Indian Ethos in Management - Frequently Asked Questions

These questions are only a selection from the FAQ. The answers are a compiled from replies given by Swami Someswarananda, Chairman, Vivekananda Centre for Indian Management and other IEM consultants over a period of time. Compiled by Chief, SAMANVAYA.

Many of the following questions have been repeatedly asked of us and the main reason for bringing out the FAQ document is to give the reader an understanding of the basic principles of IEM and its application. However for deeper understanding and specific application needs we recommend you request for further material or meet an IEM consultant.

1. Why "Indian" Ethos? Aren't ethics in Business universal?
True. Yet, each society has to draw its lessons on ethics from its own culture specific areas - its own psychological make-up. It cannot draw its ethical lessons from another society. Hence the body of knowledge which derives its solutions from the rich and huge Indian system of ethics are known as Indian Ethos in Management.

2. If IEM is good, Where is the proof?
We can answer this best by what a ex-CEO of a major cement plant told after attending one of our programmes," I have a particular view that for India, working with Indian workforce certain methods are more effective... I could never put it to words nor bold enough proclaim that this could be by itself a framework required for Indian method of Management", this is the problem which Vivekananda Centre for Indian Management (VCIM), Indore has been addressing for the past 6 years. As the apex body, it has been regularly publishing first hand information of successes of Indian methods of management apart from converting the learnings from the case studies to knowledge base for others.
In the last 15 years we have recorded and documented hundreds of case studies of management methods based on Indian wisdom. We also have research papers and network with research groups which work on the indigenous business, science and technology base in this land.
Contact SAMANVAYA for archive of case studies.

3. Is IEM some kind of Hindu concept of management?
Certainly not. Management is behavioral science and it has to be culture specific. IEM has as its basis the culture base of India, and as a country whose culture has its roots in religion - it does draw its lessons from the religions of the land - be it Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other.

4. IEM concept of recognising the potential is fine, but the ground reality is that people are unwilling to work. Don't you think you are being 'goody goody'?
The Mahabharatha talks of 4-types of dealing with people: Saam (treating equally), daan (rewarding), bhed (discrimination) and dand (punishment). One has to judiciously use one of these methods in dealing with people.
According to our scriptures people are oriented towards 3 character sets: Tamasik (the simpleton), Rajasik (the forceful/ambitious) and Satwik (the wise). This is how do we conduct these 4 types of transactions with the 3 character sets.

Method	Tamasik	Rajasik	Satwik
Saam	Guide	Inform	Consult
Daan	Reward	Empower	Recognize
Bhed	Criticize	Challenge	Silence
Dand	Control	Warn	Monitor

This is an example on how one can work with ones subordinates. There is nothing goody goody about it.

• Krishna tells Arjuna in the Gita, "Its your duty to kill your enemies for the upkeep of Dharma,…".
• Analysing the non-violent strategy of Gandhi and its roots from the Bhagavat Gita, the American management guru, Chin-Ning Chu says, " If Gandhi's adversary had been Hitler instead of the honorable British, he would have employed a different strategy…"