Transforming India & Indian Business by Pradeep B Deshpande

VOL. XXXXVI NO.4

OCTOBER 2020

CONTENTS

CHINA: Business, Technology & Economy in 2020

The Art & Power of Nudging M S Narayan

Partnerships in the Age of Covid Panel Discussion

Transforming India & Indian Businesses Pradeep Deshpande

Women Leader Series: Policing in Covid Times & Beyond

Lakshmi Venkatachalam

Panel Discussion

EDITOR Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM EDITORIAL SUPPORT Gp Capt Dr R Venkataraman (Retd) LAYOUT EXECUTIVE D Rajaram

MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION Management Center, New No.240 Pathari Road ﴾Off Anna Salai﴿, Chennai 600 006 Ph:044‐2829 1133 Email:mma@mmachennai.org | mandate@mmachennai.org www.facebook.com/mmachennai

I

am inspired to write this column for Business Mandate after witnessing the resounding success

of the recent presentation of Ritesh Andre, Spokesperson for Mumbai Dabbawalas, and our associate Raja Atmamayan, Vice President, ASCENT Transformation Ventures, Coimbatore.

MMA reported that two thousand viewers tuned in for a Sunday session and many provided positive feedback on the session. It is hoped that viewers would consider making a donation to the Dabbawalas. MMA is to be felicitated and thanked for this success.

The viewers learned in the presentation

that

exemplary

performance is possible when and only when the level of internal excellence is high. In the case of Dabbawalas, theirs is a Six Sigma operation and the Dabbawalas are Varkaris, intensely devoted to customers and whom they consider as God. Internal excellence and emotional excellence are two sides of the same coin. When emotional excellence rises, the level of internal excellence too will rise.

Pursuit of high levels of emotional excellence is a well­posed scientific problem. Emotions can be measured, and the process with which to enhance

Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence

emotional excellence is meditation, or

of emotional excellence will bring a

itself has provided ample evidence

more generally yoga, known for

myriad of additional benefits. They

of such creation. One famous

thousands of years. Since emotions can

include:

example from Tamil Nadu is S.

be measured, progress can be audited.

As evidence on the need for emotional excellence, Gallup published a survey of a large number of business units across many industries in 2004

• Health and wellness. Negative emotions lead to stress, a root cause of many serious illnesses including cancer. Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn has shown that high levels of stress shorten telomeres

finding that there were more than 22

(the protective caps at the ends of

million workers—in the United States

our chromosomes) and accelerate

alone—who were extremely negative or

aging. Medical researchers have

"actively disengaged." This rampant

also

negativity was costing the US economy

lengthens telomeres and slows

between $250 and $300 billion every year in lost productivity alone. Gallup estimated that when workplace injury,

shown

that

meditation

aging.

• Leadership. Harvard Business Review has carried numerous Researchers reported in HBR that

were added, the cost could exceed $1

intuition and self­awareness are

trillion, annually. In fact, they found

critical components of leadership.

that negativity appeared to have spiked

Intuition is immediate cognition

across the world in recent years.

without the benefit of the five

Emotions Survey, BBC said people around the world were angry, stressed

senses and the rational mind. Yogic processes can enhance intuition to a point it becomes possible to do numerous

tasks

blind­folded,

and worried. Gallup interviewed

provided training is given at a

150,000 people in 140 countries for

young age. For adults, meditation is

their 2019 Global Emotions Report and

a route to enhanced intuition.

found that a third of them were stressed while one in five experienced sadness or anger. In this survey, the United States was 39th most positive country and India ranked 93rd. Clearly, negativity is a serious issue for India Inc., as well.

• Less discord and violence.

Improved

interpersonal

relationships, less discord and violence are natural consequences of higher levels of emotional excellence.

• Creativity

and

Negativity and negative emotions

innovativeness. Pursuit of higher

are synonymous. Negative emotions

levels of emotional excellence is a

lead to stress while positivity attenuates stress. Successful pursuit of higher levels 56

OCTOBER 2020

graduate,

Ramanujan

would

formulate complex mathematical theorems and their proofs without knowing the steps in between. He told his mentor, G. H. Hardy at Cambridge,

creation

happened

when he connected to the source via a prayer to his Goddess.

Progress in America Ancient India is the home of emotional excellence, but you would find it interesting that America is recognizing

reports on emotional intelligence.

illness, turnover, absences and fraud

Reporting on Gallup’s 2019 Global

Ramanujan. Barely a high school

pathway to connect to the source where all creation happens. India

Emotional intelligence is an intellectual inquiry to fundamentally understand the importance of emotions within oneself and in others, and it indicates the capacity to be aware of one’s own emotions and intuit the feelings of others with obvious implications for decision‐making.

Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence

its importance independent of any

Intelligence: “In 2002, UNESCO began

intelligence by itself cannot bring about

scriptures.

a world­wide initiative to promote social

the required positive changes from

In 1990, University of New

and emotional learning (SEL), sending

within.

Hampshire psychologist, John D. Mayer

a statement to ministries of education

Emotional excellence, the term I

and his friend and a fellow psychologist,

in 140 countries.” He writes that he was

have coined, is the wherewithal of how

Peter Salovey, now President of Yale,

most gratified to note that tens of

to bring about the required positive

coined

“Emotional

thousands of schools worldwide offered

changes from within and there is only

Intelligence”. By then, the importance

children SEL. He says that in the United

one way to achieve this feat and it is

of IQ was well­known globally but the

States, many districts and even entire

through meditation, or more generally,

profound implications of emotional

states currently make SEL a curricular

yoga. No amount of training, rules,

intelligence or EQ (emotional quotient)

requirement mandating that just as

regulations, and policies, top­notch

had not yet been understood in the

students must attain a certain level of

quality initiatives, nor intellectual

West.

competence in math and language, so

pursuits will cut the mustard.

the

term

Emotional intelligence is an intellectual inquiry to fundamentally

too should they master these essential skills for living.

The

Alarmed by the aggressive pursuits of China, India Inc., appears to be

Business

making concerted efforts to wean

within oneself and in others, and it

Roundtable released a New Statement

companies away from China to India.

indicates the capacity to be aware of

redefining the purpose of a corporation

There is also a reported effort at

one’s own emotions and intuit the

in 2019. The 181 CEOs of some of the

Government reforms. Pursuit of

feelings of others with obvious

largest companies in the world who

external and internal excellence is

implications for decision­making.

signed the New Statement, committed

essential for the success of these

to lead their companies for the benefit

initiatives. 

understand the importance of emotions

Relatedly, Daniel Goleman first published the best­seller, Emotional Intelligence in 1995. That book sold four million copies and was on the New York Times best­seller list for a year­and­a­ half. According to HBR, Goleman’s articles on emotional intelligence are some of the most enduring in their publication.

Goleman says in his HBR article, “IQ and technical skills are important but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership.”

Goleman goes on to say in his tenth anniversary edition of Emotional

of

prestigious

all

stakeholders­suppliers,

employees, customers, communities and shareholders, away from the shareholders­first ideology. A little reflection should convince the reader that enhancing internal excellence is the only route for one group of stakeholders to work for the benefit of all stakeholders.

The progress Americans have made in realizing the importance of emotional intelligence is laudable. However, as important as an intellectual inquiry to fundamentally

understand

the

Pradeep B. Deshpande is Professor Emeritus and a former Chair of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. He is also President of Six Sigma and Advanced Controls, Inc.

importance of emotions, emotional OCTOBER 2020

57