IIMK zooms in on wisdom for management from Indian spiritual traditions.

Renunciation is key to achieving excellence in life as well as business; and to emerge as a true leader, one has to withdraw from ‘self' and move on to serve ‘others', said Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK). He was delivering the keynote address at a symposium on ‘Practical wisdom for management from the Indian spiritual traditions' at IIMK last week.

Citing teachings in the Bhagavad-Gita, he stressed on the ability to withhold one's senses and thoughts when required. True renunciation would render people impervious to material turbulence surrounding them, he said, making them ‘white screens' where images come and go without leaving an imprint. He distinguished between ‘wish' and ‘will': the former being a weak instinct, while the latter is a strong intention of action.

M.K. Chauhan of Mahendra and Young Knowledge Foundation pointed out society's negative perception of business. He emphasised on the shift towards the triple bottom line: ‘Environment, Finance and Society'. According to him, good governance involves ‘transparency, accountability and equanimity'.

Snehal Shah, founder and CEO, i2V solutions; and Professor at School of Inspired Leadership, delved into understanding yogic philosophy through the Panchakosha framework and applying it to organisational layers. She took the audience through the five layers of Panchakosha: Body (Annamaya), Energy (Pranamaya), Heart (Manomaya), Brain (Vignamaya) and Soul (Anandamaya ).

She explained how these layers can be applied to the organisation through symbols and spaces, modes of communication, relationships and rituals and practices that ultimately lead to a sense of oneness in the organisation.

Speakers were many and so were learnings for future managers. The biggest possibly was that there's no escaping that doing good is good for the corporate world — and that spirituality could serve as a guiding light in that direction.