Ethics, Excellence and the

World of Management By Pradeep Kashyap, Founder & CEO, MART

We all live by some principles. I was fortunate to have met

my spiritual guru nearly 30 years ago who inspired me to

live by high principles and values. Values inspire in us the

highest that we should do. It is the job of a leader like a

spiritual Guru or a CEO to inspire in us these values.

A little background about me and my organization MART

would help, as a number of examples in this article will be

from my life.

For the first 20 years of my professional life I worked with 3

multinational companies in India–Exide from the UK,

Bosch from Germany and Toyota from Japan. During this

period I acquired fair amount of material wealth and

creature comforts. But the inner richness was missing from

my life and a hollow feeling kept bothering me. The year I

turned 40, I decided with the guidance of my Guru that I

must change the course of my life. I voluntarily opted out

of the corporate sector and since I wanted to understand

the social sector I joined a large NGO at just 10% of my last

drawn salary. I have been working for 20 years in the rural

sector and have not regretted my decision even once. Sure,

there have been times when I was not making enough

money but this was more than compensated by the inner

satisfaction I derived from my work. I have had the

privilege of meeting some of the best minds in the world

and seen some great and highly innovative work.

I too have created some innovative models of

development, particularly in the area of marketing. Had I

continued in the corporate sector I would have probably

become the CEO of a large MNC but would have continued

to do repetitive and dissatisfying work. I am glad I made

the decision I did.

In 1993 I founded MART, a livelihoods and rural marketing

agency, as a value based organization. Today, 16 years

later, we are a family of 50 dedicated professionals serving

rural India. We are a flat, non hierarchical totally

transparent organization – no designations, every staff

member knows each other’s salary or the fact that we

submit detailed, itemized consultancy budgets to clients.

We are a team based organization where all decisions are

taken through consensus. We are an employee owned

organization where on completing 10 years of service every

employee automatically become a partner in the firm.

Let us now come to Ethics. To begin with let us try and

understand what ethics is?

Ethics is the application of spiritual principles to human

behavior. So ethics involves living by (and not theorizing

about) the highest principles applicable to human behavior

on a daily basis.

What are Principles?

Principles are guidelines for human conduct. They are

fundamental and universal because their source is the

spirit. These principles have come to us from rishis and

sages who received them over centuries in meditation,

through dreams and as visions.

Ethics can be understood at two levels. Steven Covey in his

book ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ calls them

Personality ethic which refers to the development of

personality, and Character ethic which focuses on

evolution of human character.

What is Personality Ethic & Character Ethic?

Personality ethic includes public image, attitude, skills and

techniques. The effort here is to develop a more pleasing

and attractive personality with the objective of achieving

better social acceptability and greater material success.

This is the job of psychologists and personality grooming

experts who teach you better communication skills, better

social manners and personality grooming methods. These

are secondary traits and not primary like character.

Personality ethic results in quick fix solutions without

addressing the fundamental causes of human behavior. I

will not be focusing on personality ethic.

My concern is with character ethic which involves basic

principles of effective living – integrity, humility, courage,

fairness, patience and simplicity. These are value based

motives or ‘Lighthouse’ principles that govern human

growth and happiness. It is important to understand that

these fundamental principles do not change. Principles do

not react to anything; they do not depend on the behavior

of others.

Personal power that comes with principle centered living is

the power of self aware, knowledgeable proactive

individual, unrestricted by

the attitude, behavior and

action of others or by any

circumstances. Gandhiji

never held any position of

power in the government

in waiting, but he wielded

more power in politics

than anyone else because

of his principle centered

living. We accord the

highest respect to a

spiritual master, even political leaders and royalty bow to

them, because they are centered in universal principles.

Highest power rests with the person with the highest

awareness.

What are Spiritual Principles?

The most fundamental principle of effectiveness is the

Principle of Personal vision: For this we need to know ‘Who

am I’. We should understand that we are not our body

because if we were then which part defines us –legs, hands,

brain or the heart? What happens to people with heart

transplants? Do they cease to be or do they assume the

person of the donor? Further we need to understand that

we are not our feelings. If we were then which feeling

defines us? We are not our moods. We are not even our

thoughts. If we were then how come we continue to exist

in deep sleep when there are no thoughts? And the very

fact we can think about these things separates us from

them. It is self awareness that enables us to stand apart

and examine even the way we “see” ourselves. The

continuous effort has to be to expanding our self

awareness which also helps to find our inner centre. Our

centre is where we deal with our vision and values.

Spiritual dimension is your core, your centre, your

commitment to your principles. Meditation,

contemplation, enquiry into who am I are ways to remain

in touch with the timeless core.

Dreams as Our Inner Guide

When your external action reflects your internal code you

are in alignment with your principles. This is how you gain

integrity. Integrity is important because without it you are

living with a sense of division within yourself. You will know

when you are not acting in alignment with your moral code

because your conscience will remind you of the difference

between what is ethically right and how you actually

behaved. The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is

easy to stifle it: but it is also so clear that it is difficult to

mistake it. When we refuse to hear the voice of conscience

in our waking life, it often appears as a critic in our dreams

at night. Dreams often show a mirror to our behavior by

becoming critical of us. For example if we have told a lie in

waking life our dream may create a situation where we are

reprimanded for telling a lie. We wake up feeling guilty

knowing well that we have tried to cheat on ourselves. Or

when we are going through an anxious phase in our life we

dream of reaching late for an exam or missing a train.

Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious. If we record

our dreams and make the effort to interpret them they will

guide us how to conduct our lives ethically.

When we make any commitment it is our conscience that

ensures that we keep it. So when we set a personal or

professional goal we must make a promise to our

conscience and set out to achieve it. Trust is cornerstone of

every strong business relationship. Without trust your

prospective customers won’t buy from you, your team

mates won’t listen to you and your family and friends will

run away from you.

Information, Knowledge & Wisdom

A man of wisdom is a man of ethics. But how do we

become wise? I will explain in the next few paragraphs how

information leads to knowledge and finally to wisdom.

Information is something we read or hear about. For

example we dial railway enquiry to get the timing of

Shatabdi from Jaipur to Delhi or the TV news informs us

that it rained in Delhi yesterday. Information is essential to

conduct our daily activities smoothly. But it does not

impact ethics in anyway.

But when information is analyzed and understood it

becomes knowledge. This is the purpose of education. In

school and college teachers impart information and then

encourage us to use the tool box of analysis to transform

information into knowledge. So knowledge can be taught,

you can acquire it from external sources. And knowledge is

what you know you know. For example I know that I can

solve a particular mathematics problem because I learnt

the analytical tools in school.

When knowledge is integrated with intuition, it becomes

wisdom, your experiential knowledge. Analysis as

described earlier and intuition are not substitutes of each

other, they are complimentary.

We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it after a

journey of life that no one can take for us. Each one of us

has to undertake our own journey. The ultimate

destination of your life, if there is one is wisdom. Wisdom is

the highest and deepest degree of knowledge, insight and

understanding. It provides you with the broadest

perspective on life. They say when you find your wisdom

you are living in the ‘light’, the light of the spirit.

Wisdom is not a state to be achieved but rather a state to

be recalled. You arrived on this planet with the boundless

wisdom inherent in all human beings; you only need to

access that place within you that connects you to the

infinite divine source. You are potentially as wise as the

Buddha or Aristotle-they have simply accessed places

within themselves where perhaps you have not journeyed.

That is why it is said we are all born a potential Buddha.

Wisdom is not intelligence. Wisdom is much more. It is the

highest level of emotional, spiritual and mental evolution

where you synergize your deepest understanding with your

deepest everyday actions.

What is intuition?

Intuition, extra sensory perception (ESP) or insight is when

we see things other people do not see. It is the ‘Aha’ or the

‘Eureka’ moment. Intuition is what you do not know you

know. Intuition is not what can be taught, you develop it on

your own. The word itself means to learn (tuition) from

within (in).

Our subconscious minds are our link to the wisdom of the

universe (the collective unconscious as described by Jung).

Our conscious thinking is so limited, but our subconscious

thinking when connected to the unconscious is infinite.

Why is Intuition important for managers?

At a management school you learn techniques and

concepts to develop your analytical brain. In real life the

executive does analyze, but he also needs to synthesize for

which he needs experience and intuition which as we

discussed earlier, cannot be taught. So the single biggest

challenge for a corporate leader is to develop the power of

intuition because intuition is the critical differentiator

between a good and a visionary leader. Ray Croc recalls in

his memoirs that he had this strong intuition that he should

buy the then unknown, few, franchised McDonald stores.

There was no logical or obviously analytical reason for his

decision. Today, we all know, it is the largest retail chain in

the world.

As we grow in our careers knowledge alone is not enough

to make complex decisions. Decisions such as should the

company enter the European or Asian market? Should we

partner a local company or go it alone? Should we hire local

managers who understand the local culture or send out

managers from the parent company who know the

working of the company well? These are decisions

concerning the future and knowledge alone is not enough

to act. The manager needs to have intuition or insight to

foresee the future.

How to develop Intuition?

You can develop intuition through viewing issues

holistically. Intuition is enhanced through varied

experiences and relationships. Emotion is a strong element

for developing intuition. Story telling stirs emotion.

Intuition is developed by exploring and sensing beyond

what is visible and audible (sleep over things, sometimes

intuition comes through dreams). Intuition can be

developed by paying attention to our dreams. The

language of dream connects us to our unconscious where

all knowledge of the universe preexists.

Intuition is developed through total involvement with the

work. Women are more intuitive because they are more

emotionally involved in work. Contemplation, reflection,

meditation and long walks help the mind become quiet. A

quiet mind helps to see things the way they are and not the

way you would like them to be. At the crucial moment of

decision making, trust your intuitive brain and not your

analytical brain. Managers have to be intuitive, inclusive

and humane.

Excellence

Let us now move the discussion to excellence. What is

excellence? Like life, excellence is a journey, a search for

the highest. That is why Tom Peters called his famous book

‘In search of Excellence’ and not the destination of

excellence. Excellence is a total quality movement. It is a

process of continuous self improvement.

My guru used to say you should bring the same level of

awareness and concentration you experience during prayer

to your daily activities. Every meal at the ashram was

preceded by aarti in the temple. And after every meal we

washed the dishes. The Guru would say the awareness and

concentration you apply to washing dishes should be the

same you achieve during prayer. So level of awareness

equals degree of excellence. Total awareness or

enlightenment in other words leads to complete

excellence. That is why when we see something truly

excellent we say God must have made it. So the constant

effort must be to increase our awareness. Excellence is not

achieved by attitude alone, it depends equally on the

awareness you bring to the task.

Excellence through Mentoring

Another way to put an employee on the road to excellence

is through mentoring where the junior has complete trust,

respect and faith in his senior, resulting in a strong,

instructional and emotional relationship. The two share

warmth, love and support like the bond between Lord

Krishna and Arjun.

I look for every opportunity to show and tell my team

members that I care for them deeply. These young people

have given some of the best years of their lives to help me

grow MART. I honor them for that. Their successes are my

success and we celebrate all successes. Similarly their

setbacks are my setbacks and I always offer my shoulder

and hand to them in their hour of need.

When you strive towards excellence it does not help to

compete with others because you may be better than one

but worse than another. So are you better or worse?

Comparing yourself with a moving benchmark cannot give

you an accurate picture of yourself and it only results in

wastage of productive energy. So don’t race against

others, race against yourself. Resolve to be better today

than yesterday. This approach will get you out of

competition with others and put you on the fast track

towards excellence.

Motivating for Excellence through Story Telling

A big part of a CEO’s job is to motivate the team towards

excellence. To do that he must engage their emotion, not

just their mind, and the key to their hearts is a story. At

MART we have a tradition of celebrating staff members’

birthdays, weddings, annual increments and just about any

occasion. Most of my teaching and inspiring people are

done through stories I tell at these gatherings. Story telling

is a very personal, emotional experience and therefore

allows management ideas to get united with an emotion in

the listener.

Many cultures have a rich tradition of parables, stories and

mythology to help common people relate to complex

subjects like character, honesty, sincerity and so on. In

management too, anecdotes and evocative stories can

help managers learn about human nature. These stories

inspire managers to seek excellence.

Another important truth-for you to win, no one needs to

lose. We are conditioned to compete for scarce resources.

We are told to be best in our class at school and

encouraged to be first in sports. This creates a scarcity

mindset and leads to competition. All competition does is

fuel the illusion that we are all separate. But when we

operate at a higher level we begin to see the

interconnectedness of everything, we all win. When we

work in harmony, there is more for everyone, Take love,

the more we give the more we get and our love bank does

not diminish. Or take happiness, or even knowledge. The

more we share the more it grows.

Success in life does not lie in reaching your goals-it lies in

the personal transformation and inner shifts in

consciousness and awareness that take place.

The question in your mind must be. Is it possible to practice

what I have suggested in a competitive, corrupt and greedy

world? Well Ratan Tata runs his multibillion dollar business

on ethical principles, so do Warren Buffet and

Narayanmurthy and many others. Barrack Obama is a

symbol of hope for humanity because of his transparency

and middle class values. If you are looking for enduring

happiness you should be prepared to lose out on some

material gains. Or you could follow a competitive,

aggressive and manipulative approach to seek short lived

gains but a life filled with stress and anxiety. I made the

choice to run MART and live my life on value based

principles. You must make your choice.

Contact the Author: pradeep.kashyap@martrural.com