Money for More Money

"The objective of any king is to create, expand, protect and enjoy wealth"

According to chanakya, the role of a leader is to create wealth for all the stakeholders of the organization, the employees and for himself to enjoy.

He should not be satisfied with what he has got. He should constantly think of how to expand his territories and reach new markets

Chanakya says "Just as elephants are needed to catch elephants, so does one need wealth to capture more wealth"

This is old but a very important aspect, of wealth creation. There's an old saying - there's no business that can create wealth without any investment. Chanakya conveys the message with the elephant catching example.

Having produced wealth, the leader should know how to protect it. Chanakya says "The leader should constantly hold an inspection of their works, men being inconsistent in their minds."

The employees are primarily concerned with thir salaries. An attitude of complacency can crop up if a regular and vigilant check is not kept on them. The reason is quite obvious. The human mind is very unpredictable. No organization quantity reach its goal without a continuous push and pull system.

Chanakya says "All state activities depend first on the treasury. Therefore the king should devote the. Est attention to it."

Chanakya proposes a daily timetable for the king. He says during the first half of the day, a king should check the accounts of income and expenditure of the state. It is only after doing this he is advised to look into the affairs of the citizens.

Canakya teaches not to get carried away by the regular problems faced by the subordinates. Once a leader enters his office, he should just take control of the financial status by monitoring the financial reports first.

 

Be on High Alert

Acharya Chanakya was probably the first person to have systematically defined Vigilance as a very important part of management.

According to dictionary, Vigilance means the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible dangers and difficulties. In general terms an organization must protect oneself from external threats as well as internal mismanagement.

At an external level, an organization has to be on alert from competitors. For this organizations use what they call as intelligence networks, which uses market intelligence to get valuable information. However, being ALERT internally is much more important and effective. The problems within the organization is much more difficult owing to the fact that they deal with their "own peoples". For example, dealing a revolt with own son is far more difficult than any other.

Acharya provides us a guide to handle internal problems. He says The leader should constantly inspect his work, men being inconsistent in their minds.

It is the primary responsibility of the leader to continuously check all the activities and data in his organization. He needs to be highly alert about his employee’s movements. He has to keep the employees focused on their work by giving them targets and deadlines. Also there is a need to monitor their activities as human mind is very fickle and has a tendency for laziness if targets are not set. There is also a need for inducing a fear of punishment if the target or deadline is not met.

A Public Awakening

History has proved time and again that peoples and their opinions cannot be suppressed for a long time. The peoples may not openly revolt but only till their anger boils. Sooner or later their anger will pile up and explode paving the path for a revolt.

Even today public awakening is dangerous for the government. History has evidences showing peoples when take on to the streets, they have made governments crumble.

Acharya Chanakya has clearly pointed In the happiness of the subjects, lies the benefit of the king for what is beneficial for his subjects, is his own benefit. 

If a leader unable to keep his peoples happy instead thinks of his own benefit, he is sure to be dethroned. Its true for a king as true for a politician today.

CHANAKYA

Acharya Chanakya (also known as Kautilya or Vishnugupta), who lived in the 3rd century BC, was a leadership guru par excellence. His ideas on identifying leaders and grooming them to run a country is very well documented in his book Arthashastra.

His ideas on leadership, trainings, management, finance, Strategy, responsibility, power etc. holds true till today. We can easily relate his ideas with today's corporate world. 

After reading the book, I felt like sharing his ideas. Read on my various posts to discover the  ideas and philosophies of the King Maker...