After a very long time, I attended a guest lecture today on "Responsible Capitalism" by Edward Freeman in Tampere. Few minutes after the lecture began, I had a reminiscence feeling of the days when I used to listen to Bhagavat Geetha lectures in the Kamaraj auditorium, Chennai by Sunandaji from Vedanta Institute.
"Responsible Capitalism" and "Bhagavat Geetha" are they related someway?? What made me reminiscent over Bhagavat Geetha discourse on a "Responsible Capitalism" lecture? Because of the lines Dr.Freeman told, "All the business are for a purpose, if it focuses on the purpose, money and profit will follow".
I vividly remember the voice of Sunandaji telling Krishna's words for Arjuna, "All our lives are for a purpose. Hey Arjuna, do your duties which you are ought to, rest will be taken care of".
Those lines of Freeman can raise many arguments and debates, which is for sure worth a discussion. However, I liked the ideas and the ways he discussed it in a short span of duration. His confidence and belief over the Responsible Capitalism can be seen on the way he carried his talks. He narrated it as a new story and wanted all of us to share it with our circle of people and let everyone talk about this: Be responsible as you do your business. He did not criticize about businesses making profits, but commented that businesses do need to make profit for their existence in the first place. What he emphasized instead is, that making profits alone should not be the objective of a business. Quite contradictory to one of my professors who used to say, "Doing Business finally boils down to making money!"
Anyways, I enjoyed the lecture and an unexpected interesting conversation I had with two others during snack time. Both of them are Finns, one being an elderly person (with up-to-date knowledge about India) and another being a middle-aged man. The discussion went around the lecture topic and all of us agreed that the lecture was a brief overview and triggered an interest towards the subject, while at the same time spurred many questions. The middle-aged man aspires to start a business soon and we had a discussion about his views on making his future business being "responsible".
Also when we chatted about reputed companies being responsible and less responsible, the middle-aged man casually stated that "Being responsible comes from within and can be seen outside". Yes, his simple statement strike me a truth: "You are seen outside as what you are inside". This applies to individuals and organizations as well.. Whatever good ethics we want to have, comes within ourselves. Yet it is also true that people and companies are not always good as seen outside. However, the real face can be seen one day or the other! There are many good examples for this, like the Satyam Computers scam in India.
Our discussion went on and we departed acknowledging each of us for our wonderful discussion. My take away from this is,
"What is within is seen outside" - one day or the other. So, let us think good and do good and be good, as far we can.
"Responsible Capitalism" and "Bhagavat Geetha" are they related someway?? What made me reminiscent over Bhagavat Geetha discourse on a "Responsible Capitalism" lecture? Because of the lines Dr.Freeman told, "All the business are for a purpose, if it focuses on the purpose, money and profit will follow".
I vividly remember the voice of Sunandaji telling Krishna's words for Arjuna, "All our lives are for a purpose. Hey Arjuna, do your duties which you are ought to, rest will be taken care of".
Those lines of Freeman can raise many arguments and debates, which is for sure worth a discussion. However, I liked the ideas and the ways he discussed it in a short span of duration. His confidence and belief over the Responsible Capitalism can be seen on the way he carried his talks. He narrated it as a new story and wanted all of us to share it with our circle of people and let everyone talk about this: Be responsible as you do your business. He did not criticize about businesses making profits, but commented that businesses do need to make profit for their existence in the first place. What he emphasized instead is, that making profits alone should not be the objective of a business. Quite contradictory to one of my professors who used to say, "Doing Business finally boils down to making money!"
Anyways, I enjoyed the lecture and an unexpected interesting conversation I had with two others during snack time. Both of them are Finns, one being an elderly person (with up-to-date knowledge about India) and another being a middle-aged man. The discussion went around the lecture topic and all of us agreed that the lecture was a brief overview and triggered an interest towards the subject, while at the same time spurred many questions. The middle-aged man aspires to start a business soon and we had a discussion about his views on making his future business being "responsible".
Also when we chatted about reputed companies being responsible and less responsible, the middle-aged man casually stated that "Being responsible comes from within and can be seen outside". Yes, his simple statement strike me a truth: "You are seen outside as what you are inside". This applies to individuals and organizations as well.. Whatever good ethics we want to have, comes within ourselves. Yet it is also true that people and companies are not always good as seen outside. However, the real face can be seen one day or the other! There are many good examples for this, like the Satyam Computers scam in India.
Our discussion went on and we departed acknowledging each of us for our wonderful discussion. My take away from this is,
"What is within is seen outside" - one day or the other. So, let us think good and do good and be good, as far we can.
Few days back, as part of my course lecture we were shown a video on "Other people's money"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7rvupKipmY&feature=related
It made me recollect this post of mine and wonder if my post reflects the real life scenario. As shown in this movie speech, people not always look at a company "being & doing good".. what matters at the end is "Do I get money out of it".. I am now kinda confused seeing the harsh reality..
It would be great to see your thoughts about this.
PS. Technology obsolescence could be quoted as the prime motive behind shutting down the cable company, but as you could see it at end, there is always a possibility for reevaluating business opportunities based on that technology