Corporate Chanakya
Successful Management the Chanakya Way
By Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai
Book Review by : Sayed Minhal

Prologue
Recently, I was tidying up my book shelf and came across an old book I bought around 2011. The book has very thought provoking front-page “A bald man with QR bars image illusioning a long tress reminding of a most famous personality from ancient India.” He is known as “Chanakya” for his accomplishment of being “King Maker” and establishing the Great Maurya dynasty. The dynasty that was established on Rules and Regulations. The Dynasty that toppled the kingship of corruption and debauchery. The dynasty that spanned across central and northern India as well as over the parts of modern-day Iran. The Dynasty that brought internal and external trade, agriculture, and economic activities to thrive and expanded across South Asia due to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration, and security.

I loved this quote from Arthashastra - The demand is to be made only once, not twice (Arthashastra - 5.2.30).

About the Writer:
Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai is a leading management guru and also the Director of The Chanakya Institute Of Public Leadership (Cipl). He is the winner of Sardar Patel Award 2009. He is a Business Strategy Consultant for organizations including Tata Group, Air India, JP Morgan, Delloitte, Pfizer, M & M and hundreds of esteemed organizations. He has also authored “Chanakya in You”, “Chanakya's 7 Secrets of Leadership”, “Chanakya and the Art of Getting Rich” and other marvels. Moreover, you might have read his articles in Mumbai Mirror.

The Parable:
In the preface of the book, the author mentioned his dissatisfaction with some types of corporate culture and his huge respect for the ancient knowledge and wisdom of India. In search of acquiring the wisdom he stumbled upon Arthashastra, however all he was only able to read and understand the sentences in that book but he wasn’t able to comprehend the meaning of text therein. This lead him to spend some time in Atma Darshan Ashram under Swami ChinmayaNanda as per Guru-Shishya parampara. With the help and guidance from Sage he the author achieved enlightenment that brought success in his business endeavor as well as the attention of his circle. This lead him to become a success mentor and inspirational speaker or writer on the topics of applying ancient wisdom from Kautilya’s Arthashastra to modern age management.

The most excellent value additions to various management topics apart from relating the verses from Arthashastra to modern business administration concepts in the book are the additional citations from real-life examples, experts advise references, movie dialogues and closing notes around topics. For example, in section “What leader should not do - Part 3” the author writes about the ceremony from Navy called “Crossing the Line”; that is, when the ship crosses equator a junior cadet is made the captain and all senior officers follow his orders. The author emphasises this ceremony is helpful to learn about how the Captain is perceived by juniors.

The content are organized around modern management topics. For example the chapter about “Protection from Enemies” that relates to concepts such as Safety, Security and Competitive Edge the author discusses about keeping the USP (unique selling point) as secret. Being aware of competitor’s strengths & weaknesses (SWOT analysis) and learning to withdraw instead of always fighting with him. He closes the topic by quoting from the movie Godfather, “Never hate your enemies, it will cloud your judgement”. Wonderful, isn’t it?

Similar is the case when the author relates The Game Theory with Arthshastra by stating that Chanakya never minds losing a battle to win the war. And he quote “He should seek shelter with one whose strength is superior to the strengths of his enemy (7.2.6)” and again refer the movie dialog from Sarkar “Takat judne se aati hai tutne se nahi” (The power comes from integrating not disseminating), though he has also mentioned other aspect of the rule mentioned above.

The author has also touched upon Strategy and Conflict Resolution with the help of another rule which states “Strife among subject can be averted by winning over the leaders among the subject or by removal of cause of strife (8.4.18)” or “Reason for dissatisfaction of subjects: by not punishing those who deserve to be punished; by punishing those who not deserved to be punished (7.5.19-26)”.

The author discusses Self/Employee development with the statement “(From) continuous study ensures a trained intellect, from intellect (comes) practical application, (and) from practical application (results) self-possession (1.5.16)” also discusses on the topic “Fostering Leadership Mindset” and he quotes “When he (prince) is ready for it (knowledge), the experts should train him (1.17.27). The author adds some discussion around notice period, exit formalities and returning employees which are mentioned in Arthashastra.

Just to be precise and not lengthening this intro, I say that this book is a must read for management enthusiasts from India.


The Epilogue and Analysis:
We all know or heard of the 4 approaches to crisis management viz. SAAMA (persuade), DAANA (support), DANDAA (punish), BHEDA (exploit), but some of us may not know that these come from Chanakya. If he would be personified by modern day authority and selection is based on merits - we would see Chanakya holding multiple ministries in Government - like Cheif Justice, Defence, Education and Finance. His book and his rules still hold effectively. Chanakya was a supporter of Anviksiki, the sanskrit word which more or less means “SCIENCE OF INQUIRY” in modern sciences and similar to “ILM E IJTIHAD” from Islamic point of view.