Business to the Buddha

Tag: integrity

  • Virtue of integrity – a story

    Long back I received this story – Virtue of integrity. I liked it so kept it sharing on the blog, unfortunately missed publishing it. Now I don’t know the source where I read it, a Google search gave me this link, so assume this is the source. No copyrights claimed. Without further ado, here it is.

    Virtue of integrity

    A successful businessman was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.

    He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you..”

    3-small-lessons-from-;leader

    The young executives were Shocked, the boss continued. “I am going to give each one of you a SEED today – one very special SEED… I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO.”

    One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

    Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

    Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.

    By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn’t have a plant and he felt like a failure.

    Six months went by — still nothing in Jim’s pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn’t say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil – He so wanted the seed to grow.

    A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection.

    Jim told his wife that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful — in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

    When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

    Jim just tried to hide in the back. “My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,” said the CEO. “Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!”

    All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, “The CEO knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!”

    When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed – Jim told him the story.

    The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, “Behold your next Chief Executive Officer!

    His name is Jim!” Jim couldn’t believe it. Jim couldn’t even grow his seed.

    “How could he be the new CEO?” the others said.

    Then the CEO said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead – it was not possible for them to grow.

    All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!

    Summary

    The author summarized the story as below

    • If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
    • If you plant goodness, you will reap friends
    • If you plant humility, you will reap greatness
    • If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
    • If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective
    • If you plant hard work, you will reap success
    • If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation
    • If you plant faith in God, you will reap a harvest

    So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

    Basically, the virtue of integrity, honesty, loyalty, etc is too expensive to expect from any person. Only those who are valuable and value-conscious they keep it and can offer it.

    “Whatever You Give To Life, Life Gives You Back”

  • Business Value system – Integrity







    “Integrity is very important in GE and the fastest way to get fired in GE is ‘NOT sharing knowledge/information’.”

    I have seen mission, vision and value statements of many companies. Occasionally, I have seen a word which seemed alien to me in that – integrity. I was wondering on the concept of Integrity and how it relates to business value system in the cut throat competitive world? I asked this question to Dr Ianna Contardo my professor of global business strategy and Associate Dean of the SP Jain Center of Management GMBA in Dubai. I had a brief nevertheless holistic discussion on the same. Her answers to few of my questions reinforced my approach on Business to the Buddha.

    In her opinion integrity is – unifying abstract projections of the wholeness of the identity of the being. It relates to how we behave and act in the world, align to the commonsensical approach that we are a ‘continuation of humanity’.

    This definition of integrity seemed very humane to me and therefore less business oriented. My apprehensions also echoed from the questions few people have earlier asked me, how social and commercial aspects can go hand in hand e.g. business to the Buddha. So I asked, can you please elaborate on ‘continuation of humanity’. She said – we are parts of the whole, that turns our life meaningful and transforms our existence into a multifaceted thinking, diverse interdisciplinary environments with its reach on bountiful examples of doing good through business. The statement reverberated (especially – we are parts of the whole) again to Buddha’s lessons to me. Moreover, it connected to the business very effectively.

    Then how to associate competition with integrity, how to respond to competition? There is no turning back on the values for a business and if integrity is one it also applies to fulfill expectations of all the stakeholders (including the competitors). Integrity plays a balancing role in creation and the future of business would be balance between business and humanity. CSR, social enterprises and NGOs are the initial first few steps towards the same.

    Poetically, she referred to a song and summed up – In a way, integrity represents the tipping point, the fulfillment of this prophecy whereby once you think of yourself as an accomplished ruler you will end up in the misery of solitude. On the other hand, if you walk your talk and you are that integral part of the whole, you do get to fit. Strategically, enhancing the experience of the Buddhist approach to existence is common to that of using your know-how in business. If you do engage with the rights and wrongs, learning will take place.

    What lesson I take out of this discussion was – integrity is not just a word in the dictionary of business it is actually getting into the business value system. As we are progressing in time the concept is becoming prominent and businesses are also evolving as humanistic institutions.