THE INNER STRENGTH

Yesterday (31/07/08) evening, I attended the inauguration of the kick-off activities of Kerala Management Association for the year, at the KMA hall at Cochin. The honor to do so went to Mr. S Mohan, Director-HR, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), who is also the current President of Bombay Management Association. Mr. Mohan is a renowned HR professional and had put yeomen efforts in enhancing the professionalism within BPCL. One of the key objectives that he achieved there was the competency mapping of the personnel of the Corporation.

In his speech, he mentioned an initiative undertaken by his team as a part of the competency mapping exercise. This was to collate/compile the qualities and competencies of well-known CEOs in India, present and past. This required one to one interaction with business/management doyens such as Vindi Banga (HLL), Krishanmurthy (Maruti & SAIL), Naik (L&T), Rajinder Singh (NTPC) and many others of the same class.

While comparing the qualities and competencies of the above people with the western counterparts such as Alfred Sloan, Jack Welch, AG Lafley etc, Mr. Mohan said that many of the qualities and competencies matched very well. This confirmed that the essential qualities, values and competencies of efficient CEOs, are more or less the same, wherever they are. Though there are cultural differences between India & the western world, the running of a corporation requires these qualities and competencies, that is.

What attracted me in his speech was the additional quality/value that the Indian CEOs have over their western counterparts, which his team noticed. He called it as the INNER STRENGTH, which the Indian CEOs possessed. It dose not mean that the western CEOs did not have the inner strength but that was not an essential element of the CEO personality there, whereas dwelling in a developing economy called India, besotted with its pronounced diversity of culture, language and living, this inner strength played a major role in them coming through successful in their endeavors.

This element of inner strength takes us to the bearing of an Indian. For a nation which was highly spiritual from its genesis, a nation where Vedas and Upanishad’s originated, a nation in which multiplicity of thought processes on the way life such as Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Sufism emanated, a nation that had pure leaders such as Gautama, Bodhi Dharma, Mahavira, Adi Shankara etc in the earlier times and Gandhi, Vinobha Bhave, JP, Amte etc later, is bound to have this INNER STRENGTH in every one of its citizen, by default. You could call this inner strength many names. Call it Self, Atma, Consciousness or whatever; the inner strength lies in every individual of this great nation.

The Indian CEOs mentioned by S Mohan, realized their inner strength and relied on it to a very great extent, in the execution of their vocation. No wonder they came to be noticed as very eminent CEOs of the country. The fact is that, in all of us lies this great INNER STRENGTH and it is unto us to realize it, bring it to the forefront and rely upon it in the execution of our own Karma.

Try it, people.