The Art of Doing Business
Jaya Mangaraj
Empanelled Independent Director | Author | ESG Professional | Portfolio, Program, Project Management – Evangelist | Operations Transformation - CoE
Business is often reduced to numbers, transactions, and tactics rather than true strategy. Today, it lies in the hands of statisticians and data scientists, driven more by analytics and projections than by vision.
But what if it’s more than that? What if work—like painting, dancing, or music—is an art form?
Nine years ago, I posted a picture of myself in front of a temple with a tagline about spirit. Within minutes, someone reacted:
"LinkedIn is for professionals!"
As if professionalism is just a rigid structure—a box excluding the soul.
But here’s a question:
Which of these activities are not spiritual?
Every act can be an art. Every act can be spiritual.
Yet, we were raised to believe that work is separate from life, that spirituality is separate from business. That some tasks are "professional," while others belong to a different realm.
But look at the world's greatest professionals—artists, leaders, athletes, entrepreneurs. They have one thing in common:
They don’t just work. They immerse. The soul is in there! At work!
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The Difference Between Work and Art
Every work can be a work of art—if we hadn’t been taught otherwise.
What turns an action into art?
Think of an artist—painting, sculpting, composing music. Their being becomes the raw material. Their energy flows without resistance.
The moment resistance enters, art ceases. It becomes just work.
Have you ever felt disconnected at work? Frustrated? Wondering how your role fits into the grand scheme of things?
That’s resistance creeping in. Work feels meaningless, tedious—like a machine grinding without purpose.
Corporate thinkers call this "alignment to goals." But true alignment is deeper. It happens when we stand at the center of our being, look at the bigger picture, and see our role with clarity. And if we can’t see the bigger picture, we seek it within ourselves, navigating the chaos with trust in ourselves.
That’s when business, leadership, and daily tasks stop being mechanical and start flowing like art.
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Krishna’s Leela & The Business of Play
Many devotees don’t appreciate Krishna’s romance with the Gopis—village girls. They fail to understand Leela—the divine play woven into every act of life. In reality, nothing exists that is not an art, not spiritual, or without life in it.
The essence of art, business, and leadership lies in this Leela.
When work becomes an exploration—approached with joy, flow, and alignment—it stops being just labour.
It becomes creation.
Yet today, businesses chase efficiency in a way that kills Leela.
Maybe it’s time to pause, step away from the madding crowd, and ask:
Are we just working? Or are we creating?
Because the best businesses, like the best art, are not forced. They flow.
Yet, somewhere along the way, we replaced flow with pressure. We created environments that douse people’s spark.
And now, collectively, we are moving down a dangerous path—too afraid to explore other ways.
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Necessity is Not the Mother of Invention
History needs to be studied again.
Necessity is not the mother of invention. It is the mother of jugaad—a mix-and-match of non-coherent ideas, producing second- or third-grade, temporary outcomes.
We have seen it. Jugaad won’t take us far.
Real innovation does not emerge from survival mode. It emerges from curiosity, from play, from the freedom to explore without fear of failure.
We often hear about lean principles in business process development.
But beyond automating tasks, we must ask:
How do we create true flow?
Without an environment of collaboration, how do we infuse continual improvement?
We hear so much gyan, yet even husband and wife do not collaborate!
Maybe it’s time we accept that we are fooling ourselves. Don’t you think?
For lack of suitable hands, no principle ever gets implemented fully. Otherwise, we would have seen more magic coming out of businesses—more transformation, more aliveness.
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Who Serves the Employees?
We establish countless departments to serve customers.
But who serves the employees?
Do we hire fully evolved beings who need no support other than salary? Or do we assume they can be sacrificed in the process?
Unless employees are truly taken care of, their service will always be half-baked—half-hearted attempts.
The root of sustainability does not lie in policies or frameworks.
It grows within the boundaries of our small self.
But it expands when we include others—when we look at the bigger picture, when we prioritize life over mere short-lived achievements.
And when that happens, life itself starts to flow unhindered—spontaneous, creative, and full of innovation.
Because ultimately, the highest form of business, like the highest form of art, is not about control.
It’s about allowing.
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Where Are We Heading?
Let’s pause again, look back, and look forward.
What if work was never meant to be work?
What if business, at its highest level, was Leela—a creative unfolding rather than a rigid process?
Perhaps, instead of trying to squeeze every last drop of efficiency from people, we need to let them flow.
Because when work becomes art, the workplace transforms. And when business becomes Leela, humanity thrives.
But if every act is not an art, where do we end up?
Do we elevate humanity? Or do we drag it to Paatal Loka—the underworld?
This is not just about individual evolution.
This is about the evolution of the ship we are all in.
A few individuals may know how to swim, but the ship must reach a beautiful shoreline—where our civilization can pause, reflect, and evolve before setting sail again.
We cannot sink the ship in deep waters.
Because even if a handful make it to shore, what kind of life would they find?
Who would they share a drink with? Who would they joke with? Who would they play a prank on?
A life without connection would be empty, lifeless, and unbearably dull.
Don’t you think?
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Let’s Change This—Starting Here
Over the past year, I have met hundreds of retired professionals.
They held high positions in corporations and government, yet they still search for meaning.
What does that tell us?
That work was never just work. It was meant to ignite the spark.
That the spark never dies—it only waits for an opening to reignite.
Let’s begin that here, with you and me. With our artistic interactions, our living conversations.
Because this is not just business.
This is Leela.
Much Love ??