On Friday, September 9, we had an engaging session by Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai. The session was well moderated by our R Prasad and Sudhakar Rao.
Here is the link to the entire session:
About Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai
Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai is one of India’s top authors with 17 bestselling books on Chanakya. He has readers from all age groups from across the globe.
Dr Pillai is the Founder and Director of Chanakya International Institute of Leadership studies (CIILS) at the University of Mumbai. He also teaches in various universities and educational institutions as a Visiting faculty. He has delivered over 1000 lectures in reputed institutions like National Defence College (NDC), Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), National Stock Exchange (NSE), etc.
Dr Pillai has been a leadership and strategy advisor to over 500 organisations. These include Indian Oil corporation, HPCL, BPCL, Tata group of companies, Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla group, Mahindra and Mahindra, Indian Army, Navy, Airforce, Police Academies, etc.
Many national and international awards have been conferred on Dr Pillai. Some of them are - Aavishkar Research Award (Governor of Maharashtra fellowship), International Yoga Day organiser (Government of Chandigarh), Sardar Patel International Award for contribution to Industrial Development, Rotary International Award in the field of education, Lokmat Award for Best Teacher of Philosophy, Litofest award received at the House of Lords (British Parliament), among others.
Dr Pillai has been a part of various national and international projects of the Government of India. He has also participated and presented papers in various conferences and seminars in Universities in over 20 countries.
Rated among the top 50 Management Thinkers from India by thinkers50.com
Dr Pillai is on a mission to bring back ancient Indian wisdom in a modern format.
Dr Pillai believes in keeping things simple. Like Einstein, he believes that if we have not simplified the subject enough, we have not understood it properly. He believes in being a smiling professor: keeping the subject simple and being humorous so that people love it.
About Chanakya
Chanakya was born in 375 BC. He is also known as Vishnu Gupta and Kautilya. Frustrated by the arrogance and self-centred nature of the Nanda kings, he vowed to pull down the Nanda Dynasty. Chanakya succeeded in this endeavour and made Chandragupta Maurya the king of Pataliputra. Chanakya was also responsible for the defeat of Alexander in India. He wrote Kautilya’s Arthashastra & Chanakya Niti and demonstrated the importance of textualizing and contextualizing knowledge.
Kautilya’s Arthashastra, written in Sanskrit contains 15 books, 150 chapters and 6000 sutras (shlokas). Covering economics, state craft, punishments, warfare, strategy etc, it is indeed a comprehensive book on management and leadership. Chanakya was a polymath and his book is truly multidisciplinary. The topics covered in the book include:
- Principles of Management
- Management Education
- Accounting systems
- Time Management
- Leadership Skills
- Contracts
- Selection of Employees
- Consulting
- Strategic Management
- Handling competition
- Expansion of Territory
Seven pillars of a kingdom
The seven pillars of a kingdom are: Swami (King), Amatya (Minister), Janapada (Country), Durg (Fortified city), Kosha (treasury) , Danda (Army), Mitra (Ally).– iti Prakritaya.”
SWAMI (The Leader)
He is the captain, i.e. the man who leads the organisation. In today’s corporate world, we call him the director / CEO etc. Without him we will lose direction. A good leader should have the following qualities:
- Intelligence and spirit
- Given to seeing and consulting elders
- Truthful in speech
- Not breaking promises
- Grateful
- Desirous of training
- Easily approachable
Attitude of a king
A king should be focused on his subjects. “In the happiness of the subjects lies the benefit of the king and in what is beneficial to the subjects is his own benefit. What is dear to himself is not beneficial to the king, but what is dear to the subjects is beneficial to him.”
Leaders should be energetic
Leaders should be energetic. “If the king is energetic, his subjects will be equally energetic. If he is slack (and lazy in performing his duties) the subjects will also be lazy, thereby, eat into his wealth. Besides, a lazy king will easily fall into the hands of the enemies. Hence the king should himself always be energetic” (1.19.1-5)
Information sources
A leader should tap multiple sources of information. “The affairs of a king (leader) are (of three kinds, viz.,) directly perceived, unperceived and inferred” (1.9.4)
Action points for leaders
Action point -1
“He (leader) should constantly hold an inspection of their works, men being inconstant in their minds” (2.9.2-3).
Thus, leaders should keep taking regular reports to monitor what is going on.
Action point 2
“He should have constant association with elders in learning for the sake of improving his training, since training has its root in that” (1.5.11)
Thus, leaders should keep learning from elders / seniors.
Action point 3
“(From) Continuous study ensures a trained intellect, from intellect (comes) practical application, (and) from practical application (results) self-possession” (1.5.16)
Thus, leaders should attend courses, update knowledge and study every day for an hour. Training is a leader’s responsibility, not that of HR.
Dr Pillai later added that a leader must never outsource the marketing and finance functions.
Q&A
On what brought him to Chanakya
Dr Pillai started off as a marketing professional. As a corporate executive, he wondered why Indian companies were being run in an American way. A voracious reader, with a vast library of books at home, he bumped into Kautilya’s Arthashastra. He quickly realized that Kautilya was India’s original management guru. The Arthashastra explained in detail how to run a kingdom. Dr Pillai then sought out to simplify the concepts and make them more application oriented. All his 21 books on Chanakya, the result of Dr Pillai’s intense immersion, have been best sellers. The principles covered in Dr Pillai’s books are being used by many companies to their advantage.
On how Chanakya identified Chandragupta
Chanakya did not believe in dynastic rule. He believed in merit. Seeing that the Nanda king Dhananada was self-centred and arrogant, Chanakya realized the need for a new kind of leader. Though Chandragupta came from a humble background and was the son of a dasi, Chanakya saw in him all the qualities of a good leader. From Chankaya, what we can learn is that we should not only identify future leaders but also train and mentor them and put them in leadership positions. That is how Chandragupta became a great king in ancient times and how in our time, Mr N Chandrasekaran has become the head of Tata Sons.
Who comes closest to Chankaya in modern times?
Dr Pillai feels that Sardar Patel comes closest to Chanakya. He had to unite 550 princely states into a country. Mr Patel discharged all his responsibilities competently: Deputy Prime Minister, Home Minister and Information & Broadcasting Minister. He put in place a good governance system with checks and balances, modernized the laws and built good institutions like the Police Academy in Hyderabad. When the rulers of Hyderabad and Junagadh tried to revolt, Patel threatened them with strong military action. That is how he completed the unification of India. Patel was never interested in power and had the highest level of personal integrity. When he died, his bank account had only Rs 51.
On how India can become the leading economic power
Dr Pillai introduced the term VIJIGISHU, a concept drafted by Kautilya, meaning the one who aspires to victory or specifically a king, who is a conqueror. We cannot become No 1 directly. We must enter the top 10, then the Top 3 and finally become No 1. There is a big difference between being No 1 and No 2. The No 2 has not won the silver medal but has lost the gold medal.
Fortunately, all the hard work has been done and we can get there. India has the necessary intellectual capital. The Indian diaspora has a strong emotional connection with their homeland. If we partner with them, we can certainly become No 1. As Dr Pillai put it, “Apna time aa chuka hai.” (Our time has arrived.)
On succession planning
Dr Pillai emphasised that all leaders should put in place a well thought out succession plan. He gave the example of a high performing CEO who had grown the family-owned business from Rs 50 crores to Rs 5000 crores. The CEO wanted to retire at the age of 60 but could not do so as there was no successor in place. He was given an extension twice. He identified 3 people with good leadership qualities and groomed them. Finally, at the age of 64, the CEO was able to tell the board that he had groomed not one but three successors. The board could select one of them as CEO.
The board went a step further. It appointed one of the three leaders as the CEO and asked the two others to head two new businesses. Thus, if we have an expansive mindset and believe in collaboration, we can create opportunities for all the promising leaders we identify. We need not subscribe to Jack Welch’s model of survival of the fittest.
On achieving work life balance
In India, we work hard to earn money for the family and not for ourselves. So, we must sort out our finances first. We should sit with our spouse and be clear about how much money we need. That will tell us how hard we need to work.
We should also have self-discipline and learn to draw the line, especially in these days of work from home. We may not be able to follow a strict 5-day week, the way westerners do but we can become more self-disciplined. This is important in these days of technology and the expectation of being available 24X7. We should get used to the hybrid model. We should take care of our health and as Mr N. Chandra, CEO of Tata Sons says, do a workout before we go out to work.
On pursuing work and entrepreneurial initiatives simultaneously
We might start thinking of entrepreneurship even when we are working for someone. But we should not work on these ideas during office hours. That would be unethical. We should work hard for 8 hours and then find 2 extra hours at the end of the day (and many more hours during the weekend) to work on the start-up idea. At some point, the idea will be mature enough for us to quit our job and plunge into entrepreneurship. Before doing that, we should discuss it with our family.
Anand Neelakantan, the author of Bahubali started writing fiction in the evenings and weekends, while working for Indian Oil Corporation. But he quit the job and became a full-time writer when his books started generating more money than his salaried job.
Women are natural entrepreneurs. But they are burdened with family responsibilities. Women should start small businesses even while managing the home. They should also keep learning every day for say 2 hours. They should try to create an ecosystem that can help them. When children have grown up, they can get into entrepreneurship full time.
On taking career breaks
Taking career breaks is a good idea. In India, we do not like to take breaks. After school, we join college immediately and after college, we join a job without any break. But in western countries, it is quite common to take sabbaticals. These breaks can help us to recharge ourselves and learn new things.
In one MNC, a woman had taken a long maternity leave. When she was trying to return to work, she was asked by the CEO what she had done during the break. She responded that she had done a lot of cycling and taken part in tournaments across the world. The CEO was very happy to take her back.
People tend to change at least three jobs before they settle down. Dr Pillai himself worked in different industries: jewellery, sports, music, films before finding his sweet spot. Once we find our sweet spot, we must commit to it.
What about those who find it difficult to find their sweet spot? We must remember that career choice has two dimensions: growth / material rewards and happiness/ satisfaction. We must find out what we are good at and then leverage these strengths. It took Dr Pillai a few years to realize that his passion lay in research, speaking and writing.
Both growth and maturity are important. Growth does not automatically lead to maturity. It needs foresight and insight.
The three most important career mistakes
- We stop studying after getting a job.
- As we progress in our career, we leave behind other people. We become arrogant and remain inaccessible to people below us.
- We do not listen enough to younger people. They often have good ideas. JRD Tata was famous for listening to the newly joined trainees.
Dr Pillai later added that we must plan our career just like we plan a journey with a Google Map. He also emphasised the importance of building a personal brand.
The ICFAI Online MBA program
Dr Pillai felt that it makes a lot of sense to enrol for such programs, for even those who have already done an MBA. Such programs provide useful conceptual frameworks which we can relate to real life. Besides helping us to upgrade our knowledge, they provide networking opportunities and enable us to learn from the experiences of our peers. Even as a case study is being discussed, we can learn from our peers how they have dealt with similar situations in their own life.
On the Rajamandala theory
Many feel that the Rajamandala theory forms the core of Kautilya’s conceptualisation of state affairs. It is based on the geopolitical and geostrategic assumption that “your neighbour is your natural enemy and the neighbour’s neighbour is your friend”. The Kautilyan concept of power (mandala), centres around the would-be conqueror (vijigishu) who uses six principles to assume the position of a universal ruler (chakravartin): Sandhi (making peace with the enemy), Vigraha (policy of hostility), Asana (keeping quiet), Yana (march or expedition), Sansraya (shelter with another king) and Dvaidhibhava (sandhi with one king and vigraha with another).
Collaborating with competitors (coopetition), sharing a common vendor with competitors, approaching a white knight as part of a takeover defence, investing in vendor partners to enable them to scale up, etc are examples of how Rajamandala is practised today by companies. The concept probably applies more to large, mature organizations.
