V Srinivasan, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Infotech has made his debut as an author with a unusual book that establishes the value and currency  of the advice provided by Thiruvalaur in his text Thirukural that dates back to nearly 2000 years. The book has been receiving rave reviews for some of the leading Indian entrepreneurs who recommend the book highly to people leading large enterprises.

In his comments on this book N.R Narayanmurthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies says “Srinivasan has bridged the “notional” divide between ancient Indian wisdom and current management thinking”.  

What motivated Srinivasan, a busy executive managing a large business to spend the time writing this unusual book?

“I was first introduced to the Thirukural during my early days
of schooling in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, where it was part of
the Tamil curriculum. Right through school, and even college, we
used to learn about twenty kurals each year, covering various
subjects. During those times, the Tamil teachers who taught the
Thirukural viewed it from a pedagogic standpoint, simply as a
piece of literature characterised by good grammar, beauty of
words and rhythm. Attracted by the rhythm and nuances of the
words used and their grammatical structure (which made
retention easy), I memorised a number of kurals during my school
days, even without understanding their full meaning and depth” says Srinivasan

“During my career I have held several managerial positions.
As CEO of 3i Infotech (which has grown in five years to a USD
100 million company with 2500 people with operations spread
across forty countries in five continents), I have had the
opportunity to understand for myself what management is and
what constitutes leadership. I have also had an opportunity to
interact with people from multicultural and multi-ethnic
backgrounds. These associations and interactions have given me
an in-depth understanding of the essential elements of leadership
and management. The kurals I had memorized were always at the back of my mind when I came across different interactions, events and
experiences in my official career. I started wondering how I could
correlate one kural or another to any situation in business. As I started this correlation I realized that the connections were deep and that the advice of the Thirukural verses would be valuable for top executives to follow” says Srinivasan

In his book Srinivasan provides management advice drawn from his own experience as a CEO and aptly provides correlating verses from the Kural

Excerpt from the book

‘The end of all deliberation is to arrive at a decision;
and when a decision is reached, it is wrong to delay its
execution.’ – 671
If only modern-day managers follow this principle, we would see
tremendous gains.

In a chapter relating to testing men for reliability, the
Thirukural says,

‘Never trust men without testing them, and after
testing them give each one of them the work for
which they are fit.’ – 509

If only each one of us follows this principle religiously, the
world would be a completely different place.

On mergers and Acquisitions
‘When the territory of the king or the market share of
a company declines leading to a fear in the mind of the
king(CEO) that he will not be able to survive the
opponent/competition, it is better for him to submit to
an alliance with a stronger king(company).’ – 680

They are many such gems that Srinivasan points to in his book. Did the applicability of the Kural in today’s world surprise him?
 
“The Thirukural’s eternal and universal appeal lies in
its secular character, clarity of thought, depth of understanding,
penetrating insights and Valluvar’s capacity to present his views in
an extremely generalised and universally applicable form. Once we understand this it is not surprising to see the currency of his work.”

The book is written in a easy to read fashion and the advice in the book will prove valuable to anyone in management positions. For more information on the book please send email to info@lokvani.com. 

|