Logo

Logo

Mahatma & Management

The name of Mahatma Gandhi evokes the image of a thinker, philosopher, leader, politician, saint, he donned the caps simultaneously.…

Mahatma & Management

Mahatma Gandhi (Photo: Wikipedia)

The name of Mahatma Gandhi evokes the image of a thinker, philosopher, leader, politician, saint, he donned the caps simultaneously. Apart from being the chief architect of the struggle for freedom, he envisioned a world that would evolve towards peace and harmony. Robert K Greenleaf, an eminent management guru, coined a term ‘servant leadership’ in his classic essay, The Servant as Leader. He explained that such leadership ‘begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.’

The servant-first leader is sharply different from one who imagines himself to be first a leader.. The idea of servant leadership is very ancient. The Mahatma applied the paradigm for ethical leadership to ensure utmost efficiency. Its objectives were sharply defined. His inclusive approach was focused on the rejection of untruth, intolerance, and violence; reaching the goals that had to be achieved (as he put it) on a ‘do or die’ basis. Gandhi is now aptly being labelled as the master strategist, an ideal leader, a marketing guru and someone whose ideas and methods are still relevant for the corporate world.

In the modern business enterprise, a leader who grasps the potential of a company and takes it to a new high is recognised as a turnaround specialist. When Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915 at the request of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the independence struggle in India was not cohesive. It was rather fragmented and aimless. Gandhi’s greatest contribution was in motivating and mobilising the masses regardless of their difference in language, caste, religion, creed and sex. His contribution to the Indian freedom movement can be best described in the wolds of Jawaharlal Nehru: “And then Gandhi came.

Advertisement

He was like a powerful current of fresh air that made us stretch ourselves and take deep breaths; like a beam of light that pierced the darkness and removed the scale from our eyes; like a whirlwind that upset many things, but most of all the working of people’s minds.’

Gandhi enthralled and engaged people like a magician. He was an expert in the art of making people devote everything for the cause. The biggest resource at his disposal was the empty-handed, inspired masses. He consistently worked for India’s freedom, he inspired the people for a common mission (Poorna Swaraj). Employees need to have a common cause, a common goal, a common mission.

To fight the British, Gandhi reinvented the rules of the game and adopted flexible management styles that were dependent on circumstances. He never formulated a theory of management; but he wrote extensively and with great clarity about his assumption, his principles, his objectives, his experience, and, above all, his methods. Some of his ideas have been recognised as excellent principles in modern management. CK Prahalad has aptly pointed out that corporate India needs to take a fresh look at Gandhi’s ideas. Gandhi enunciated a socioeconomic philosophy called Trusteeship.

The trusteeship management provides a means by which people could not be masters or owners but instead they could be caretakers and trustees. For example, he considered every shareholder who invested a single rupee to buy a share of Young India magazine. He would not only invest his money but trust as well. He offered his theory of Trusteeship which requires capitalists to consider the wealth they had in Trust for the benefit of the poor. Indeed, the concept of Trusteeship is a middle path between pure capitalism and pure communism.

Gandhi said the rich were the Custodians or Trustees of the wealth they earn and this needed to be used for the welfare of the less fortunate. This is the essence of Corporate Social Responsibility as propounded by western writers. Undoubtedly, the objective of every corporation is to create wealth for its shareholders. But the power of wealth is the power to give it away. Customer service is an integral part of business.

Gandhi was the first to profess today’s ‘customer is king’ policy in business. In a speech in South Africa in 1890, he said: “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of our business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him.

He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.” The world of business did not accept this definition of customer. But in today’s competitive mercantile world this appears to be a philosophy that is worthy of emulation and is at the core of all customer interaction.

Indeed, Gandhi was well ahead of his time. The age-old dichotomy between ‘means’ and ‘ends’ that has been sanctioned by Machiavelli’s philosophy and blessed by revolutionary ideologies and practised by utilitarianism, was challenged by the Gandhian assertion that means and ends are intimately integrated, interlinked and inseparable. He accorded primacy to the means for achieving the ends.

Even if the end is right but means are wrong, it will spoil the effort and divert us in a wrong direction. Gandhi had an instinctive ability to communicate across the lines ~ the rich and the poor, the upper and lower castes and with equal facility. His style of communication was an effective tool to shape opinion and mobilise popular support. He took meticulous care of details. He would leave nothing to chance and would give elaborate instructions to his colleagues even in comparatively minor matters. He did not tolerate slipshod or indifferent performance of his co-workers.

Punctuality is the soul of business, and the Mahatma was exceptionally punctual. On the day he was assassinated, he was upset for being ten minutes late to a regular prayer meeting. His legendary punctuality had a utilitarian imperative; without it he would not have been able to answer the letters and meet streams of visitors each day. Gandhi lent a new dimension to management.

Contemporary business gurus are talking about Gandhi’s principles. but in the age of globalisation, it is not easy to implement the ethical management code of conduct as propagated by the Mahatma. Formulating and living up to core values is a commitment to truth. As Gandhi observed, ‘Nothing more need be said. truth alone triumphs… Truth always wins.’

(The writer is a former IAS officer)

Advertisement