Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence
1
MARCH
2021
Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence
I
t is said that our collective consciousness knows things that we are consciously not aware of.
For more than a decade, US businesses have been sending signals on the importance of being a better human being in a roundabout way. On
October
30,
2006,
Pete
Engardio and Jena McGregor penned an article in Business Week titled “Karma Capitalism” whose byline read, “Times have changed since Gordon Gekko quoted Sun Tzu in the 1987 movie, Wall Street”, and continued, “Has the Bhagavad Gita replaced The Art of War as the hip new ancient Eastern management text?” The article never defined Karma Capitalism nor did it explain what Sri Krishna’s teachings were and how they were relevant to businesses. In the eighteen chapters of the Bhagvad Geeta, Sri Krishna prods Arjuna, and through him, humanity, to engage in the struggle to rise in internal excellence and emerge as a better human being and teaches him how to do so with the various yoga paths. On August 19, 2019, the prestigious Business Roundtable issued a New Statement redefining the purpose of a corporation. The 181 CEOs of leading companies such as Amazon and Apple who
signed
the
New
Statement,
committed to lead their companies for the 49
MARCH
2021
benefit
of
all
stakeholders
Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence
the monograph.
The link of internal excellence to the performance in the external world has significant implications for the New Statement.
week, producing 1 defect (late delivery,
In 2011, Six Sigma and Advanced
wrongful delivery) in six million
Controls, Inc., published the first
deliveries according to Forbes, and they
edition of my book, Six Sigma for
have been at it since 1890. They are the
Karma Capitalism (amazon) which
envy of the corporate world keen to
expanded the ideas further. Don
learn how these semiliterate folks with
Linsenmann, the then Corporate Six
no training in statistics are able to
Sigma Champion of DuPont, wrote the
deliver such incredible performance so
foreword to the book, and Sadhguru
that they too could replicate it.
Jaggi Vasudev was kind enough to
Unfortunately, they have been looking
answer several questions for the book.
at it from the prism of reason. The X
My subsequent discoveries and the New
Statement
are
even
more
employees,
suppliers,
On March 3, 2013, I had an Aha
communities and shareholders, and
moment, courtesy of an article in the
away
Weekend edition of the Financial Times.
from
the
shareholdersfirst
ideology.
The X factors for the exemplary performance of dabbawalas are: (1)
intricately linked. —customers,
factors are not to be found there.
The article spoke of very low defect
Their processes are designed and operated the six sigma way, and (2) Their internal excellence is high. The converse is equally true, an inadequate level of internal excellence is a root
I had been sensing the societal
levels in the Kumbh Mela’s tent city
importance of the idea central to the
erected to house millions of pilgrims as
New Statement for more than a decade.
though the tent city was located in a
In 2008, Six Sigma and Advanced
developed nation, in contrast to the
Controls,
my
shoddy performance outside. BBC News
monograph, “A Small Step for Man:
too supported the Financial Times
The link of internal excellence to
Zero to Infinity with Six Sigma
reporting in their article dated 17
the performance in the external world
(amazon),”
Karma
February 2013 titled, “Does the Kumbh
has significant implications for the New
Capitalism as “freedom to engage in
Mela experience improve your well
Statement.
business within the constraints of civil
being?”
Inc.,
published
which
defined
cause for shoddy performance in disparate areas of life, not just businesses. Boost internal excellence and the performance will zoom.
Consider the 2004 Gallup survey of
laws for the purpose of turning a profit
These articles are telling us that
a large number of business units across
while keeping in mind the wellbeing of
high levels of internal excellence
many industries which found that there
all
contribute
were more than 22 million workers in
concerned
parties
(suppliers,
employees,
customers
and
shareholders)
and
just
not
shareholders.” Dipak C. Jain, the then Dean of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, wrote the foreword to
heavily
to
exemplary
the United States alone who were
performance. The famed Dabbawalas of Mumbai are another example. These 5,000 semi literate lunchbox delivery boys deliver 200,000 lunchboxes a day, six days a 50
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2021
“extremely
negative”
or
"actively
disengaged." The report said this rampant negativity was costing the U.S. economy between $250 and $300
Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence
billion every year in lost productivity
because the two are strongly and
alone. When workplace injury, illness,
positively correlated. The process with
turnover, absences and fraud were
which to achieve a higher level of
added, the cost could exceed $1 trillion,
emotional excellence is meditation, or
annually. This cost to the world
more generally, yoga, known for
economy must be in trillions of dollars.
thousands of years. The availability of a
In the light of such largescale
scientific measurement device for
negativity, why and how will one group
emotions means progress can be
of stakeholders work for the benefit of
audited.
all stakeholders? There is but only one
There is an emerging awareness of
way to actualize the New Statement, and
the importance of emotional excellence
it is to introduce a program to enhance
in the United States. Peter Salovey, now
internal excellence, emerging as better
President of Yale, and John Mayer of the
human beings in the process. No
University of New Hampshire, coined
amount of training and the myriad of
the term emotional intelligence in 1990.
otherwise useful approaches will cut the
Harvard Business Review has carried
mustard.
multiple
articles
on
emotional
In the light of such large‐scale negativity, why and how will one group of stakeholders work for the benefit of all stakeholders? There is but only one way to actualize the New Statement...
excellence) are now understood to be critical components of leadership. Yogic processes can enhance intuition. The
The high level of internal excellence
intelligence. Daniel Goleman’s 1995
in the case of Dabbawalas is due to
book, Emotional Intelligence sold 5
bhakti, or devotion to God. They are all
million copies and it has been translated
Varkaris (pilgrims) who travel 200 km
into fifty languages. Yale even has a
on foot from one set of temple towns to
Center for Emotional Intelligence whose
Six Sigma Grandmaster Certification
another every year. To the Dabbawalas,
motto reads, “Emotions Matter.” HBR
Program and Award Launched
their customer is God; how dare they
says that Goleman’s article on emotional
Six Sigma and Advanced Controls, Inc.,
serve lunch late or deliver it to the
intelligence is one of the most archived
(SAC) has launched their firstinthe
wrong address. Bhakti is also the X
in their publication.
world
factor for low defect levels at the Kumbh
Emotional
reader may also enjoy reading the article, How to Measure and Strengthen Your Intuition in Forbes.
Six
Sigma
Grandmaster
an
Certification program and award. The
intellectual inquiry to fundamentally
award is given to organizations and
Bhakti cannot be produced on
understand the importance of emotions
individuals who have understood the
demand. You either have it or you don’t.
within oneself and in others while
importance of internal excellence in the
Fortunately, the pursuit of higher levels
emotional excellence is the wherewithal
pursuit of exemplary performance in
of internal excellence to emerge as a
of how to bring about the required
their respective fields of endeavor.
better human being is also a wellposed
positive changes from within with
scientific problem. Internal excellence
meditation.
Mela.
cannot be measured but emotional excellence can, and this is fortunate
51
is
In six sigma parlance, several awards are given in recognition of
Intuition, emotional
intelligence
and
increasingly higher levels of expertise in
(emotional
six sigma: (1) Green Belt – entry level
selfawareness,
intelligence
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2021