The Hindu Business Line : <I>Seven-word mantras </I>

Announcing the change of name from ICICI Infotech to 3i Infotech, Mr V. Srinivasan, the company's Managing Director and CEO, had written on www.3i-infotech.com about `Innovation, Insight and Integrity' as the guiding values that form the baseline of 3i's corporate logo. With `500 customers in more than 45 countries across 5 continents,' the company provides technology solutions spanning a range of verticals such as `banking, insurance, manufacturing, contracting, retail and distribution, and government'.

Here is a book by Srinivasan, in which he describes a whole lot of values from Thirukural that have guided his work: `New Age Management Philosophy from Ancient Indian Wisdom,' from Roli Books (www.rolibooks.com) .

For starters, Thirukural is `a treatise on the art of living' written by Thiruvalluvar more than 2,000 years ago. "Each kural is poetically crafted with just seven apt words. While the rhythm and beauty of the words are mesmerising, the contents and message are thought provoking," extols the author.

"I memorised a number of kurals during my school days, even without understanding their full meaning and depth," he recounts. Much later, in the thick of business life, Srinivasan found that he could correlate many situations with the kurals sitting at the back of his mind.

Such as when wasting `valuable time in endless discussions', he writes: "Most of the meetings are postponed without any decisions. Quite often even when a decision is taken the implementation is postponed indefinitely." Help is at hand in kural 671, where the poet-saint declares: "The end of all deliberation is to arrive at a decision; and when a decision is reached, it is wrong to delay its execution."

Likewise, a verse on the essential qualities of ambassadors - that is, `conciseness of speech, sweetness of tongue, and a careful eschewing of all disagreeable language' - is appropriate for salespersons, discovers Srinivasan. Let your marketing heads, therefore, be those `who possess common sense, learning, and a commanding presence,' he urges, borrowing from kural 684.

In a chapter titled `The Thirukural and I', Srinivasan reminisces how, after qualifying as a chartered accountant, he was into tax practice, where he found that the scope for learning was narrow and that the way of life associated with the practice was unsuited for him. Value read for young managers.

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali

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