Management Lessons from Ram Charit Manas

Recently, I decided to read Ram Charit Manas, the holy book of Hindus. It always adorned my house sitting pretty in the place earmarked for worship in a segment of guest bedroom. However, I had never read it. And then, like lightening, it struck me that I should not spend my life without reading it. Not, that I have renounced the world, but it was driven more from the urge to tick off an item in the to-do-list of a journey called life. Well, getting back to the title, below-mentioned are my takeaways. But, before I jot them I seek with folded hands forgiveness of Goswami Tulsidas for my interpretation.

1. Mutual Admiration Society: Strive to form a mutual admiration society. Well, co-operation is better than conflict between departments. And all good managers want to ignite conflict, because ruling becomes simple when seeds of division are sowed. However, the point to note is that normally, mutually admiration groups exist at the top, because it's easier at the top.

2. Good cop. Bad cop: A successful manager needs to perfect the art. In any situation, there should be two approaches. A stricter approach to deal with the scenario, the ideal case of a bad cop, and then a more kinder and easier approach, after the arm twisting has been done. The classic good cop. This enables an efficient manager to extract maximum outcome from the reportees.

3. Charan padukas are critical for power. It's hard to reach to the top in your place of work or at home, until you have support of someone at the top. Gaining support is critical for success and once you acquire that, your energy should be invested in furthering the cause of the benefactor.

4. When carrots fail, sticks prevail. Fear is more important in maintaining order and discipline. Positive reinforcements have limited role, but fear goes a long way.

5. Everything is fair in love and war. When it comes to conquering market shares or climbing high on the corporate ladder, it's more critical to know the weaknesses of the competitors. Once the weakness is discovered, spare no effort to destroy the person.
 

Most importantly, sharing war-spoils prior to war helps in long term allegiance of the members of the adversary team.