A collection of thoughts on management, which draws from the soul-searching nature of India’s spiritual tradition and are often sauced with humour, has made its way from the shores of this former French outpost to Portugal.
‘Surviving in the Corporate Jungle,’ an English manuscript by Ashok Kumar Bhatia, management consultant and Member of Integral Management Group of Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research (SACAR), was translated into Portuguese recently.
The Portuguese version, ‘Sobreviver Na Selva Empresarial – Guia prático’ was launched at two events — at Catolica Porto Business School of Universidade Catolica do Porto and Lisbon’s Universidade Europeia.
Mr. Bhatia describes the book as “a compilation of some tactics you can use to not only survive but also do well in the corporate jungle” and one that is intended to amuse, entertain, and educate managers and entrepreneurs of all hues, sizes, and shapes — the aspiring kind, the practising and the tired kind or the retired kind.
“It is a light-hearted take on the art and science of management, from the jaundiced perspective of someone who is still learning it,” he says.
Mr. Bhatia brings the expertise from his stints with Tata International, Hidesign, and HCL into his writings on management aspects.
His thoughts on the subject are also shaped by his association with SACAR which has been sensitising managers, practising and aspirants, about the Indian view of the discipline of management which defines four pillars of Integral Management as wisdom, power, harmony and perfection.
Harmony, SACAR, believes stands out as a key enabler for CEOs and business leaders to achieve their goals.
An individual manager can improve his/her effectiveness by ensuring harmony and balance within oneself — between his/her inner thoughts and outer actions and between the mind and soul. Mr. Bhatia believes that the management concepts laid out in the book were universal in nature.
On how his book ended up with a Portuguese version even before it has been published in English, Mr. Bhatia says that the original script in English perchance caught the attention of a large insurance company in Portugal, Liberty Seguros.
The company referred the script to publishing house Vida Economica which undertook to publish a translation in Portuguese.
Mr. Bhatia has, however, had a connection with Portugal during his career. Working with Hidesign had put him in touch with a few businesses in North Portugal.
He has also signed up as one of the founding members a Portuguese start-up.
Mr. Bhatia also maintains a blog, where his worship of humourist P.G. Wodehouse is manifest.
In fact, Mr. Bhatia had told a Portuguese newspaper before the launch of his book that the messages conveyed in the book were serious in nature though the way they were packaged was not.
“Profound truths conveyed with a dash of humour, I believe, have a better chance of being effectively communicated,” is his belief.
Ironically though, the English original is still waiting to be published. Now, talks are on with a few publishers in this regard. “I consider myself fortunate to be able to say that I have perhaps contributed towards the soft power of Puducherry,” says Mr. Bhatia.
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