya Speaks, an 'edutainment' film now ready for launch. It is the world's first business management film on Chanakya. During the making of the film, Shemaroo came up with the idea an audio book on Corporate Chanakya.

Tom Alter, the veteran Bollywood actor and theatre and television artist, agreed to do the voice over. I am personally thankful to him for taking the book to another level altogether.

The book Corporate Chanakya had 3 sections Leadership, Management and Training. During one of my training programmes, the Chairman of the company who was attending the program said, "Your book has 3 books within it!" I discussed the possibilities with Jaico, of bringing out Corporate Chanakya as 3 individual books on Leadership, Management and Training. And about giving voice to each of them!

So here you have in your hands Corporate Chanakya on Leadership, a single volume containing 70 chapters. And it comes along with an audio CD book that you can listen to, as you read! I highly recommend both, because revision only makes a student perfect. But do not forget to apply what you have learnt! Practise the theory. Act on the ideas. Implement your plan...

An Overview:

Chanakya, Kautilya, and Vishnugupta are the names of the same person. Either of the names has been used in this book to refer to Chanakya.

This book does not compare Indian management ideas against western management ideas. In fact it is complementary to western management thoughts. We have taken the best of both worlds.

In most cases, leaders have been referred to as 'he'. But it also applies to 'she' as well. Since Chanakya has taken the King (male gender) as the leader, the pronoun 'he' is used. Leadership and management skills are not gender-based but they are qualities which can be developed as a 'mind-set'.

In this book, I have referred to verses or sutras from Kautilya's Arthashastra. For those who would like to read the verse in the original text, the verse number is written in brackets. The first digit is the book number. The second is the chapter number and the third digit is the verse number. For example,

"He (leader) should constantly hold an inspection of their works, men being inconstant in their minds." (2.9.3)

So, this verse is from Kautilya's Arthashastra Book 2, Chapter 9 and Verse 3. The same format has been followed in all chapters.

The book that readers can refer to for the verses quoted, is the English translation of Kautilya's Arthashastra by R.P. Kangle of Mumbai University, published by Motilal Banarasidas. The explanations given are the interpretation of the author. Various other translations and commentaries of Arthashastra other than this book are available.

TIP

This book has 175 chapters. The idea is not to read it as a novel but to enjoy its practical benefits. Read a chapter, or a few chapters, a day, apply the teachings in your life, and observe the benefits. It only takes three minutes to read each chapter.

Go ahead Discover the Chanakya in you!

Preface

LET ME TELL you a story...

There was once a young man in Mumbai who wanted nothing more than to succeed in the world of business. He had studied management in colleges that extolled the virtues of the western ways of understanding this subject. Soon enough, he worked his way up the corporate ladder, but finally decided to set out on his own. After all, who wants to be bossed over by someone else?

His first venture was in the realm of spiritual tourism. Since no one in his family had ever been an entrepreneur, he had to learn everything about setting up a business on his own. By the grace of God, and the support of his business partner, the business began to do well. From being a manager in someone else's company, he had become the leader of his own business.

His next step? Creating a well-known corporate entity. He met people and discussed his ideas and plans with them, learning from people, making copious notes, reading books, attending seminars, and training programmes. And yet, nothing helped. Something vital was missing in his pursuit for knowledge. He was not able to figure out what this missing piece was, for a long time.

The answer was right within him.

Since his childhood, he had found guidance in a spiritual organisation and had been blessed by many spiritual masters. During a spiritual discourse a Mahatma said, "India, our motherland, has great history and legacy. Our Rishis were no ordinary men they have studied and perfected every science in this world. Only if we were to look back into our glorious past we would find solutions to all our modern problems."

This was the divine message he had been waiting for.

Management has been recognised as a science since the 1950s. One of the fathers of modern management is Peter Drucker. But didn't 'management' exist in India even before the 1950s and the Drucker era? As a nation we have over 5000 years to our credit. Did we not have management scientists in our country before the 20th century?

In the ancient Indian scriptures Ramayana, Mahabharata, the various Upanishads he found brilliant discussions of management strategies. Why was it that we Indians, always look at what is wrong with India and never appreciate what is great about our country? As a nation we have survived the test of time. Even though we are still a growing economy, we are not a failed nation. In the past, our country had achieved the peak of success for thousands of years. How many nations can boast of such a heritage?

He now realised that the missing piece which would help his business grow was to look 'within' rather than outside. The western principles of management are undoubtedly good, but even his own ancestors were extremely good at management.

Thus, one day, while looking for Indian books on management, he stumbled upon Kautilya's Arthashastra, written by the kingmaker, Chanakya. Who has not heard about this book? Even he had. But hardly anyone from his generation had studied it. He bought a copy.