Business to the Buddha

Search results for: “interdependent co-arising”

  • The Business, the Buddha and both…

    The Business
    What is business? Trade is the underlying concept of business and exchange of one thing for the other is trade. Earlier trade was based on barter system. Later, with the introduction of the concept of money, more sophistication was added to trade e.g. business. Based on a very basic definition of business, I can say life is a business, you trade relations; in fact you trade pretty much everything in life. On a tangent, even the so called most emotional feeling a human being has e.g. love, seems like a trade in today’s depiction of art. Though, love is a sacred feeling which should not be a trade.

    The Buddha
    Here, I want to state I am neither a Buddhist nor supporting Buddhism (any -ims for that matter), I am just associating the business to the longest lasting systems (which are generally religion) in the world. I may write on Islamic banking in future or stories of Jesus. The idea is to keeping eyes and ears open to learn that is how I could relate to Business and the Buddha, and still learning. I found words of wisdom of the Buddha relating to many places in businesses be it Singapore, Western world, India or other places, and that is what Business to Buddha made sense to me.

    … And the business and the Buddha
    There is relationship between business and the Buddha, in future the businesses would be more evolved and we would have more than profits in our mind. I got to watch this Video of Money Control earlier and this is one such instance where we might see an evolution in corporate thinking process. I will take an example on ‘interdependent co-arising’ (a concept of Buddhism) in some future blog. This video is on “Business Sutra” broadcast on CNBC, the link of the same is here relates to the same concept. Indian Walmart – the Big Bazaar – has a dedicated Chief Belief Officer (Dr Devdutt Pattnaik), we might see more involvement of ‘perhaps not belief‘ but social causes in business e.g. CSR.

  • Collaboration in logistics and supply chain management

    We all are on a path of evolution. We evolve, systems evolve, technology evolves… everything evolves.
    We were discussing in supply chain management, how cost can be reduced, how inventory is managed and how transport can be efficiently managed. The part which attracted me to write that here is ‘collaboration’ amongst distributors, suppliers, transporters and businesses. Resources are pooled and thus efficiencies are improved by collective transportation.
    Our professor suggested to us that until two decade back organizations used to have many suppliers in their procurement database. Reason – companies were Price sensitive. Slowly companies switched/switching to single or less suppliers. Even the quality management of supplied material is also moved to the supplier. I think that is called supplier development (evolution of suppliers). The reason to do this is supplier and the manufacturer is working in unison and both have incentive – growth. I reflected on the concept of interdependent co-arising, together everyone grows. When the costs are controlled with better quality, this could be transferred to the customers, and companies can become more competitive. Further, this process helps everyone – supplier gets business (helps his employees), companies get better cost control (more profit) and customer gets quality at economic pricing.
    This blog is going through its third update. There were few examples I missed earlier. I found in my diary one was – a manufacturing company started buying steel from the steel companies not only for itself but also for its suppliers. This gave the company – good quality and competitive pricing because of volume buying. We have evolved and so the businesses consider suppliers as partners in business. Therefore, businesses partner with supplier and rely on them.
    I was asked by someone; prove this in practical life that businesses are using Buddhists concepts. I said many times businesses are using that, however unknowingly. This idea was again a concept of interdependent co-arising.

  • Why this title?

    First thing first, why this title to the blog? Does Business and the Buddha sound ok together? Is there any connection? Let me explain origin of this thought and why I see there is relation between business and the Buddha.

    I was reading a book – old path white clouds, walking in the footsteps of Buddha – by Thich Nhat Hanh. There were many lessons of Buddhism in the book. One which stuck to me very profoundly was – interdependent co-arising. My interpretation of the concept in layman’s terms is – we all grow when we help each other to grow whether it is our subordinates or our competitors.

    “When Ferrari and Honda run on the racing track competing for the first spot, they are not eying at the first spot, they are racing to offer best product to their customers.” The Buddha’s teaching on ‘Dependent co-arising’ teaches me this. “Each one of us is a rung of a ladder to the other and vice versa, hence for self development and moving higher up, one’s ladder should be strong enough, even one’s competitors.” I believe this will be the extension of P&G’s present approach of Connect & Develop in future; working on various fronts with the competitors such as IPR – strategically innovating – besides others.

    What I feel is as we evolve as humans further, such philosophical concepts will come in our main stream without our conscious knowledge. We studied a case in our marketing course recently, launch of Z3 (BMW car) with the New James Bond movie Golden Eye. This was again a case of interdependent co-arising. How many knew about this?

    Effectively, the title of business to Buddha looked apt to me. The other reason for the same was – these two seemingly different concepts encompass almost everything on which I would possibly write on the blogs. Therefore, I selected the title with its caption – Everything from earthly and unearthly. The blog would be my thoughts from physical to metaphysical all. I trust I will be able to keep pace with life and still take time to write some or the other things on the blog.

  • Broken pail

    Once upon a time in India, there was a farmer – Ram. In those days there were no facilities of having water in nearby areas. So, Ram used to go long distance to bring water for farming. He used to tie one pail (Ghada in Hindi) each on two corners of a stick and used to take it on his shoulders to the nearest water body. He used to fill these pails and bring them back to his farm.

    FarmerOne of the two pails was broken and Ram was poor so he wouldn’t afford to buy new one. He used to fill both the pails but by the time he is back, the broken pail used to get empty. It kept on happening for long time. The other pail used to feel proud of himself.

    These were old times, when non-living things too used to have sentiments – now even humans seem to have lost the emotions. Much to his chagrin, the broken pail used to feel because it is broken, Ram’s efforts get wasted.

    Once, out of compassion, the broke pail told to Ram – yes those were the days when people could hear murmur of non-living things too. Alas we dont listen to ourselves and fellow human beings – “I feel bad for you that I am broken and your hard-work goes in vain when by the time you reach home, I am empty. I am sorry for that.

    Ram too felt bad for the pail, however he said to the pail – today When we come back with water, look around en-route, there are a lot of flowers dont worry about water.

    The pail followed, there were a lot of different colored flowers with many different fragrances. it was happy seeing the flowers allover the route. When the famer reached his farm the broken pail was empty. Pail again felt sorry for loss incurred by Ram because of him. He again asked for apologies to him.

    Ram laughed this time around, he said to the pail. You know what? Those flowers exist because of you, I know you are broken, and water spill out of you all over the route. Knowing this I had put seeds of the flowers in the route. These flowers have made the road beautiful. People pluck the flowers to confer it to gods during prayers. You are broken but see, this helped a lot of people.

    —

    In my innovation consulting engagements, we used to talk about – utilization of available resources. This was a good example of utilization of resource. Can you learn from Ram how to utilize the shortcoming of his resource to his benefit, or society’s benefit?

    Is it the case of strategic decisions – get rid of loss making or less profitable business and utilize the resources on other higher RoI projects? Does our Farmer in this case looks like Mr Ratan Tata?

    No, no, I have my opinions on the corporate (mis)governance, recent development in Tata group and Mr Dholakia of Shri Ram Krishna Exports. I hope to write on these some other time.

    Source of this Jataka Tale – http://www.hindisoch.com/jataka-tales-in-hindi/  (translated with freedom by KRD Pravin)

    Image source – http://mindry.in/blog/2011/05/29/civil-society-asks-government-to-acquire-highways-and-make-them-arable-lands/

  • Government’s “job”

    As usual Monday morning, my milkman – Ramlal – rang the doorbell. I opened the door, with his endless smile he poured milk in my container and returned it to me. I know he is an old man from Uttar Pradesh – a state in India, he had gone to his village for sowing in his farm in the fag end of summers. During this time when he was not in Mumbai, his son used to deliver milk.

    My milkman is a hardworking person. At this age he cycles about 10 km delivering milk about 25 ltr daily. He comes delivering milk from different places to my home at 6:30 AM, he starts from home at 5 AM. I asked him that day – “Ramlalji after delivering milk what to you do?” I was under an impression he drives auto or mostly remains at home as his son might be working. He said he goes to a catering place and works as cook. I thought he does that only during day, he said in the evening too he works there.

    FarmerI was surprised, was happy for him that he has some work and is keeping himself busy. However, it made me question Why do so many people migrate to Mumbai or other big cities? In fact I am too an immigrant to Mumbai its been 10+ years I am here. People migrate from UP or Bihar to Mumbai or any other big cities because in their home state they do not find suitable employment. Almost same was the case for me, even if I want to go back to MP (where my parents still live), I would not be able to find a relevant employment opportunity for myself.

    Furthermore, I asked myself, why so, cant I go back to MP? Why cant I find relevant work for myself? In my case I don’t see any such company there in MP where my skills can be utilized. Even if I consider starting my owns company I have to come to other big cities for getting work! This is about organized sector, what about Ramlal ji, my milkman? Can he not go back to his village? He is struggling for two square meals in Mumbai. It is so expensive a place e.g you can buy bottle gourd in INR 10 per kg (Indore – by population 14th biggest city of India), we pay as much as INR 60 in Mumbai (prices of July 2016); prices must be far less in a village. Not just my milkman, I have spoken with various auto/taxi drivers in Mumbai, they say the same – if I get work in my hometown, why would I leave everything? Some had told me their monthly financials too – they save as much  as INR 3000 a month.

    While I was ruminating about these things I asked myself where is the problem? Let us say there is Charm in Mumbai – city of dreams – so many people migrate here. But is it the only reason? Not all come to Mumbai to be another Amitabh Bachchan! Why would a villager who can save only INR 3000 a month want to come here, where he has to living in a 10X10 square feet room with 5 to 8 other people in almost a slum? Many come here because they do not have any work to do in their village. So, what is the role of Government? Well, we can talk at length about Government; in India Govt has 3 basic building blocks – Judiciary, legislators and administrator and so on. I was thinking to concentrate on only one thing when I looked at the situation of Ramlal ji. Point is, even after living in such conditions, spending about 10X extra on food only, they save 3000 which is far better than being in village. Means there in the village or nearby area there is not employment opportunity that can fetch them better returns / savings!

    The job of Govt also include creating job opportunities, isnt it? Well, those who think of capitalism may argue entrepreneurship is a solution. Well, after 2008 US Govt has also been looking at a key metric to consider many policy decisions – the unemployment rate. It has become as important or perhaps more important than rate of inflation in the US, isnt it? India is a developing nation, the State and Union Govt has a big responsibility to create job opportunities – mind it, we do not need NREGA (employment Guarantee Scheme). Reasons – a recent case here (you can find many if you search on net) another reason is – our citizen do not necessarily need to just dig holes there may be many people who are educated and need other suitable opportunity to work, isnt it?

    The least State Govts can do is – creating employment opportunities in their states, be it UP, Bihar, MP or any other state. How long Ramlal ji (or Aarti Amma) will keep on shuffling between village and Mumbai to just earn two square meals & saving a few thousand rupee?

  • Panama leaks, IPL & the rulers

    Kill! Kill! Kill! the arena was full with the viewers and they were shouting, it was horrific scene. The gladiator was looking at almost a corpus – the other gladiator – who had lost the battle. Fate of this gladiator was in the hands of winner or the king. People were giving their verdict ‘to kill the losing gladiator’. What was wrong with these people who were enjoying such brutal and life taking game? I suddenly woke up and started thinking about this dream.

    The arena has changed, shouts for kill is changed too and now instead of the queen asking us to “eat cake, if we do not have bread.” The politicians are serving us IPL and other trifling stuff to divert our attention.

    No wonder there is widespread corruption, Panama Leaks seems to be the tip of the iceberg. Can we doubt of existence of 100s of other law firms in Panama or any other tax heaven? If there are ten more such law firms worldwide, what number we are looking at – in terms of corruption or black money? The problem is in most countries, let me take India as a case in point (as I live in India), there may be parallel everywhere though.

    Secondly, heard about few of the World Cup T20 matches were fixed. Vijay Mallya haggling with banks after eating thousands of corers for settlement. On top of this haggling RBI governor stating – Releasing defaulter names can ‘chill business activity’. We are fighting with each other on who should or must win, who is in your or my dream team and here the whole economy is at the ransom of those who are so powerful and mighty and yet in so much debt (and defaulted on debt) that if their names are made public economy of country will be standstill! At the same time, it is beyond doubt that those who have defaulted have a lot of money stocked in tax heavens. Otherwise how come Dr Vijay Mallya say that he can pay 4000 Cr in coming days. Why didnt he pay this amount before KFA becoming defunct?

    It is not just about one man. It is about those thousands who have stocked money and poor people of their country are dieing of hunger or more recently of thurst (In Maharashtra India) or are jobless. Once again quoting – Mr Rajan governor of Reserve Bank of India Panama Papers: Dangerous to question the legitimacy of wealth! Seriously! If people have legitimate wealth why would they hide it in tax heaven? Well, its likely that the answer will be – according to xyz legal framework created by (many of the corrupt politicians as the law maker) the then Govt it is legitimate to under Liberalized Remittance Scheme to put your money out of the country.

    It is like 1. making rules for your own and close clouts convenience and 2. than hiding behind the same to make your ill gotten  money the garb of legitimacy.

    FarmerIn all these – we are trending on twitter about local teams matches as hashtags! Forget that, we are not even considering that people and their cattle are thrusty but we are enjoying the tamasha of IPL where a lot of water is going in drain. Again, what is the argument? Maharashtra Govt may lose crores of rupees if matches are moved out of state. What is the probability and assurance that Govt will use the revenue generated by IPL for 1. prevention that is providing water to drought hit areas and 2. correction that is taking steps so that in future we do not face drought like situation.

    Governments (in effect rulers) earn most in the tragedies of citizen – be it flood in UP or earth quack in J&K or drought in Orisa or Maharashtra even floods! We’ll forget all the natural or man-made calamities and go back to our TV set or stadium and start shouting – six, or Kohli or slogan of a team. On parallel worldwide – for IPL in India, we’ve soccer in the Europe, NBA, NFL in USA and so on!

    This time the shouts of KILL are changed that is it. This time rules don’t ask us to eat cake if there is no bread, they show us the revenue generated in Govt tax collection. But problem remains – Forget terrorist! who knows the french revolution this time may explode the whole world?

    Image 1 source – http://famouswonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Depiction-of-Gladiator-games-by-Jean-Leon_Gerome_Pollice_Verso-400.jpg

    Note – Author referred to RBI Governor’s statements, but believes the rot in the system is political & crony capitalistic.

  • Kanhaiya to Mallya why lessons from Buddha Prevail!

    Recently India saw two very poles apart events and both can make us learn – the Middle Path of the Buddha. One incident was of JNU – ultra leftist & anti establishment – and the other was bank NPAs (one example of Vijay Mallya) – ultra rightist & Crony Capitalistic. I did not write anti-national as those who read news or biased towards one side would find my opinion biased even before reading the post fully, so ‘anti-establishment’ was the word used.

    The backdrop of Javaharlal Nehru University row is this – students union of JNU requested for a cultural event. Well, for those who do not know JNU is a University in Capital city of India. JNU students union is a leftist union. This event turned sloganeering against India. The slogans – besides anti India – included supporting terrorist who (in rarest of rare capital punishment in India) was hung during previous Govt. The previous Govt was run by the  parties currently in opposition – including left front. In twists of the whole drama a hero emerged named Kanhaiya Kumar. When I searched and heard one Professor of JNU, I came to know more about left front. They seem to support the whole drama where slogans were raised against India. This support goes deep down in the intellectual class sitting in news channel studios in Delhi.

    Domestic helpThough anti-establishment word sounds weird because where was the class of Kanhaiya Kumar for last 10 years? Where were they when there were a lot of corruption cases? Suddenly that class is demanding Azadi (freedom), well freedom from whom and what? If you demand freedom from poverty – work! Isn’t it a better solution? Azadi from toot-phoot (breakup) – better you do not do it, isn’t it? Currently who is involved in toot-phoot (look at parts of India where Maoists are active & killing). Azadi from terrorism – better you support or join security forces isn’t it? Why were student’s slogan in support of Afzal Guru (a terrorist)? Azadi from Manuwad & Brahmanwad (it is related to caste system of India) – I too am against caste system. Would it be better to do something at a grass-root level instead of sloganeering ‘against India’? Azadi from suit boot (economically better off) – isn’t it good if you do any of the other things listed above you would get in suit boot? Perhaps someone else will raise voice against you! But does it mean you and the other economically better off should leave everything and become poor in support of you to have Azadi from suit boot? The logic of communism is at question here – to bring affluence or wealth to less privileged is a better approach rather than making everyone equally poor to bring equality. Isn’t it? Read about Aarti Amma here these people should learn from her.

    Indian Big Corporations debtOn the other hand there is another class in India – capitalists. They are those who either mend rules or get rules created to favor themselves. According to some reports the amount of debt big corporate houses in India have goes in lacs of crores (of trillion INR). The example of top 10 debtors is below in image. These corporate houses are those who keep close relations with the law-makers (political parties – either in opposition or in power). So, these debtors enjoy the debt money lavishly. Once they kind of run out of money, they get debt restructured (happens to big companies only). There is a fancy word for that – Corporate Debt Restructuring. One such example in India is Dr Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher Airline. We’ve heard of his lavish birthday bashes and Calendars; he owes 7000 cr (70 Billion INR) to banks. His airline is defunct and he recently fled; banks has declared him willful defaulter a couple of months back.

    So in recent times, India has seen extremes of both the sides – failure of overly capitalistic system where crores of rupees are usurped by organizations without remorse and there are overly leftist those who want to overthrow the establishment itself. We have seen an example of USSR failing and we have seen repeated recession / bankruptcy. These examples teach us same the lessons again and again. There is a middle path that we need to follow, No left or no right. There has to be a balance.

    The solution? Once again it is the eight-fold path –

    1. Perfect Vision,
    2. Perfected Emotion,
    3. Right speech,
    4. Right action,
    5. Right livelihood,
    6. Right effort,
    7. Right mindfulness, and
    8. Right meditation

    All of these have to come from within, outside perspective will contaminate these. Meditation is a one single solution, it may provide each one of us from Kanhaiya to Mallya ‘tranquility’ that will help reduce the fascination to revolt or predilection to cheat. Because if we start following this eight-fold paths we would realize – ‘we all are connected’, ‘we all are interdependent‘ and if we want Azadi, this azadi would be from whom? If we want to cheat the banks, it is in turn cheating with someone who is a family of ours.

  • Beggar and a Celestial being

    One day, by the side of a beggar, a golden chariot with divine being descended from the sky. The beggar thought that he was lucky and would become rich. But to his surprise, the divine being asked him for alms. Cursing his stars and out of disgust, the beggar took out a small Piece of grain from his bag and offered it to the divine being.

    The whole day, the beggar was very unhappy that he had lost a grain. Before going to sleep, the beggar opened his bag to see what he had collected throughout the day. To his great surprise, he found a piece of gold in the form of a grain. He immediately realized it was in return for what he had given to the Celestial being. He cursed himself for not having given all that he had in his possession.’

    Learn to give. The more you give the more will you receive in return; if you hoard, it would only be for others.

    Related blogs – Interdependent coarising, Random act of kindness, Just do it… ok try it, Three Avocados

    Source – I read this story in a book of Swami Sukhbodhananda Oh Mind relax please.

More posts