Decoding Gandhi...

In business world there is a famous saying;

'People follow leaders not managers'

For centuries, people have followed great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington to name a few. All of these leaders had undivided commitment and loyalty from their followers, which allowed the kind of revolution in the society that they belonged. There have been two common factors in most of these leaders;

1) They themselves come from humble background i.e. they are one of the society &

2) They genuinely cared for the wellbeing of the oppressed and stood with them

Even today the society remembers these leaders fondly, but very few remembers Gandhi with the kind of respect he deserved despite the fact that Gandhi himself was responsible for inspiring some of the very influential people in the above list.

So in the next few posts, i will write a few quotes from Gandhi himself to better educate people on Gandhian Philosophy in my own small way with particular relevance to business leaders and strategy.

The below quote is particularly topical, when we see headlines like this:

Coronavirus: People buying Dettol by the box at Auckland supermarket

So i thought the below quote from Gandhi will give us the opportunity to pause and rationalize our actions:

Non- stealing, does not mean merely not to steal. To keep or take anything which one does not need, is also stealing. And, of course, stealing is fraught with violence.

-24th November 1944, M K Gandhi