The Hindu Business Line : Does your project have `legs'?

Are you in search of `business inspiration', which is `inevitably filled with quotes from Western business leaders'? Wait. "Much of it is not nearly as thought-provoking and original as the management and leadership inspiration we get from the East," writes Nury Vittachi in The Kama Sutra of Business: Management Principles from Indian Classics, from Wiley (www.wiley.com).

"The old Indian sages were smart, they whisked spiritual and business and personal advice together until it became a luscious frothy mixture, and added a generous sprinkle of Zen-like Buddhism on top," observes Vittachi. For instance, advice on `positions' make up only about a fifth of Vatsyayana's text. "The other 80 per cent deals with a host of other matters about life and interpersonal relationships. It also discusses wealth generation and education."

The first business book

A chapter titled `The world's first management consultant' talks about Chanakya, the master of political strategy, and Arthashastra. `The first business book ever written,' extols Vittachi. One of the insights of Chanakya, cited in the book, is that the source of wealth is activity. "Lack of activity brings about material distress. In the absence of activity, current prosperity will disappear and there will be no future growth."

Another bite-size lesson from the leader is that the key indicator of success is not the quality of a product but the velocity of its growth. Velocity? Means, you need to "ensure that the investor gets the feeling that your project has energy, that it has legs, and that it is already on the move."

To explain, Vittachi poses an interesting set of options, thus: "If you were a venture capitalist, which of the following two propositions would you find more attractive? (a) Please, please, please have a look at my project. I don't know who else to turn to and I need the money. (b) My project is hot and happening and about to go ballistic. I might be able to cut you in, but no promises." The obvious choice for an investor would be to `take a cut of a deal that appears to be on a roll than pick up a project that has no track record of any kind'. Yet, sadly, "venture capitalists, publishers, film houses, software brokers and other agents constantly hear the first message, rarely the second."

Source of wealth

The eminently-readable book has a chapter titled `The source of wealth', where the story you get to read is about how `at the dawn of civilisation, a group of people discovered that concentrated economic activity generates riches.'

About `a large, planned city with a high level of technology' some 50 centuries old, in Mohenjodaro and Harappa. Among the many lessons from the Meluhhans of Indus Valley that Vittachi draws is to go for the niche that nobody else wants and then use the advantage that uniqueness gives you.

"Estate agents always tell us that the three most important issues in real-estate are location, location and location. You have to be where the action is, they say. But they are wrong." How so? Because what the agents say is general platitude, which is of no use to the strategic businessperson, considering the hefty premium for a place in the city centre. Consider the size of advantage you would get by choosing an off-centre location, urges Vittachi. The Meluhhans had chosen `a location that was well away from other tribes, and gave them lots of open space in which to build.'

Extending the concept metaphorically, the author poses the question whether you could run a Spanish tutorial school in Beijing, rather than add one more English tutorial college to the thousands already there. China and India operate on what is called `no small numbers principle', says Vittachi. "In countries where the population is large, there are eventually going to be enough bodies to fill almost every niche... Even if you are providing a service in which 99.9 per cent of people have no interest, the 0.1 per cent left over adds up to over a million customers."

Learn `the only way to achieve a complex victory' in a chapter on `Winning and losing' that speaks about the Bhagavad Gita. "Focus purely on the present step at the present time; for life is no more or less than a series of nows," interprets Vittachi. He moves on then to a study of Gautama the Buddha's precepts, to find that the goal is not where you think it is. "The most valuable lesson that Siddhartha brought us is that all that matters is internal... We need to upgrade the importance of personal satisfaction in our work lives, and downgrade the focus on financial rewards."

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

More Stories on : Books | Book Value | Management

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page