NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 26, 2009: — Devdutt Pattanaik, a medical school graduate and mythology expert who has worked as a business strategist for the consulting firm Ernst & Young, is helping to create a set of management principles steeped in Indian culture. He calls it the “3-B” model: belief, behavior and business.
“Business is run on a pattern of behavior,” he says. “Not all the Western management models of standard operating procedure fit us,” said Kishore Biyani, chairman of the Future Group, who chose Pattanaik to head this program four months ago. “How do we create management practices that are grounded in our rich repository of stories and rituals?” Since Pattanaik began his work, Biyani said, the company has seen less attrition and better connections with its customers. Similar to the Wal-Mart and Costco chains, the $2 billion Future Group is a giant retail chain, employing 40,000 people and operating 1,000 stores.
Pattanaik writes a column titled Management Mythos for the Indian financial daily the Economic Times, examining corporate behavior in the light of mythic narratives. He gives the name of the mythological character Narada to those who play office politics. The customer is Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.
Biyani has urged his employees to greet each other and customers with the Hindi greeting “Namaste,” meaning “I bow to the God in you.” “Saying ‘Namaste’ is not fake drama,” Pattanaik explains. “It is acknowledging the other person’s potential to grow.