Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Swami Management

When an American businessman calls upon a guru of the Eastern persuasion, he is generally seeking to be abused for his attachment to success and worldly goods while also learning how to acquire more of both. Swami Parthasarathy, eighty years old, a native of Chennai, India, having renounced a lucrative career in the family shipping business and the Rolls-Royce that came with it, and founded the Vedanta Corporate Academy two hours southeast of Mumbai, has a deep understanding of this delicate role. In the past, he has harangued and soothed supplicants at Microsoft, Ford, and Lehman Brothers, and has been invited by the deans of Kellogg and Wharton to instruct M.B.A. students in the use of the Sanskrit Vedas for purposes of serenity and profit. On a recent visit to New York, he appeared at “21” to instruct members of the Young Presidents’ Organization (to join, you must be younger than forty-five and run a business) in the management of self and stress.



Read the rest of this article from The New Yorker and I guarantee that if you are a management consultant you will wonder, "How does he gets those gigs?" He should be teaching marketing, not stress reduction!

2 comments:

Eclecticity said...

There's a book title there Grasshopper! D.

Michael Wade said...

Eclecticity,

Start writing!