I see at this cup of tea kept upon my table. Oh yes this cup is full of tea :)… I have to consume it… I have heard a tagline (Cafe Coffee Day an Indian Coffee chain) – “a lot can happen over coffee”. Let me replace Coffee with Tea.

‘A cup of tea’, it actually relates to many industries. The packaging industry, the cup/disposable cup manufacturing, tea company, tea farm, sugar (if added), Milk, Energy (utilized in making tea as well as manufacturing/processing other parts). Energy goes to a different tangent again – how produced, how transmitted etc. So this simple cup of tea kept on my table makes me think about so many things. Wait let me drink it, it is getting cold and horses of my mind are running unnecessarily. Whatever is the case this cup of tea has made me think of ‘interdependent co-arising’.

‘Interdependent co-arising’ is a concept in Buddhism. This concept states – everything in the world is dependent on other thing and things evolve together. [This is my understanding of the concept…]

If we extend this concept to business – observe the value chain of any business. The cup of tea I was thinking about is a perfect example of Interdependent co-arising. I read a concept proposed by Prof Mohan Sawhney (of Northwestern University) – ‘metamarket’. Metamarket is a cluster of complementary product. The complementary product actually belong to diverse set of industries. This goes again to the cup of tea and a very basic as well as vital concept for each one of us to understand – interdependent co-arising.


KRD Pravin

Here I am supposed to write about myself. Professionally, I am quite serious and a workaholic; personally I am an individual who enjoys what he does and takes life as it comes. I am passionate about my work and actions and empathetically careful, attached and committed to them. All this makes me a fierce competitive professional and yet a compassionate soul, the Yin and the Yang together. Balancing is the art to be practiced using the middle path. From - http://business2buddha.com/about/

4 Comments

preti · April 24, 2011 at 11:19 am

HelloPravin,

Let the cup of tea be filled for all and let all have sippa (co- existing)!!!!!!!!!Amen!!!
Preeti

TarunKush · January 10, 2013 at 10:50 pm

This concept has been a very old concept. Like in olden days, kings and emperors often went on wars or led their armies to fight other kingdoms. Wars demanded food, better armory, better clothes suiting different climates, better entartainment for soldiers better weapons and research and development. So with the wars all these industries boomed. More the king warred more he had to develop these industries. It applied to all cultures globally starting from Romans to British and from Persians to Indians and Dutch to Chinese. All the concepts we use today’s world originate from the roots in the olden days. Good that you brought this up again.

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