We are a nation that sees many carry gods, goddesses and godmen in their wallets. The one person though, who is found in every wallet across this nation is Mahatma Gandhi. As we see the Mahatma every day and think of him more so in October, it made me ponder over what it would be like if he were the CEO of a modern corporation. The thought led me to pen what values his corporation would have possibly stood for.
TRUTHFUL AND TRANSPARENT
Gandhi had once said ‘Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth’. His corporation would have stood for trust, fair play and strived to be a very transparent company to both its employees and customers. It is a value that many corporations across the world struggle to uphold. It is an intangible asset that would enhance the value of any corporation that upholds it, truly in practice.
QUALITY CONSCIOUS
Gandhi as a CEO would have laid great emphasis on quality. He always looked at details and perfection. He also believed strongly in the way you do things, which reflects on the importance of process rather than results. Where the means are as important as the end, the process yields the result and the quality of the result.
CONTINUOUS LEARNING
As the head of the corporation, Gandhi would have focussed a lot on this aspect. He advocated that we ‘learn as if we were to live forever’. His employees would be part of regular training programs and he would have fostered a learning environment. His corporation would logically have been an innovative company driven by R&D, which would always look to do things differently and keep a focus on the future.
COLLABORATIVE DECISIONS
Debate and Dialogue based decision making would have been the order of the day. He often wanted ‘Honest disagreements’, and saw it as a ‘good sign of progress’. It would have been a company that certainly would have been driven by team decisions, where everyone would have a fair share of voice. It would have been a corporation where the products and services would have spoken more than its people or management.
CHANGE – INSIDE OUT
‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world’. This would have been his permanent message to his colleagues. Change at his enterprise would have unfailingly been something the company has clearly adopted and not merely advocated.
THINKING BEYOND PROFITS
While Gandhi was astute with his economics and the need for any enterprise to be profitable, he would have got his company to clearly think through what they want to do with those profits. It would quite naturally seem an organisation that would have a mandate to serve the larger good of society and to touch the lives of people with what they do.
If we look at these six pillars that a Gandhi would have possibly focussed on had he been a CEO, it turns out, these are such simple, yet valuable pillars that all of us wish a corporation to have.
Maybe, Gandhi would have been too valuable to just serve as the CEO of one enterprise. He probably would have then been one of the best management guru’s of our time!
All Rights Reserved. Pickbrain.com
Site created and maintained by Greycaps.
