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10/27/2012 12:23 PM
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/raN1FMVKu5VDksHok9OwuK/Ajay...
deal with life. Sattvikaji has been conducting a similar group class for Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group, for some years. The teacher explains: When we present spirituality in a logical and refined way, people are inspired by it. Then, it becomes applicable to ones daily life, and we begin to live life deeper. If I keep shifting jobs for money, or relationships for pleasure, the result is a feeling of hollowness. This leads to stress and anxiety. These views are squarely backed by research done by Ian I. Mitroff, a professor at the University of Southern Californias Marshall School of Business, and Elizabeth Denton, a consultant. In their book, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, after interviewing a hundred executives, the authors opine that many of the problems faced by business and society are the result of spiritual impoverishment in the workplace. While employees yearn to bring their spiritual values to workand thus their whole selves rather than a partthe corporate environment tends to keep these out. Companies that acknowledge such values and align them with their goals outperform those that do not. A year and a half ago, when Nicholas Piramal acquired a major business from Pfizer, UK, its British employees were anxious about an Indian parent. Piramal says: I told them that Indian culture has always beautifully assimilated diversity. When they were with Pfizer alone, they were like the river which gets lost in the ocean. But now we were a confluence of two riversmuch like Indian culture, with the new entity blending good things from both. Later on, people told me that the analogy touched their hearts; they felt charged. The ancient texts optimistic message, says Sattvikaji, is that everyone can find a higher purpose, a deeper meaning, in life. NPILs Gita-inspired corporate credo declares, You are what your deep, driving desire is. Piramal dreams of his company discovering the first Indian antibioticand while it may take some years for the drug to come to fruition in the research lab, theres no doubt its already germinating in the Saturday Gita sessions. Name: Ajay G. Piramal Title: Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Ltd Age: 53 Education: BSc (Hons), Bombay University, 1975; Masters in management studies, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies,1977; advanced management programme, Harvard, 1992 Pursuits: Photography, polo, Indian classical music, philosophy and travel Claim to fame: Under his leadership, Nicholas Piramal has leapfrogged from the 48th rank in 1988 to 4th, in Indian pharma. With 13 acquisitions in India and abroad, the company has tied up with several global industry leaders (Personal Space runs every alternate Friday and looks at the pursuits beyond work of some of Indias corporate leaders. Write to Sangitaa Advani at personalspace@livemint.com)
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10/27/2012 12:23 PM