Sustainable Success !

In a competitive environment an individual’s skills are tested to the hilt. Through this, he not only becomes aware of his existing qualities, but also becomes aware of his latent qualities that come to the fore as a result of taking on new challenges. In this personal brainstorming, the individual also becomes aware of his own shortcomings. This leads to development of a good, effective, and enterprising personality. This process at large leads to the development of the family, society, and alternatively the Nation. We should remember that this development should be at a comprehensive level if it is to be sustainable. This is the reason the term ‘work-life balance’ has become common in the last few decades. It means maintaining a balance between our professional and personal lives.

When we maintain a balance between our job and life, we can experience satisfaction, family happiness, social awareness, etc. along with the work. This led to evolution of the concept of ‘Emotional Intelligence’ (EI), understood by the Westerners only of late.

Companies are looking for people who have a good EI. This aspect is applicable more to managerial work. Through this, the ability to be aware of one’s own emotions, as well as those of the colleagues, to control them and to evaluate them objectively is studied. EI is an important criterion for identifying a good manager. This allows the manager to get good work performed from his team, and thus, increase the productivity of the entire Establishment / Company.

Basically, each employee is an integral part of a team, and hence, it is obvious to him that a good level of EI is required. In short, if EI is good, then the positivity, ability to work independently, confidence, sense of social responsibility, productivity, relationships with everyone, flexibility, ability to tolerate stress, etc. in the individual are also good. People who have all these abilities are very successful in their professional lives. Even if an individual is not extraordinarily sharp intellectually, but has good EI, he goes a long way in his career. This is the general experience.

All this effort is mainly for an individual’s materialistic success; however, it is often observed that businessmen are inclined towards the prosperity of the business rather than the overall development of their employees. They do it for their survival in the rat-race and maintain the relevance of their own company; all the same, the practice often turns out to be fatal for the employees and the executives.

A statement made by SN Subrahmanyan, the Chairman of the famous company Larsen & Toubro, has created a controversy. Recently he said, “To remain competitive, employees should work 90 hours a week (Monday to Saturday). Occasionally, they should report for work on Sundays as well”. Subrahmanyan’s statement means that where there is a 5-day week, employees should work for as much as 18 hours a day or even report for work on Saturdays and Sundays; and where Saturday is a working day, they should work for at least 15 hours a day. While explaining this, Subrahmanyan further said, “I myself work on Sundays too. What do you do sitting at home ? How long will you look at your wife ? How long will the wife look at her husband ? So come to the office (even on Sundays) and work !”

Subrahmanyan is facing a lot of opposition on social media. Some industrialists have also opposed his statement. Despite being a Hindu-hater, Harsh Goenka, the Chairman of RPG Group, has made a wise statement in this regard. He said, “I prefer to work smartly and diligently; but spending my entire life in the office is incorrect. I believe work-life balance cannot be optional; it is a necessity”.

Harsh Mariwala, the Chairman of Marico company, said, “Although working diligently is essential to achieve success, the number of hours we work is not that important to be successful. The quality of our work and how much passion we have for it are important when accounting for the number of hours we work”.

Many people showed Subrahmanyan a mirror and even counted his annual salary of Rs. 51 crore and criticised him saying that it was 534 times more than the average salary of employees in his own company.

Some time back, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy had also advised that every individual should work 70 hours a week to take the Nation on the path of progress. Even then, people had opposed him.

Spirituality

Such advice is definitely essential for those who are lazy and do not contribute to increasing the profits of their company; in fact, they are a liability that reduces the company’s profits. There are two categories of workers – those who do not want to work, and no matter how much and whatever you tell them, they will not work; then there are those who want to be successful, and even if you do not tell them anything, they will remain productive.  Basically, the development of a company and, in turn, the country lies in the all-round development of man. This part seems to have been forgotten.

Here, apart from giving due consideration to criteria such as intelligence, EI, consideration should be given to the spiritual perspective as well.

We see that China has flourished; but many scholars say that it will collapse over time. The reason is that the culture of working hard has been instilled in the people there, so much so that it is no less a perversion. If you adopt the qualities and flaws of the competitor, the same fate awaits you. Be it China or USA, both have achieved only materialistic success from life-threatening competition.

Since India is a spiritual Nation, it should achieve material success by following its original spiritual heritage. This will truly develop it and the development will be sustainable. Hence, it is time for India, the fifth largest economy in the world, to give importance to Spirituality for success in business, and this is how India will become a World Guru, as per Subrahmanyan’s statement !

It is time for India to give importance to Spirituality for success in business, and this is how India will become a World Guru !