Arindam Chaudhuri has emerged as one more pop-guru to hit the circuit and as expected, has managed to grab the attention of the hoi polloi, the ’’classes’’, the media, & press to attain a celebrity status overnight. If nothing else, these modern day yuppie gurus, sure know how to market themselves and ’make it’ commercially; Best sellers, Seminars & Lectures, Training programs, Consultancy assignments, Cover Stories, TV interviews et all. Ari projects himself as a management guru, economist, thinker, author, analyst, social commentator, reformer, consultant and everything. Good luck to him. This book with an unconventional and unusual title, and all the hype that it has managed to generate, motivated me to read it. I could not understand the meaning or relevance of the title even after 2 readings; anyway, the title has made the book sell well.
The book starts with pep-talk chapter full of oft repeated aphorisms, cliches and feel good dictums like ’ if you thin you can, you will’, ’’attitude is what determines the success factor’, and is replete with exemplary success stories that all of us might have read/heard about at least 1000 times. He starts propounding a theory of ’’ ASK principles’’ having Attitude, Skills and Knowledge as 3 dimensions. He starts the detailing, and suddenly loses direction, digresses and gets lost into inane preachings of communicating, being nice, smiling, looking good, dressing well etc. Reader is bewildered! Half the book is over and you still don’t know what is happening.Like a Hindi movie, after the interval, things start changing. Ari tries to analyse the Management styles, practices, culture and mindset of the people of US, Japan, China, and Russia and comes out with pre-fabricated, simplistic labels, which are appealing enough. But the study lacks depth, conclusions seem to be too pat and hurried.
Taking off from Theory X & Y of McGregor, and theory Z of the Japanes, Ari tries to evolve a theory ’ I ’ to define and understand the Indian psyche and behavioral patterns, but it’s too tall an order for none can analyse and comprehend the complex creature, The Indian! I am proud to be one. While it is true that Indian Management institutes and Gurus prach theories developed elsewhere which may have little or no relevance to India, but we cannot overlook the fact that Management theories, tools, techniques, of Americans are not based on ’’ hire & fire’ policies as the basic framework. Ari advocates an India centric management theory, which he fails to substantiate or define other than behavior centric management overlooking the fact that this is not the be-all and end-all of the art & science of Management. Trying to explore the behavioral patterns of Indian workers, which governed by feudal, paternalistic, mai-baap Bosses, evolved into Sarkari Babu culture of life time secured job irrespective of anything, Ari castigates the system, the politicians, judiciary, social evils, criminalisation etc. He then goes to accuse an average Indian of being corrupt, lazy, unpatriotic, characterless, selfish, while admitting the brilliance of Indian mind…..The entire diatribe leaves the reader confused and depressed. 80 % of the book is over, then comes the last chapter which is the most interesting and refreshing. Ari delves into Hindu Philosophy, Bhagawad Geeta and Lord Krishna et all to construct a model and to define the basic nature& psyche of Indian persona, Management styles and tools, behavioral patterns etc. The human nature is divided into Satvik, Rajasik, and Tamasik types. The Managerial styles and tools are of Saam, Daam, Bhed, and Danda. The followers take one of the three paths of Gyana, Karma or Bhakti. Author also tries to analyse the management styles of Lord Krishna, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose. Though the chapter is interesting, it lacks the depth of research, maturity of analysis, and completeness. Once again we feel the shallowness, superficialities, and hurried conclusions.
The co-relation analysis of modern day behavioral and social sciences including Management with the ancient philosophical theories of Sanatana Dharma and Vedanta philosophy is not original approach of Arindam. Swami Ranganathananda of Ramakrishna mission and many other thinkers have been propounding the same for many years. The principles form a part of the basic curriculum at Sringeri Shankaracharya Institutes of Management, Mahrishi Institute, and several others. The book is neither a treatise nor a compendium, but is an interesting collection of ideas and thoughts. It is no intellectual hi-funda either. Nevertheless it is a commercial success thanks to the marketing skills of Arindam’s organisation, which has practiced the management principles better than it has managed to preach!