Corporate America swears by the Gita

WASHINGTON: Corporate America isembracing Indian philosophy in a big way. Suddenly, says magazine in its latestissue, phrases from ancient Hindu texts such as the are popping up inmanagement tomes and on Web sites of consultants. Top business schools haveintroduced "self-mastery" classes that use Indian methods to help managers boosttheir leadership skills and find inner peace in lives dominated bywork. calls its "KarmaCapitalism" -- a gentler, more empathetic ethos that resonates in thepost-tech-bubble, post-Enron zeitgeist. And where it used to be hip inmanagement circles to quote from the sixth century B.C. Chinese classic The Artof War, it says, the trendy ancient Eastern text today is the more introspective.In an episoderecounted by , young executives fromcorporate American gather in a suburban New Jersey home to hear SwamiParthasarathy, one of India's best-selling authors on Vedanta, speak aboutsecrets to business success – "concentration, consistency, andcooperation."The 80-year old Indian guru is on a whistlestop tour ofthe US, counselling executives on the central message of the – to put purpose beforeself. He has addressed meetings in b-schools such as Wharton and in financialschools such as Lehmann Brothers, advising fund managers and venture capitalistsabout balancing the compulsion to amass wealth with the desire for innerhappiness. In one incident, a young investment banker seeks adviceon dealing with nasty colleagues. Banish them from your mind, he is told. "Youare the architect of your misfortune. You are the architect of yourfortune." attributes thesudden interest in Indian philosophy to the sizeable presence of Indian teachersin American B-Schools. About 10% of teachers at places such as Harvard BusinessSchool, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Business, and the University ofMichigan's Ross School of Business are of Indian descent -- a far higherpercentage than other ethnic groups. Indians also head some halfdozen business schools in the US, including Kellogg.More important, says, Indian-born strategists also arehelping transform corporations. Academics and consultants such as C. K. Prahlad,Ram Charan, and Vijay Govindrajan are among the world's hottest business gurus,advising some of the top US companies. Indian theorists, says thejournal, have a wide range of backgrounds and philosophies. But many of the mostinfluential acknowledge that common themes pervade their work. One is theconviction that executives should be motivated by a broader purpose than money."The best way to describe it is inclusive capitalism," C.K.Prahlad,who ranked third in a recent Times of London poll about the world's mostinfluential business thinkers told the magazine. "It's the idea thatcorporations can simultaneously create value and socialjustice.""The key point," adds Ram Charan, a coach to CEOs such asGeneral Electric Co.'s (GE ) Jeffrey R. Immelt, "is to put purpose before self.This is absolutely applicable to corporate leadershiptoday." says Indianbusiness teachers such as Michigan’s Prahlad, Harvard’s RakeshKhurana, Tuck’s Govindrajan, and Kellogg’s Jain, are linking some oftheir theories or deriving them Hindu philosophy. "Marketing hastended to use the language of conquest," Kellogg’s Mohanbir Sawhney, aSikh who discusses the relevance of the to business on his Website, tells BW. Now the focus is on using customer input to dream up newproducts, Sawhney says, which "requires a symbiotic relationship with thosearound us."