First things first – let us make management simple. Why go around beating the bush, reading a lot of books and doing various courses to understand what really management and leadership is?

Management is all about focusing on how to take your organisation forward. Even in the good old days when the concept of a company or a corporation did not exist, we had efficient managers –the Ministers and the Kings of those times.

What message did Kautilya have for the leaders?

“The king brings under his sway his own party as well as the party of the enemies, by the (use of the) treasury and the army” (1.4.2)

As Kautilya pointed out in order to control and lead an organisation, one needs to focus on just two things – treasury and army.

1. Treasury or Finance

The success of any county, state, organisation or association, is chiefly dependent on its economic and financial condition. If the balance sheet is good, cash flow is regular, profits are shown year after year and reserves and investments are in proper places, you will then be termed as a financially stable firm.

So the leader needs to make his company financially strong. Everything else will fall into place.


2. Army or manpower

The second most important aspect is the army, or the kind of men the company possesses. The more efficient, skilled and professional your employees are the better is your productivity. The leader also has to take care that he needs to keep his employees from leaving his organisation.

Even in a non profit or a voluntary organisation, including spiritual organisations, success is dependent on the number of volunteers and workers in can attract and keep.

Even though the above two seem to be different, they are inter-connected. A financially strong company can easily attract better employees. And, only an efficient team can make a firm profitable.

So how does the leader achieve this? The following are some time-tested tips:

• Recruit the right people
• Invest in people –train them and pay them well
• Focus on developing quality in your products and services
• Keep continuous track of your finance
• Ensure that you make your company profitable

In the above sutra, Kautilya says that if this is done, the King (leader) will automatically bring under his control not only his own group but also his competitors.

Al ries, a marketing strategist, wrote a book by the name ‘Focus’ which includes various case studies and analysis of successful companies.

He says, “Focus – the future of your company depends on it”. Nothing beats this statement.

Contributed by - Radhakrishnan Pillai