Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattanaik

Devdutt Pattanaik's website devdutt.com introduces him as an author, speaker, illustrator and mythologist. He also holds a unique designation that is a surefire conversation starter. He is the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group. His function is to “startle people and make them see the critical role of belief in business”.Devdutt is a prolific writer with more than twenty five books and over 400 articles on Indian mythology. For those who remember the beautifully illustrated stories of Amar Chitra Katha, Devdutt has taken over the task of continuing that education. He had done a television series called Business Sutra which in some senses would have been the inspiration for this book.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxpIzXGqMUU

The book, Business Sutra attempts to answer the basic question, is there an Indian way of doing business? The central argument is that management practices today are a reflection of the western beliefs which are convergent, and uni-dimensional. The Indian ethos can be better understood through our stories, symbols and rituals. The book attempts to take different aspects of business and craft what would be an Indian approach to management.For example, in the Western world, time that has gone by can never return. It is unidirectional. Indians view time in a circular fashion. What has gone by will return again – whether it is rebirth or lapsed time. Maybe that explains why our meetings start late and rarely finish in time. If they do finish in time, all the agenda items are rarely completed.The book uses sutras or aphorisms from mythology to draw lessons that can be applied in today’s organizations. What he does really well is to draw from an enormous range of stories from Jain, Buddhist and Hindu mythology and put them in relevant contexts. Myths and legends can be sources of deep insight. The stories that people share in any organization give us insights about the culture of the organization better than anything else. It tells us what is valued in the organization. Even something as innocuous as the office décor can give us insights into the firm’s culture. Therefore the premise of the book is very strong: understand the beliefs of Indians to get insights that can be leveraged in running organizations in India.I believe Devdutt has an uncanny ability to make sense of mythology and help us make meaning of every day questions. When Ganesha looks at the world from two elephant eyes and some other god looks at the world with six pairs of human eyes, they may see different things.The bindi or the tilak is applied on the forehead between the eyes. The seat of imagination is also right there. Could it be that the ritual was a reminder to use the greatest gift of humans ie imagination?Yet, the book does not create the magic that some of his previous books did. I enjoyed reading Myth = Mithya and Jaya which is the story of Mahabharata. In this book when Devdutt connects the stories and beliefs that make up the Indian culture, to the complex world of business he muddies the water even more.We know that in organizations, the leaders have to manage several stakeholders eg customer, employee, reporting manager, colleagues, support staff etc. Devdutt likens this to the yajaman depending on many devatas for success. If he had left it at that, people would draw their own meaning. Instead he illustrates each such concept through a mythological story (or sutra), adds his beautifully drawn sketches which are a treat, and amplifies it one last time through a mini case or business scenario.What eventually distracts the reader is the overdose of terms such as yajaman, sattra, bhagavan, devata, asura, etc. makes it hard to keep track of and after a point it was just easier to read the stories and study the illustrations. “Svaha is what a yajaman invests: goods, services and ideas. Tathastu is the return on investment: revenue in the marketplace or salary paid by the employer. It all depends on who plays the role of yajaman, who initiates the yagna. The yagna can operate both downstream, as well as upstream, so the devata can either be the buyer or the seller, the investor or the entrepreneur, the employer or employee, director or doorman”.Navigating the book is like learning a new language. So it is important that something complex is presented in simple terms to be able to become part of the leader's conversations. This book disappointed me because a very powerful idea gets lost in translation.---------Join me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduri