Radhanath Swami's Contribution to the Corporates

ISKCON Offers a Helping Hand to Corporates

-- Kausik Datta, A Report by Business Standard, Kolkata

Religious leaders have been teaching a lesson or two to the corporate chieftains for quite some time. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has taken a leap forward. It has formed a 14-member team of "professionals, counselors and holistic mentors", contrary to the other religious leaders' one-man army, to help corporate improve "quality of work and productivity."

Interestingly, chairman of the team is an American with 35 years of experience in corporate advisory and who has adopted the Vedic philosophy first to deliver it to companies in India. HH Radhanath Swami is a personal advisor to the Agarwals of Sterlite Industries and the Desais of Apar Industries. Hrishikesh Mafatlal, CEO of Mafatlal Industries, is vice chairman of the panel.

Gauranga Das, a metallurgy engineer from IIT Mumbai, is in charge of development of programme module; Madan Gopal Das, a bachelor of Electrical Engineering, is a lifestyle management counsellor, Govind Das (B.S., Phil) and Radha Gopinath Das (M.S., Speech Pathology) are in-charge of developing co-operation and conflict resolution; Vrajavihari Das, an MBA in finance, Krishna Chaitanya Das (B.E.,Mechanical) and Gour Gopal Das (B.E., Electrical) are in-charge of group activities and publishing, while Jagannath Das, a chartered account, manages public relations. Das said the programme delivered the Vedic philosophy in today's parlance. "Wherever there are limitations or deficiencies modern management approach to working solutions, the clues to optimum performance management encrypted in Vedic texts goes beyond the reach of human imagination and thinking. It allows us to give a hands-on experience of principle based management techniques to resolve issues," he said.

The companies, which are in regular touch with the programme, include L&T, Saint Gogain, Airport Authority of India, Mafatlal Industries, RCF Chemicals, Nippo and Kirloskar Oil Engines. The programme focuses on anger management, stress management, and leadership excellence. He said the leadership of ancient era has more revealing truths about excellence in leadership and governance. "The synergy of modern technology with the Vedic sciences allows to teach the heights of corporate effectiveness," he added.

According to him, the programme is aimed to "improvement of man" in the office. "There is numerous technologies being discovered to improve the quality of machine. But if the man behind the machine fails to perform his 100 percent - that could happen very often-than the efficacy of the
machine goes down. Since there is a mechanism to fathom the loss being incurred in the process, the company in particular and the society in general is losing. Our aim is improve the efficacy of the man," he said. Drawing a parallel with the battle of Kurukshetra, he said although Arjuna was the best student of the Dronacharya school of engineering (or management), he needed a Krishna. Similarly, today's corporate leaders, who are expert engineers or managers need to learn Vedic philosophy to achieve corporate excellence.