Thirukkural is an ancient Tamil book of wisdom that contains lessons for management. It discusses topics like adaptability, business ethics, capital investment, communication, courtesy, humility, leadership, listening, perseverance, personal welfare, planning, and problem solving. The document analyzes verses from Thirukkural related to these topics and extracts management lessons, emphasizing themes like adapting to changes, effective communication, treating employees well, the importance of planning and leadership, and addressing problems from multiple perspectives.

1. MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM
THIRUKKURUL
MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM
THIRUKKURUL
By
Dr.S.Subbalakshmi,MA,MPhil,PhD
Chair,Business&Economics
FBS Business School
Bangolore&Vijayawada.

2. Management lessons from Thirukkural
• THIRUKKURAL , a book of wisdom and a
hallmark of ancient Indian civilization with a rich
heritage and tradition written by saint
THIRUVALLUVAR has stood the test of time over
2000 years.
• THIRUKKURAL has been divided into
major 3 divisions, viz., virtue , wealth , love
covered in 1330 Verses. 89 couplets have been
selected by the author containing the essence of
management thoughts and are related to
contemporary management thoughts.

3. ADAPTABILITY
• The only thing that is certain is uncertainty.
• All the business enterprises are subject to two
types of forces
• 1) controllable forces –: Internal to the business
house advance information is available.
• 2)Un controllable forces-:forces about which
accurate prediction can not be made . ex:
changes in social and political conditions, changes
in technology , changes in economic policies like
introduction of GST, Demonetization
• The only thing that is certain is uncertainty.
• All the business enterprises are subject to two
types of forces
• 1) controllable forces –: Internal to the business
house, advance information is available.
• 2)Un controllable forces-:forces about which
accurate prediction can not be made . ex:
changes in social and political conditions,
changes in technology , changes in economic
policies like introduction of GST, Demonetization

4. Verse 474,Thirukkurul
• “Who adopts not, boasts pride and ignorant
• He is speed to have a speedy end”
• The manager , as a change agent is
responsible to educate the employees about
the need for the change and to introduce
required policies in the operations. Managers
can not afford to be ignorant of the changes
,they can not choose not to adopt having false
confidence on it’s past laurels

5. Learnings
• .Those who change along with the change are
successful, those who change after the change
takes place , survive , those who do not
change vanish.
• “It is wise to act the way world acts. Those
who do not act according to the world are
ignorant though learned”.
• Business process reengineering is a must to
achieve dramatic improvements.

6. Business Ethics-Verse 113
• “Even if gainful , keep away at once
from acts that are unjust and devoid of equity”
Business as an entity of the society is under the
obligation to good to the society.
In the words of Einstein his obligations to the
society.. “A hundred times every day I remind
myself that my inner and outer life are based on
the labour of other men, living and dead and that
I must exert myself in order to give in same
measure as I have received and am still
receiving…”

7. Capital Investment decisions- Verses
471,461,
• Capital investment decision is the most crucial
decision as the investments once made are
irreversible and have long term effects.
• Wisdom of Thirrukkural:- “Weigh the task ,
strength of foes, allies and your own strength;
then launch action.This is today’s ETOP/SWOT
analysis.
“Examine the costs, returns and profits before
venturing upon a project.” this is the cost,benefit
analysis.

8. Learnings
• Choose such an investment opportunity no
matter even if income is small , expenditure
should not exceed income.

9. Communication-Verse 424
• Planning, organising, motivation and directing
can be achieved only through effective
communication.
• Communication is the sum of all the things
one person does when he wants to create
understanding in the mind of another. It
involves a systematic and continuous process
of telling, listening, and understanding.”
• Louis A.Allen

10. Verse 424 -LEARNINGS
• “Speaking clearly, conveying correct meaning and
discerning the subtlest meaning hidden in other’s
words is wisdom”
LEARNINGS
1)This verse emphasizes two important qualities of
a leader. 1. The leader must be capable of
conveying his views to his subordinates in clear
terms, without giving room to misunderstanding
or misinterpretation needing great skills.

11. Continuation….
2) The leader should have the patience to listen
and understand the messages given by the
group.
3) A manager must be an expert to read
between the lines and understand what his
subordinates really want to convey.
4) The manager should be very clear about
what he wants from his group.

12. Courtesy
• A good manager will be highly compassionate.
Courtesy of the manager helps to get maximum
output from his subordinates with minimum
effort.
• “Neither in the earth nor in the heaven it is easy
to find a greater virtue than kindness”
Verse 213
• “It is not good of the wise to be discourteous
Even towards the discourteous who do harm”
verse 998

13. Learnings
• Do not be a boss, be a leader. Your team is
going to talk about you. So give them
something good to talk about.
• Real leaders push their teams by being
empathetic towards their problems.
• What a courteous manager achieves with ease
can not be achieved by an un courteous
manager even if he strives hard.

14. Humility-Verse 844
• “It is nothing but stupidity if one thinks that
he knows everything.”
• Humility on the part of manager not only
helps in building up good inter personal
relationships but also helps in winning the
opponents. Being humble the leader gains
credibility ,strength and respect in the eyes of
his colleagues.

15. Learnings
• Being humble means having right minded-set
• To correctly judge the opponent’s strengths
and his own weaknesses.
• He is thus in a position to carryout a more
realistic SWOT analysis.

16. Leadership--
• “All managers manage , it is leadership that
makes the difference” – McGregor
• “Brave troops will become in effective, in the
absence of a commander leading them to
success” Verse770
• Can an organization which employs highly
talented personnel achieve the objectives with
out a leader.? Answer is an emphatic ‘NO’. No
team can be successful without guidance
direction.
•

17. Learings
• 1) a good leader is the one who initiates the
action by starting the work communicating
from where the work should start.
• 2)He motivates the group with economic and
non-economic incentives to get the work
done.
• 3)He not only supervises but also guides the
team to bring their best knowing their
respective strengths.

18. Continuation
• 4. A good leader coordinates the personal
interests with organizational goals. This is the
primary motive of a leader.
• 5. A good leader will have personal contacts with
the employees and builds work environment so
that he can help in sound and stable growth of
employees as well as the organization.
• 6. He can build the morale denoting willing
cooperation of the employees towards their
work and getting them into confidence and
winning their trust.

19. Listening
• “Those who enlighten their minds listening
sharply will not speak foolishly even by slip of
tongue.
(Verse 417)
• The manager who finds that the views of his
team differ from his views and decides not to
listen, the message will go down very fast and
people working under the manager may
decide not to differ from his views.

20. Learnings
• Those who are not willing to listen to their
team may be deprived of some very valuable
view points and various angles to approach to
a problem which makes him a failure in
problem solving.

21. Perseverance
• The words of Swami Vivekananda –
• “Arise, awake and stop not, till the goal is
reached.”
• “There is nothing hard to achieve for those
who persist vigilantly with passion to achieve
.(Verse 537)
• “The world will abandon those who give up
their tasks mid way unfinished (Verse 612)

22. Learnings
• 1. It is only in the hands of the leader to
constantly motivate the team without giving
up to achieve the organizational objectives.
• 2. The decisions will result in success only
when the leader implements the decision,
over coming any stumbling blocks in the way
with perseverance, fighting till the end.
• 3. Lack of perseverance may make the leader
to fail in his objective.

23. Personal welfare
• “Keep clear in mind the welfare of workers
whose efforts bring the progress of the world.
(Verse 520)
• The manager should give top priority to the
interests of the employees.
• They should be provided with health care and
self development.
• Men should be given more importance over
the machines.

24. Learnings
• 1. Materials, machines and even offices can be
replaced and any risks involved can be insured
against, but a good loyal team of workers cannot
be replaced so easily.
• 2. Profit through people should be changed to
profit to people that is private benefit not at the
cost of social benefit.
• 3. The concept of profit – through-service widely
accepted theory since it is profit oriented as well
as welfare oriented .

25. Planning
• Planning is important for economic efficiency in
operations, for optimum utilization of resources,
coordination of all activities, delegation of
authority and for reducing future risks and
uncertainties.
• “Exerting blindly without a definite plan ahead is
doomed to fail even if supported.” (Verse 468)
The fact emphasized is that efforts and
investments put in unplanned ventures will go
waste.

26. Learnings
• To master mind a management job effective
planning is needed.
• To think before acting and to act in the right of
facts rather than guesses is the correct
planning.

27. Problem solving
• “To do what should not be done and not to do
what should be done are both ruinous” (Verse
466)
• The companies are constantly beset with
circumstances that stop them from achieving
the targets or delay the achievements. This is
what is called a problem.

28. Learnings
• Problem solution needs two pronged
approach.
• 1. Blocking the sources which create
problems.
• 2. Attempting to solve the prevailing
problems.
• This underlines the need for tackling a
problem from two directions for arriving at an
effective solution.

29. Conclusion
• The contemporary principles of business
management have mostly evolved from
western thoughts. But we have great leaders
like Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda
whose management principles are more
Indinized based on Indian ethos drawn from
our religious scriptures bringing social and
private benefits as well. Hence it is more
appropriate to follow Indianized management
theory rather than the adopted ones.