Ravana shares an important life lesson with Rama before dying on the battlefield. He notes that bad things that are harmful seduce one's impatience, while good things that are beneficial fail to attract one's attention. Ravana realized too late that abducting Sita was harmful, while avoiding meeting Rama in battle was a missed opportunity. Leaders must make conscious efforts to capture the wisdom of all organization members, including knowledge of successes and failures, before it is lost.

1. MANAGEMENT LESSONS
FROM INDIAN MYTHOLOGY
MYTHOLOGY:
In the Ramayana, as King Ravana seriously injured
on the battlefield Lord Rama walks towards him and with
extreme humility asks, “Lord of Lanka, you abducted my wife,
a terrible crime for which I have been forced to punish you.
Now, you are no more my enemy. I see you now as you are
known across the world, as the wise son of Rishi Vishrava. I
bow to you and request you to share your wisdom with me.
Please do that for if you die without doing so, all your wisdom
will be lost forever to the world.”
“If only I had more time as your teacher than as your enemy.
Standing at my feet as a student should, unlike your rude
younger brother, you are a worthy recipient of my knowledge.
I have very little time so I cannot share much but let me tell
you one important lesson I have learnt in my life. Things that
are bad for you seduce you easily; you run towards them
impatiently. But things are actually good for you fail to attract
you; you shun them creatively, finding powerful excuses to
justify your procrastination. That is why I was impatient to
abduct Sita but avoided meeting you. This is the wisdom of
my life,” Ravana tells Rama before his soul departed this
world.
LESSONS:
It is easy to claim the material possessions of the defeated, but
not one’s knowledge. Over the past decades, business has
been knowledge driven. People leaves out the organisation
with vast amount of knowledge about their trade secrets,
markets, clients including confidential information that gives
them competitive edge.
Every CEO must respect that everyone in the organisation,
even those who he does not particularly like, are repositories
of great wisdom – not only knowledge of things that work but
also knowledge of things that do not work. He must make
conscious efforts to capture as much of it as possible.
| AUGUST 2014| AUGUST 2014
40 TODAY I LEARNED