Manager's Manager: Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna was called by Hundreds and Thousands of names and certainly ‘Manager’ is not one of them. Here we will see how he is the Greatest Manager of All. The particular example we are referencing here is the battle of Mahabharata fought at Kurukshetra.

Mahabharata was the biggest battle fought in ancient India among Pandavas and

Kauravas, and had each and every other king/ruler fighting from either of the sides. Duryodhana representing Kauravas and Arjuna representing Pandavas, reached at nearly the same time to Krishna for calling him to fight from their side. Krishna asked them to choose between him and his complete army. Since he alone was capable of destroying the world, leave alone the opponent, he would not raise arms and play a non-combatant role. Arjuna chooses to have him and Duryodhana was happy to have gained his mighty army.

What is expected from a manager and how it applies to Krishna.

1. Manager should decide on a Goal

A manager should have decided a Goal and Krishna had 3 clear cut Goals that he followed and achieved 100% targets.

a) Paritranaya Sadhunaam – Welfare for Saints

b) Vinashaya Dushkritaam – Destroy Evil

c) Dharmasansthapanaay Sambhavaami yuge yuge – To establish and strengthen Religion in every Era.

2. Manager should have Motivational Skills

When Arjun reached the battle fields he looses his determination to fight when he saw that among the opponents were many of his relatives young and old and that he was going to kill them for the sake of Kingdom. He resisted from fighting and dropped arms. Krishna motivated him by his speech later named “Bhagwat Gita” that’s still read and followed. Arjun recovered and decided to fight.

3. Manager must have skills to build tactics to achieve Target

Pandavas and Kauravas had soldiers and warriors strength in the ratio of 7:11, Panadvas having 1.53 millions and 2.41 millions. With this count it was clear that the battle could be won only with Effective Strategies. The fact that Pandavas won the battle proves that Krishna was successful not only in building strategies but in implementing them to achieve success.

4. Good Manager must have Leadership Quality

When Krishna asked Arjuna and Duryodhana to choose between him and his army, the choice was, in fact, between a Leader and his Resources. While a Good Leader can gain from limited resources, a Bad Leader will lose even with vast resources. Knowing his excellent Leadership Qualities, Arjuna requested Krishna not only to lead the entire mission but to personally lead him by agreeing to be his “Saarthi” (Charioteer), guide him and lead him to success.

5. Manager should be good in Direction and Controlling

Controlling an army of 1.53 million soldiers and warriors to fight against a bigger army was not an easy task. The 1.53 million soldiers were divided in seven divisions, led by a Commander each, further controlled by a Supreme Commander who himself was guided by the Pandavas and Krishna. This all was made possible with help of Lord Krishna’s great Management ad Controlling Skills. Management Guru Henry Fayol says that without appropriate Role Allocation, no mission can get desired results. Team spirit and appropriate Role Allocation can achieve everything. What was Arjun’s position, what was Bhim’s role? How Dharmaraj Yudhishtir will do his work, all these matters were decided by Lord Krishna.

Agreed that Lord Krishna was ‘God’ and almighty and that he could have done the task himself without involving a single person. But the Battle of Mahabharat had him in a non-combatant role and that the Pandavas won the battle is due to his extra-ordinary Managerial Qualities achieving 100% target. And thus, we can call him the Greatest Manager in the World.