Modern business organizations grew from the womb of the entrepreneurial spirit evident during the industrial revolution. The fundamental paradigm in which this system worked was profit – maximization. The recent incidences of corporate fraud and greed that resulted in economic burst of 2008 and triggered one of the worst economic recessions worldwide in decades has forced us to take a fresh look at both the current management programs and prevailing business practices. The year 2010 – 2011 was the year of scandals and scams. The long list of failed corporate giants and banks caught in these scams and the magnitude of their mismanagement for profit maximization with complete disregard to well beings of their employees and common shareholders tells us that something is seriously missing or has gotten lost in this race to economic prosperity. That brings us to the core of this problem – a total lack of conscience or moral bankruptcy. There is an urgent and dire need to address these issues to create a morally healthy business environment for sustainable individual, social and economic growth.
This requires a major transformation in organizations and such a transformation is possible only by constantly striving towards a disciplined and purified consciousness. It is only then that a sense of moderation, justice, and consideration for others can be developed while at the same time preserving moral integrity. This self-culture, when extended into the social plane, gets translated into democratic and moral responsibility as an abiding and sustaining value. And thus it is possible to bridge the gap between public accountability and private morality, to resolve the apparent contradiction between work and life. History is full of examples to show that structures, systems, or for that matter, civilizations, without ethico-moral content as their foundation, are sooner rather than later bound to collapse.
The Focus of the Conference
The proposed two days National Conference on Relevance of Vedic Texts in Modern Management during November 17-18, 2012 will focus on the essence of leadership and management by drawing insights from Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Bhagwat Gita and Ramayana. Efforts will be made to integrate the insights drawn from ancient Indian wisdom traditions with modern management practices to promote stakeholder engagement and enlightened corporate citizenship behavior. The churning will enable to come up with indigenous business and financial models for good governance and responsible business practices.
