Indian Culture, Heritage and Management

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CONFERENE ON
“MANAGERIAL EXCELLENCE THROUGH INDIAN ETHOS”

TAPMI’s Center for Indian Culture, Heritage and Management was established in 2009 to promote studies on Indian Ethos in management. With the growing focus and excitement about the Indian model of management in the global arena, the Center has undertaken a study titled Managerial Excellence through Indian Ethos with funding from AICTE. The broad objectives of the study are:

  • To identify the unique features that constitute Indian Ethos in Management
  • To study the relevant literature which has historically contributed to the growth of a distinct management style in India
  • To arrive at the root-causes for prevalence of these ethos
  • To identify whether these ethos can be harnessed for managerial excellence

On the 14th of February, 2012, the center conducted an invigorating Conference on Managerial Excellence through Indian Ethos. Dr H S Ballal, Pro Chancellor of Manipal University, was the Chief Guest for the Conference. The inaugural ceremony began with an invocation song and lighting of the traditional lamp.

This was followed by the welcome address by Dr. Gururaj Kidiyoor, Professor, TAPMI. He explained the main purpose of the conference and welcomed the gathering. Underscoring the growing importance of the studies in ethos, he explained the glorious past of India when she dominated world trade, and the need to rediscover our roots.

Dr.A.V.Rajagopalan, Professor, TAPMI, introduced the Center for Indian Culture, Heritage and Management and highlighted its key objectives, features and the road ahead in the coming years. He explained the sea change that the management discipline has witnessed in the last two decades and explained that there is a shift in the management practices from Western culture to National ethos. Tracing the future plans, he also mentioned that stakeholder meetings will be conducted in various cities in order to find out the first hand data on this topic, and the findings will be published.

Dr. R.C. Natarajan, Director, TAPMI spoke about the conscious move away from the roots we belonged to, where western publications are preferred over the managerial lessons from Bhagvad Gita. He also cited interesting examples on the use of Vedic Mathematics and the attitude of the current generation to resort to textbook methods due to scoring concerns. Our ancient findings are documented elsewhere and come back to us, he added, emphasizing the role of ethos on management.

This was followed by official release of the book by Dr.Ballal, titled ‘Indian Flowers and Western Fruits’, written by Dr.A.V.Rajagopalan, which talks about the Indian roots of managerial wisdom, the fruits of which are ripening in the Western soil. The second book - release was by Dr. Friedrich Lehmann, of a research publication titled ‘Indian Ethos for Modern Management’, which is a compilation of 6 articles explaining the historical and contemporary relevance of Ethos in Indian Management.

The Chief Guest for the Conference, Dr H S Ballal, Pro Chancellor of Manipal University, provided some valuable inputs on principles of management put forth by sacred books and discussed about the various management patterns which evolve from the various cultures. He mentioned that we cannot extrapolate the tradition of one country to another as the only the superficial aspects of management can  be imitated, and the basics will evolve from the diverse cultures and traditions of each country. He expressed his happiness on the initiatives taken by TAPMI in this regard.

The Guest of Honour for the Conference, Dr. Friedrich Lehmann, from Hochschule Bremen, University of Applied Sciences, Germany, highlighted the importance of exchange programmes and its relevance in the changing management scenario. He also discussed about the international skills of communication and association which require right exposure and experience. He pointed out that the Indian culture and skills of understanding provide a great platform for integrated learning.

The second part of the Conference was ‘Parampara’ - a knowledge sharing session where 4 distinguished speakers from diverse fields shared the stage and expressed their views on various topics pertaining to Indian ethos and management styles. The first speaker was Dr Sunder Sarukkai, Professor and Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University who highlighted the relevance of engaging with different cultures and traditions. He aesthetically brought about the concept of ‘Trusteeship’ which refers to the concept wherein, despite the fact whether one comes with a lot of wealth, either by earning or inheriting, he must know that all the wealth must be utilized for the upliftment of the society.   

Dr  Ashok Chachadi, Director, Kousali Institue of Management Studies emphasized  the fact that the whole world is owned by God and that we have a right to use only what we require and not all that we have. He specified that the macro environment is one that is created by religion and culture, while the micro environment is the one that we create where only Dharma is permanent.

Dr S Ram Mohan, Retd Additional Member – Finance, Railway board at the rank of Special Secretary to the Govt of India discussed on the Wisdom from Indian Philosophy for management. He pointed out that leadership means setting the right example and the ability to affirm what is good and negate what is not good. He also spoke about psychological re-engineering, development of intuition for problem solving and openness of mind.

Mr S Skandan, CEO and Managing Partner EximoTek India Private Ltd and an alumnus of TAPMI spoke about the fundamental role played by values in management. He highlighted that ‘Ethics’ is a system of moral principles, rules, conduct, and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. He spoke about the relevance of a leader and how he should sow the seeds of values and ethics in the organization.

The conference was marked by active participation by students and faculty alike, thus laying out a framework for the Center’s activities in future. The learning and knowledge sharing experience was profound and enabled the audience to understand the diverse management concepts which evolved from the rich Indian roots.

Please contact Dr. A.V.Rajagopalan at avrajagopalan@tapmi.edu.in for further details

Awareness Programme on Indian Culture, Heritage and Management