Actualizing the new statement

Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence

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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

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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