Every time I read a book, I try to find,
what is different in it, and what the author must have thought before penning
it down. As a Management student, business obviously excites me. We have
been taught the principles of Management, which precisely are the ones
derived from the practices and experiences of the western nation. Seldom
do we see someone coming out with an Indian Approach to Management. There
might be a Kishore Biyani who comes out with a “It happened in India”
but that is not very frequent. In this book, the Chief Belief Officer of
the Future Group, and a veteran of over twenty five books and 400 articles
on Indian Mythology comes up with something which was so long not thought
of. Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattanaik is a masterpiece on business as
it brings together the two most powerful things of our country – mythology
and business (of course after cricket and Bollywood). Very rarely you come
across a book on business which is so beautifully written that you remain
in awe long after you have finished reading it. We might have had ‘As
is belief, so is behavior, so is business. This is business sutra, a very
Indian approach to management.’ We have always believed that the very
base of our society has been made up on the various beliefs and myths from
the Vedas and the other religious scriptures. However, to imagine the base
of business being set on this is something one would have never
imagined. Although I have heard tremendous things about his previous works,
but this is his first book that I have gone through one, and trust me now
I am going to go through all his previous works as well. True to its name
the book begins with giving us a primer on comparison between the deep-seated
beliefs of Indian (Jain, Buddhist and Hindu) and Western mythology that
are derived from Greek and Biblical roots, and the two complimenting Chinese
belief systems. You lean why the western managers have a high regard for
order, while we in India are not worried with all the chaos around us.
In Business Sutra Devdutt Pattanaik takes you on a mythological journey
using symbols, stories and rituals to relate to how we look at doing business
and how it is different from what western beliefs teach us. In fact the
use of images and symbols to depict things and make business sense out
of it was impeccable. He depicted things in a way I had never seen before,
which compelled me to finish the book in one sitting. He questions the
way of management we follow. In fact it is one of the basic premises of
this book. Our approach of management is completely derived from the western
approach to business, whereas the culture here, in India is quite complex
and diverse than the west. How is it supposed to work effectively here?
No doubt, the western approach is delivering numbers and goals but how
do we justify it as the most optimal way of doing business in India or
actually the many India’s that we have within our geographical boundaries?
About the Author
Devdutt Pattanaik has written over twenty
five books and 400 articles on Indian mythology for everyone from adults
to children. Since 2007 he has been explaining the relationship between
mythology and management through his column in the Economic Times; the
talk he gave at the TED India conference in 2009; and the show Business
Sutra which ran successfully on CNBC-TV18 in 2012, besides numerous other
lectures at Indian Universities and management institutes.
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