BUSINESS SUTRA - PB: A Very Indian Approach to Management

This book was personally very helpful to me. After studying western literature and doing IT type projects, sometimes people become very binary. They want to see the world in black and white.This book helped me find an alternative view point in a very easy to understand manner. Some people detest the writer because what he refers as mythology offends them. There are others who dont like Indic thinking. But for many in the middle, who want to have a balance view point, Devdutt Pattanaik writes well. I would not say every book of Devdutt is great, some books I found were low quality as they stretched the meaning too far - this comes from his writing too many books. But this one was well written and plays to his strength - management, Indian way of life and concepts from Indic traditions.Personally very indebted to this book.

Business Sutra – A very Indian Approach to Management by Devdutt Pattanaik— is book that guides a person to be a better leader and how to effectively manage by providing insights using ancient events based out of Indian scriptures, fables and parables. The author has written the book in a relatively simple language, with short stories and some clever illustrations that summarizes the chapters, with a gripping flow. What is impressive is most of us from Indian heritage may have heard or read the stories and scriptures but the way Devdutt reengages us with a new meaning—with management context, is truly commendable.Leadership terms like Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, and Social-Skills etc are relatively introduced by the western world in a scientific way only in twentieth century. But Indian scriptures and stories from ancient past already had carved out a suggested way of living and leading, by emphasizing on all those skills, and with this book, Devdutt attempts to bring the ancient teachings back to the forefront. This book by no means propagates any religion over another; it just uses the concepts and teachings from Hindu, Buddhists and Jain beliefs to approach management, lifestyle and leadership in an Indian way—An Indian way of thinking that may have been lost to the modern western teachings and management processes.The book is essentially broken into three parts, with first part on our generic belief system irrespective of the framework we follow- that is responsible for today’s business, political and social scene globally. From there book transcends to the second part connecting and decoding Western, Chinese and Indian belief systems. This leads to the third part which is broadly classified in 5 sections on management using Indian belief system – Vision, Organization, People, Self and finally integrating all to expand our Knowledge.Below is the brief of the three parts:-Connecting Belief to Business:The author introduces 3B Framework —As per the author, belief plays a key role in every action we take and choices we make. That results in impacting our behavior and ultimately the way we conduct business. He highlights the modern management system where growth of institutions is given more importance than to people growth and this is a root cause of many problems that organizations face today. He further talks about how western beliefs have created the framework that most of the organizations now follow—a belief system that is more objective rather than subjective. He explains how being objective, minimizes the recognition, contribution and participation from others involved in reaching the objective goal, while being subjective leads to inclusion of others, hence giving others chance to grow, lead and achieve their goals along with the organization goal. Thus helping the whole society to grow and reap benefits of the business growth.From Goal to Gaze: This brings us to the next section where he decodes the three belief system (Western, Chinese and Indian) that results in the lifestyle and the way we execute our business. He emphasis how fear—a primal instinct that has led to our survival—can be used to our benefit by not counter acting on those fears but understanding the fear and using it to our advantage. He introduces the concept of conquering our fears not by controlling people but by expanding our minds—by being more inclusive of others ideas even though they may be different or opposing ours. Using this medium he engages us in this chapter by discussing on how we can increase our gaze by being more mindful, be more fluidic, more empathetic, while also celebrating and accepting diversity and so on. Thus transforming our vision from goal to gaze based, and ultimately, benefiting the organization by valuing people over goal and their lifestyle. He provides examples from ancient caste system and how we still fall in that category (not literally but as a metaphor) and how we can climb up by outgrowing gravity using our imagination and conquering fears.Business Sutra: From here starts the journey using the Indian approach to Management. The author talks about how using our gaze and outgrowing our fear we can equip ourselves to face situations, deal with the worst and yet keep on innovating and reinventing ourselves results in emergence as a true leader. A leader, who has paved way for many more future leaders by developing a holistic organization where people are treated as humans and individuals, hence contributing smartly towards the organization growth and achieving the larger goal.Besides the above concepts, a couple of key take away from this section and is my favorite are Introspection and Rebirth.Closures are a time for Introspection – The analogy of Yama (the god of accounting and Death) to introspection and our learning’s is remarkable. We can be our own Yama at the end of any goal closure by evaluating our doings and outcomes in the process of achieving the goal. We may realize that in the process we may have damaged some great system, altered an existing one or started new beliefs, we may question ourselves like, have we reached our new potential or are we lost in the mere cycle of ever elusive material accumulation. But this realization can only happen if we are true during such time of introspections. Once we collect our knowledge we can be wiser by experience and venture into our next goal….. Rebirth.Rebirth – One of the most mystic and great belief used as the book’s finale. He uses rebirth as a correlation between completions of one goal and a start of the next one. How the cycle of gaining knowledge, overcoming fears and moving towards achieving next target is constant—but using our past experiences to be born again as a better leader and manager will truly help us excel (which is subjective) in our life. An apt finish—“Rebirth is about believing in second chances. This is not the one and only life. There is not only one way of seeing the world. There is always another opportunity, another chance to feed and be fed.” ……. “He who believes in infinite lives will also have infinite patience, for there is no single goal to reach, only one’s gaze that has to be expanding..….When the mind expands, Lakshmi follows” (You earn your fortune) “– the essence of Business Sutra.” Pg. 420 – 421I could only wish that the book would have been few pages shorter by avoiding repetitive theories. Overall an excellent read, most importantly you do not have to know the ancient Indian history to comprehend this book, the author has explained all the characters and the meanings very well. I really liked that he added a section on explaining these Indian vocabulary in business context and conventional context, which can be used as a quick reference.This book definitely should belong to the list of must read to get a different perspective on management and leadership. This book should be added to the book clubs of the management schools to enable our future leaders to think differently and lead with wider horizon.

Devdutt Pattanaik has done it again. The way he depicts simple things with a totally different lens is just amazing. Whenever I have read his book, I believe my mind expands a little and a new horizon comes up and I love that. Many people might not concur with his philosophy, but that is not his goal either. He just wants to show a different possible world to his readers, whether you believe in it or not.Another good read indeed.

It's a unique take on the world using mythology as a reference.

The book is very well written in a simple and lucid manner.. And the content of the book is very different.. So many things around us and we don't even analyse the way patnaik did... If you start reading then I can bet you will complete the book... I recommend the book to everyone... A must read for all..

This is a must buy book because it distils a lot of wisdom and presents it in an easy to understand form. Every entrepreneur and business man must read this to draw on the wisdom inside.

I bought this book after hearing the author in our company program. When I started reading it, it got lost in various sanskrit words and phrases. As the reading progressed, things started making sense. I feel that a few reads may be needed to remember the concepts. This book may be understood only if you are familiar with Hindu texts.

It's realy Indian aproach to management which is not considered in B schools. Every Management student need to read this to learn Indian approach as the most of B school literature focus on western philosophies of management.