Management lessons from Chanakya

Throughout history, wars have left an indelible mark on human psyche. Serious debates have been held on the morality of and the strategic necessity for war. And yet, like every dark cloud that has a silver lining, wars too at times leave a society wiser.

India is no stranger to wars. And there are many lessons to be learnt from each of those battles -- management lessons, to be precise. Here we present the third in a series of articles on management lessons drawn from Indian history. This one picks out management gems from the role of the redoubtable Chanakya in the rise of the Mauyra empire.

Rise of the Maurya empire: Role of Chanakya (circa 320 BC)

Chanakya was also known as Kautilya and Vishnugupta. He wrote Arthashastra, the ancient Indian political thesis. There are several stories on Chanakya. One of them goes like this: Alexander's invasion of western India, circa 326 BC, led to political turmoil that provoked Chanakya, a renowned teacher of Takshila, to sew up a coalition to take on the Greek forces.

He tried to convince many kings, but none agreed to his plans. Finally, he came to Patliputra, the capital of Magadha, ruled by the powerful Nanda dynasty. He went to their palace and found ten golden thrones. Nine were for the Nanda princes and their father, and the tenth was for the most learned person. Chanakya quietly occupied it.

When the princes came back, they asked him to vacate the seat, but Chanakya didn't and demanded a debate to prove his supremacy. The Nandas rejected the debate demand and did not give him any position.

Lesson: Even though Chanakya was reputed and famous in Takshila, it does not mean he would be famous in Patliputra too. So his asking for the debate is justified to prove his worth. Similarly, a �high performer' in one team or company needs to prove his worth in a new environment to gain the same tag.

Chanakya was prepared to face it. But he could try a different approach for the desired result. In the corporate world, referral plays a major role in hiring key senior employees. If any of the key ministers of the Nandas had referred or introduced him, he might have got the position.

Chanakya did not vacate the golden seat, and the Nanda princes physically pulled him down. During this process, a lock of his hair got ruffled up. At this moment, Chanakya took a vow to redo the hair only after defeating the Nandas.

They were about to punish him with the death sentence, but one of the ministers prevailed upon the princes to forgive him. Chanakya went out of Magadha and met Chandragupta, who was waiting for him.

There are many stories on how Chanakya first met Chandragupta, but one thing was clear: Chanakya could sense the inherent qualities in Chandragupta and trained him as he wanted to build an empire by making him the king who could protect India from the Greek invasion.

Lesson: Fearlessness, perseverance and patience are the key attributes of any leader. This helps in setting lofty goals and fuels the determination to achieve them by executing against the well-laid-out plan.

Another great quality exhibited by the leader is in spotting' talents and grooming them to take bigger challenges.

Chanakya's first step was to sneak in a spy to keep a watch on the Nandas' inner circle. He knew one Jeevasiddhi, who was intelligent and could do the job. Chanakya told Jeevasidhi about some of the secrets of the palace learnt from Chandragupta who had heard about these from his father.

They sent Jeevasiddhi to the palace. Jeevasiddhi convinced the Nandas that he possessed supernatural powers by narrating the secrets hidden in the palace. The Nandas started leaning on him and consulting him before making any major decision. Slowly, he became a part of their coterie.

Lesson: A background check is required for most hires, but a detailed one is a must for senior positions to ensure right fit. At a very senior level, where information regarding tender, bid, intellectual property and other trade secrets is involved, company must take steps to protect it.

Many companies ask people to sign the non-disclosure agreement and, at times, activate special clauses restraining them from joining rival or competing companies for a few years.

Meanwhile, Chandragupta started helping the people of Magadha. His popularity started soaring. This acted as a threat to Nandas. The Nandas had an intelligent minister in Amatya Rakshasa. He advised the Nandas to kill Chandragupta. Jeevasidhi learnt of the plan and helped Chandragupta escape.

Chanakya encouraged Chandragupta to take over the Magadha throne. Chandragupta networked with people and built the Mauryan army. Most of them were people disillusioned and unhappy with the Nanda rule. Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya announced a battle plan and ensured that the Nanda army could be diverted to reach a distant battlefield to fight the Mauryan army.

In the meantime, a civil war erupted in Magadha. Chanakya manoeuvered popular support for Chandragupta and the Nandas were uprooted without any fight.

Lesson: A peaceful handover to the new management is desirable as it saves the company from infighting that could weaken it. It would be faster and fruitful to scale new heights from a stable company rather than a wrecked one. It helped Maurya kings to reach new heights faster not only due to their great leadership skills, but also due to peaceful transition.
It was a monumental task to build an efficient government for Chandragupta Maurya. Chanakya convinced Rakshasa to continue to be the minister of Chandragupta by sharing his grand vision of fighting against the invasion.

Chandragupta was able to leverage Rakshasa's excellent skills in administering the kingdom. Chanakya assumed the position of an elder statesman.

Lesson: One needs to perform and show results to be considered as a key resource. Key people are always in demand, but more so during organisation's transformation.

People are the main asset. Their knowledge and expertise can provide a big leap to any activity. They should be retained. Managers should not be biased in working with �high performers' even if they used to work with their adversaries in the past, provided the person maintains loyalty and confidentiality.

Top performers are attracted by lofty visions/goals and are willing to face difficult challenges.
While serving Chandragupta Maurya, Chanakya started adding small amounts of poison in his food so that he could get immune to it and would survive any attempts at poisoning.

One day, his queen, Durdha, shared the food with the Emperor while she was pregnant. She died and Chanakya extricated the baby from the womb. A drop (bindu in Sanskrit) of poison had got into the foetus, and hence Chanakya named him Bindusara.

Bindusara would go on to become a great king, and his son, Ashoka, would emerge as one of the greatest emperors.

Chanakya had a political adversary called Subandhu, who was in the court of Bindusara. He kept looking for opportunity to defame Chanakya in the eyes on Bindusara. On finding the right occasion, he mentioned to the king that Chankaya had killed his mother. However, the bigger question that remains is: why did the Maurya kings keep Subandhu when his envy towards Chanakya was well known?

Lesson: In a healthy organisation, diversified and divergent views can exist. One needs to have people with great skills who can deliver better results by having a good team work and right division of work.

Peer pressure helps in extracting best from the people, but it should be managed well to avoid destructive peer relationship. If team work is becoming difficult, the leader should clearly identify roles based on strengths and in such a way that there is minimal overlap to avoid conflict. Team with high performers helps in better results and also cushions attrition.

Bindusara became angry with Chankaya. On knowing this, Chanakya walked out of the city, donated all his wealth and sat on a fast. When Bindusara learnt the truth, he felt ashamed and asked Subandhu to apologise to Chanakya.

Subandhu hatched a plan to meet him and asked him to forgive him. But secretly, he set Chanakya's abode on fire. Chanakya was killed in the fire.

Lesson: The important lesson here is a long-standing ally and staunch supporter of the Maurya empire was mistrusted by the king without understanding the complete picture. A vital resource like Chanakya was lost due to this lack of trust.

Managers should demonstrate maturity by having an honest one-on-one with the employee and listening to the other side of the story with an open mind before taking any drastic step. It takes time to build the trust, but it takes a moment to destroy it.

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