12th september 2009 ( A Date with Gandhi's Philosophy)

The night routine continues unabated, despite making an unsubconscious effort to shift to day routine. It's been four days since i went out for a morning walk and already i am feeling the ill effects like longer sleeping duration and tiredness in daily routine. Ah now i think i understand why the aged make it a habit to take a morning walk. And so my body clock willing i intend to go on a morning walk tomorrow, or rather today as the the day will change by the time i finish writing this entry.

So how was the day? Any different than than prior days? Yes infact, in a few respects. Well first about the classes. The first class we had was about the product and brand management. Now brands are an interesting thing to study and make, the problem according to me is you can sway the facts any way you like. For among the plethora of brands ruling our everyday life, no one can say for certain which customers will purchase your products. And despite all the desertions written about the brand loyalty and consumer psychology, we can't certainly launch a successful product. The success or failure of a brand still depends on the vagaries of divine will( if you believe in God), or the vagaries of consumer taste( if you believe in free will). Interestingly we were shown an ad of the DOVE self esteem fund ads.The one titled "evolution" where a not so good looking model is turned into a supermodel using the age old practice of makeup and the new digital technology called photo touching. The caption then says that no wonder our perception of beauty is so flawed. Well what i find so ironical about all this dove ad is that it's parent company Unilever also owns the brand Axe(deodorant). And they leave no stone upturned to portray women in the same seductive supermodel mold that they work so diligently against in the Dove ad! An irony indeed!

Then we were taught about the iconoclastic brand by the name of Virgin. But why despite all the copying of anything successful there is just one Richard Branson? Well definitely a food for thought!

The evening saw the convergence of digital industry biggies on our campus for a round table discussion on IT convergence. The same old theories of the rising social networking phenomenon was passed around as the name of companies like twitter, facebook, linked in etc. Oh a few interesting points were also raised, 3G talked about, lack of digitalisation of contents touched and above all the meaningful mining of data ( Which I feel Google will rule in days to come). So after the end of lecture, with my head still reeling from the onslaught of information I reached my room at about 9:00 PM. Ah my dinner as usual was on jumbo vada pao from the irctc stall. I should really stop eating all this shit if i intend to survive over 70. Why 70? Well i feel that 7 is a mystic number for one as is 0, and that i intend to surve the society in some way. And 70 is a good age to go as you have some juice still left in you at that point.

It was after dinner that i paid a visit to Tripathy uncle. He is a typical Gandhian to the core and any discussion with him is always intellectually stimulating. It also brings out the divergence (as well as convergence)of thoughts among the two generations. Today he was telling me how the Gandhian model worked so well till the 70's when the older generation was alive. And also how the model failed for want of leaders as the old men had not developed the new leadership to take over the mantle after their passing. The newer generation not in tune with Gandhi's philosophy left the model and institutions to rot. Now this is the most important lesson for any institution or company or individual to imbibe. Anything is as good as the people making it. And leadership development should be taken proactively if one wants to stand the test of time. One should start developing future leaders who would take the mantle forwards. Without good leaders an institution or a nation will have to face a certain death.You won't have to go too far to seek an example. Look at India's national father's dream!

So I asked him what was the philosophy of Gandhi with regard to management. He explained it in four short wonderful lines:

Satya Ahimsa Brahmacharya Asteya Asangraha;
Sharir Shram Aswado sarvatra Bhaya Vivarjanah;
Sarva Dharma Samanatwam, Swadeshi Sparsh Bhavana;
Ekadas Sevaih namratan Vrat Dridh Nischayi.

This requires a separate blog post entry but in short the meaning is:

Truth, Non-violence,Celibacy, Non thievery, and non hording ;
Exercise, control over senses and without fear everywhere ;
Each religion is true & same, swadeshi(made in own country- self reliance) & brotherhood(touch feeling) ;
Serve everyone without pride,fast(determination) and iron will.

Well it was a good thought to end the day with. Whether the sayings of Gandhi can be applied to today's competitive world is worth discussing. But another time and maybe another place. But a day well spent, especially the date with a Gandhian.