www.peopleandmanagement.com
Role vs. Dharm: Performance in companies
stems from clarity in roles and the goals set for
the role – this is the start line for Corporate target
achievement. Without this, no individual, team
or organization can progress. However, does this
make excellence possible, especially on a sustained
basis? The ‘why’ seems to be clear but the ‘how’ is
not obvious. Here is where Indian wisdom brings
in a holistic approach – Sustenance of performance
depends on Dharm – the performance of one’s
assigned responsibilities in a legitimate, ethical,
and morally appropriate manner. Responsibility
is not the same as duty – while duty is imposed,
responsibility is innate, hence sustained. The second
angle is Karm – Karm (action and consequence)
makes it even deeper because it suggests that you
will sow as you reap – this is nature’s law – as is the
seed, so is the fruit. As is the action, so is the result.
The combination of dharm and karm – responsible,
well thought out action is powerful, and long-lasting.
Anna is guided internally by his dharm of being
the best rickshaw driver for his customers. With
this dharm being his compass, what karm (action)
could go wrong?
Customer service vs. Seva: This clearly is the
ultimate differentiator for India. There are huge
strides in the domain of Customer Service – while
we have had increasing levels of expectation from
customers – our vocabulary embellishes them by
way of the terms customer satisfaction, customer
delight and even customer obsession. The latest of
course, is to build memorable customer experiences.
However, the objective in each of these is rather
transactional – what should I give so that I can get
more from the customer – reputation, goodwill, and
profi ts. The eternal Indian approach is “Seva”, which
has no equivalent English word. But it can be captured
closely by way of the words “Customer Devotion”
– where individuals, and teams, must be devoted to
providing service in the quest of….nothing! Seva has
no expectations but takes trust to the highest level – to
make the customer feel so elevated that she would want
to build a life-long bond with your organization for
herself and her ecosystem. When Anna says “How can
my customer be wrong, he is my God!”, it is simply
the ultimate living ideal for him. The term Bhakti is
not new to millions of Indians, but Bhakti is not for
those Gods up in heaven, but for the living God in the
autorickshaw, says Anna.
Students of managerial
practice once thought that their
technical knowledge of best
manufacturing practices (to take
one example) was suffi ciently
developed so that processes
simply needed to be tweaked to
fi t local conditions.
Annadorai may not know (or does he?) Dr Tarun
Khanna, a strategy and international-business
professor at Harvard Business School who has come
to a conclusion that trying to apply management
practices uniformly across geographies is a fool’s
errand. Best practices simply don’t travel well across
borders. That’s because conditions not just of economic
development but of institutional maturity, educational
norms, language, and culture vary enormously from
place to place. Students of managerial practice once
thought that their technical knowledge of best
manufacturing practices (to take one example) was
suffi ciently developed so that processes simply needed
to be tweaked to fi t local conditions. There’s nothing
wrong with the tools we have at our disposal, but their
application requires contextual intelligence: the ability
to understand the limits of our knowledge and to adapt
that knowledge to a context different from the one in
which it was acquired.
However, it is important to realize that there is an
even better option to contextual intelligence – eternal
wisdom. It is that which is without an expiry date and
without boundaries – because this wisdom has been
conceptualized, tried, tested, applied, fi ne tuned,
crystallized and perfected for several thousand
years, all in alignment with Nature itself. We are
blessed to have Annadorai Rickshawwalla in modern
India whose vision is – not have a fleet of auto
rickshaws to become the richest one (he is already
the most famous) – but to extend his beliefs and
service to his brethren,the other rickshaw drivers in
Chennai, so that their livelihoods and lives may be
raised to his own. Such is the Seva of this inspiring
role model! The MTHRG event may have ended, but
Anna showed us how Wellness stems from Seva and
that we can begin from wherever and whoever we
are (eternally)! P & M
Vol. 10 Issue 2 • FEBRUARY 2019, Delhi NCR |
29