Assignment

On
Leading through
team
Mahabharata &
management
(Ethics and values)

Submitted by:
Suneet seth
3rd semester
Ethics:
Simply put, ethics involves learning what is right or wrong, and then doing the
right thing -- but "the right thing" is not nearly as straightforward as conveyed
in a great deal of business ethics literature. Most ethical dilemmas in the
workplace are not simply a matter of "Should Bob steal from Jack?" or "Should
Jack lie to his boss?" Many ethicists consider emerging ethical beliefs to be
"state of the art" legal matters, i.e., what becomes an ethical guideline today is
often translated to a law, regulation or rule tomorrow. Values which guide how
we ought to behave are considered moral values, e.g., values such as respect,
honesty, fairness, responsibility, etc. Statements around how these values are
applied are sometimes called moral or ethical principles.
Mahabharata and management (ethics
&values)
“YADAA YADAA HI DHARMASYA
GLANIR BHAVATI BHARATA,
ABHUTHANAM ADHARMASYA
TADATMANAM SRUJAMRUIHAM”.

Lord Krishna said -”Whenever Dharma would be at stake, I would reincarnate

to save this Dharti (EARTH)". I want to share something very revolutionary.
About "MEANS AND MANAGEMENT “After getting a great assignment like
today.The topic is “MAHABHARATA AND MANAGEMENT (ethics &
values)". The topic sounds wonderful. Commencing with the most important
part of Mahabharata. "PANDAVAS” though they were just five, but still were a
perfect example of a team. Team with all qualities. Let me describe them in
detail. Going in ascending order of age-

1. SAHDEVA: Known for his intelligence

2. NAKULA: For his horse riding
3. ARJUNA: Archery
4. BHIMA: Power and strength
5.YUDHISTHIR: Ethics
and
KRISHNA: An invincible leader
So don't you find a perfect team combo? Intelligence and planning in form of
Sahdeva is there, horse riding depicting speed with smoothness is too there.
Archery denoting accuracy and dedicated patience is there. Power in form of
Bhima also counts itself into the team and above all the most mandatory part of
any team. Discipline in form of Yudhishthir is too present. And last but not the
least the most important part of the team, the base, the foundation of team, An
invincible and a wise leader-LORD KRISHNA. Is anything missing? No? Yes?
Its DRAUPADI! So what do you think this part of team is for? A force or
something? Or an entertainment factor? It’s for none of these.It’s for Glamour!
And hence a perfect team is complete. Come to the Mahabharata war. How it
all started?But let me explain a small incident that took place before it. Once
DURYODHANA and ARJUNA went to Krishna. Both of them asked for his
help at the same time. What could he have done? He gave them an option one
of the either " Either me or my arm." And guess what? Arjuna opted for
Krishna and Duryodhana for his arm and hence it all started. The main
conditions were given that Krishna was not supposed to use his super human
powers.
Krishna always said. "Dharma is the end what you achieve. Means don't count
into Dharma." Let's infer something from this and apply it in the
management arena. So what can we infer? Management is something which
does require some ethics. But friends it’s not a place where you show your
commitment to truth. It’s a place where you got to show your commitment to
skills and plan to achieve the end. The path you achieve it is not important. I
don't say u can do anything and everything. You have to maintain minimum
possible ethics to govern you, apart from that it’s you, your team and your
leader whose wiseness is going to be counted. Good managers are not those
who stand on their principles even if they come on a position to be thrown out
of the company. They may be a good person but mind you, they would be
failures when it comes to management. A good manager would be the one who
would act wise and save his job. “SO AS I THINK! A GOOD MANAGER
CAN BE A GOOD PERSON BUT A GOOD PERSON CAN'T BE A
GREAT MANAGER. HE HAS TO PLAY SOMETIME OR THE
OTHER!" All these discussions were mainly to highlight the fact that
“DHARMA IS THE DESTINATION AND NOT THE PATH WHICH IS
TAKEN TO REACH IT!”

Now I will justify all this by giving some examples-

Starting from very beginning- Arjuna, the main hero, was a man who was
determined not to fight against his own brother's Kauravas. Everyone including
Krishna knew this that he was the backbone of the Pandavas. Now it all came to
Krishna. How he is going to take Arjuna all into it? And he being a wise leader
thought of a plan. PLAN SAYS THAT-“During Kurukshetra Krishna sent
Abhimanyu (son of Arjun who heard how everything about how to get into a
Chakrvyuh when he was in his mom's womb) in the war to handle the
chakrvyuh. He knew that Abhimanyu doesn't know how to come out of the
chakrvyuh. He knew that Abhimnyu will die. But he had to do that because
probably this was the best plan which can convince Arjuna to go for a war
against his brothers”. His son's death made him outrageous. As said this was
not bad of Krishna. It was all a smart decision which proves that he was a good
leader.
Come to the main scene of the war-The other side of the war were Kauravas
out of which four were the main heroes.
1. BHISHMA
2. DHRONACHARYA
3. KARNA
4. DURYODHANA
And one thing I want to mention before anything is Duryodhana was a great
leader too. A leader who despite of seeing defeat all around, he was someone
who despite of so many negatives happening around still continued to remain
on the same stand that he was going to win. A leader should be like him who
pumps his army, his team, and above all keeps himself going in high spirits
every time. And now let me tell you Duryodhana was defeated in wrong terms.
Otherwise even he was invincible.
AND now MAHABHARATA WAR- before all wars there takes place a
negotiation. This case was no different. Krishna- the leader went to
Duryodhana to solve everything. He asked for five states. Duryodhan said no!
He asked for five cities. Duryodhana again said no! Krishna asked for five
houses at least and again Duryodhana said no! And that's all it was all done.
Krishna came back and announced a war against Kauravas. And this was the
second evidence that proved that he was an excellent leader. And the greatest
war of mankind was declared. Every step took by Krishna were wrong in some
or the other way when it came to ethics but then it was already said the means
are never important. Coming to the first strength of Kauravas. BHISMA (who
was blessed that he can decide his own death) so such a person being in the
war, it was impossible to win. And being the most cunning of all, Krishna came
up with a plan. Once Bhishma was on array of arrows with his head facing the
ground. He asked for water and no one could give him because it was
impossible to feed him with his head bend down. Krishna called Arjuna in the
scene, asked him to shoot an arrow just below Bhishma's head and Ganga's
water came out as fountain. Everyone was surprised to see hi power and they
gave up almost. Bhishma said-he won't fight against this invincible men who
can make Ganga come out of land. He even asked Duryodhana to forget about
the war. But Duryodhana was another good leader who carried his spirits
despite of so many negatives around. So a grand powerful Bhisma was out.
Now came the chapter of Guru Dhronacharya (Guru of everyone). It's quite
obvious, defeating a Guru is not a small deal. He had one rule for himself that
he would never fight a war without his son Ashwathama. So what do you think
Krishna would have done now? Again a wise decision and that was- Krishna
asked Yudhishthir to say in public that Aswathama is dead, because everyone
would believe his words, he being a man full with ethical rules. But it was all
against Yudhishthir's principle "telling a lie". So what would Krishna have
done? He made Yudhishthir to speak this (dark lettered words were asked to be
said loudly and rest very soft so that they were not heard) "Ashwathama's
elephant (which actually was dead) has died!" Dhronacharya believed this and
committed suicide. Second chapter was too over. You can see that the means
used were definitely a cheating. But everything is fair to achieve Dharma.
Coming to third sub part- actually then only two people had the power to
shoot Bramhastra. "Karna and Arjun". Krishna made them both fight, Karna
was killed, actually because he was cheated by Arjuna who shooted an arrow
(Bramhastra: the deadliest weapon then) on Karna when he was just preparing
for a planned fight. This all being directed by Mr Krishna. Last chapter- after
whom Kauravas were all defeated. Duryodhana had a power that he can't die by
any other thing hitting on any other part of his body except his below abdomen
flex. Lord Krishna knew that, he asked Bhima to hit Duryodhana at that part
even though this was against the rule of the fight between the two. Duryodhana
died and victory was of Pandavas. They achieved "Dharma-the final destiny".
So this is same a management area requires - skill, accuracy, basic ethics, speed
and above all a strong willpower and last but not least a good, wise and a
cunning leader with full knowledge of strength and weakness of his area, a full
mind made plan of how to tackle the people. The plan should definitely counter
the main problem. Strategies are definitely the most important things too be
taken in account. You can see the strategies used by Pandavas were against
all ethics, even then they achieved Dharma and on the other side Kauravas
though used the right means but they were the looser. So it’s not emotions and
vitues like truth need, all the time in this field. A perfect teamwork and stronger
willpower despite of all negatives happening around. That's how the main
layout of everything about management is.