Chanakya, the world’s first Management Guru

Chanakya (Kautilya) perhaps is the only personality who has been accepted and revered as a genius both by Indian and Western scholars. His ideas and principles show concurrence and validity in the present day world. As an image of greatest diplomat of the world, his foresightedness and wide knowledge coupled with politics of expediency founded the mighty Mauryan Empire. He also credited the defeat of Alexander in India when the latter was on his march to conquer the world. He was the first to visualize the concept of a ‘Nation’ in Human History. He brought split kingdoms of India together under single central governance and created a nation called Aryavartha, which later became India. When we talk about the great businessmen, Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett along with Walt Disney or Akio Morita (the creator of Sony) have had no formal Management education. How did they achieve these great Managerial skills? “Kautilya’s Arthashatra” tells more about it.

Kautilya’s Arthashastra

“Kautilya’s Arthashastra” (Scripture of Wealth) is the oldest book on Management on this earth, rooting form Rig Veda. The Arthashastra deals primarily with Economics, Politics or Statecraft and Punishments (Dandanit), where the main focus is on Creation and Management of wealth. Since ages, rulers across the world have referred Arthashastra for building a nation with sound economics and spiritual values. Kings in ancient India like Ashoka and Chhatrapati Shivaji had learnt this book and followed it to expand their kingdom multifold (increase market share), to protect the kingdom against powerful enemies (develop a strategy against competitors), develop winning strategies, habits and practices.

Here presenting you some of his thoughts of management, which are still much relevant in today’s corporate world:

· In his Arthashastra, Chanakya lists seven pillars for an organization. “The king (The leader), the minister (The manager), the country (Your market), the fortified city (Head office), the treasury (Finance Deptt), the army (Your team) and the ally (friend / consultant) are the constituent elements of the state”.
· As in the present day management, the importance of vision, mission and motivation was captured in Arthashastra as Kautilya advise his swamy (King) to rule through Prabhu Shakti (vision), Mantra Shakti (mission) and Utsah Sahkti (motivation).
· For Kautilya “governance, polity, politics and progress have to be linked to the welfare of the people”. Interestingly, Indian democracy runs on the same track- “Democracy is for the people, by the people and of the people”.
· For him, Mitra as a constituent of the State would come first, if another king attacks Swamy’s kingdom. It will also be the duty of the Swamy to help Mitra if another king attacks the Mitra. In today’s world of globalization, the same concept is applied when corporates form alliances to arm their territories from external dangers such as cheap imports and the entry of strong competitors.
· Kautilya tells us how to handle a strong king who has evil designs as well as a weak king who has catapulted easily. To defeat the strong king, he advise networking with other kings defeated or threatened by the strong king on one hand and develop nuisance value through ‘nibbling by the sides’. To a weak king who easily surrenders, Kautilya advise his Swamy to give the king his dignity and not to rub his nose in the defeat. This way Swamy will have a useful friend who will never forget the treatment received and will remain ever so grateful. Same in case of today’s corporate world, when Mergers and Acquisitions are going on to cut down the competitors.
· Kautilya believes in “diversified Economy”. For him, Diversified economy should consist of productive forests, water reservoirs, mines, productive activities, trade, markets, roads, ports, and storages. The same happening with India as it is diversified in Agriculture, Industrial and Service sector proportionally. Mutual funds are another name of diversification to minimize the risk.
· Arthashastra says, “If no men you transact with lose, then you shall not.” Today’s corporate world following these words. Values, ethics and socially responsibility have become their business strategy and they genuinely believe that the interests of stakeholders. Most big companies are building social issues in their business strategy.

Creation of wealth
Money is just a tool as a means of exchange, whereas Wealth is what you own after a lot of hard work and self-efforts. Arthashastra gives us tips to understand the principles of creation of wealth at Micro and Macro levels.

Wealth Creation at Individual Level: The foremost thing one has to learn to create wealth is, “Wealth is not only what is with you, but what is IN you”. Material possessions are not wealth. But the real wealth is what is within us…our character, our vision, our ideals, our knowledge and our talents. The first step is to identify our inner strengths and inborn talents where we are naturally good. The next step is to develop it. Undergoing training provided by experts in that field can do this. Many people get struck when they do not succeed and their mind starts playing tricks and seeks external support. This is when they start consulting astrologers, palm readers, future predictors, forecasting stars etc. Kautilya warns us not to get trapped in this mental confusion. “Wealth will slip away from the foolish person, who continuously consults the stars; for wealth is the star of wealth; what will the stars do? Capable men will certainly secure wealth at least after a hundred trials”.
‘Law of the seed’ work here, there might be fifty peers on a tree, each with ten seeds, i.e. five hundred seeds, but why would we need more seeds just to grow few more trees? Nature always teaches something, it tells us that most seeds never grow. So if one really wants to achieve something, one has to try more than once. Successful people fail more often. But they simply plant more seeds.

Wealth creation at State and National Level: Kautilya says, “The countryside is the source of all undertakings, from them comes power” The real wealth of a nation is in its rural areas. Our 70% population still lives in villages. Rural people are close to nature and nature actually gives us wealth…mines, forest produce, agriculture…The closer we are to natural resources, the more powerful we become. Our countrymen living there got the talent; it’s our duty to give opportunities to these people by spending time and energy doing research on the potential natural resources which can create employment for the country. “What is a weed? A plant whose usefulness has not yet been discovered”. India, as a country, has amazing hidden potentials in the countryside. We need to explore them for the benefit of one and all, without affecting the natural ecological balance, “Be ever active in the management of the economy because the root of wealth is economic activity; inactivity brings material distress. Without an active policy, both current prosperity and future gains are destroyed” The root of wealth is Economic activity. We can see a lot of activity happening in India, causing more and more wealth flowing into our country. A young Entrepreneur sees opportunity all around. In addition, the government’s open door policy of globalization has helped businessmen to become aware of customer’s needs, and to move out of their earlier attitude of complacency. “Just as elephants are needed to catch elephants, so does one need wealth to capture more wealth” As law of nature is – to keep moving. Same with the case of wealth. Wealth needs to flow to new areas so that more wealth is created. If we want to earn more wealth, we need to let go our accumulated wealth. Kautilya says that an elephant lives and moves in groups; hence, in order to attract a wild elephant, he makes use of another elephant. So, if you want to earn more wealth, put your current wealth assets to good use.

 
Conclusion
Kautilya’s Arthashastra is a Library on Management. It is a technique by which you can create a good and permanent business model. Some may ask, “Is this book written over 2400 years ago still relevant in today’s world?” Arthashstra is a work whose relevance has not faded even after centuries. It is the book about the management of the ‘human mind’, which has remained the same since ages. So long as human beings require self-control, discipline and management, ‘Kautilaya’s Arthashastra’ will remain relevant.