Contemporary Business Strategy learning from Ancient Indian Wisdom

While in India last month, I visited my yoga teacher’s home where I saw the symbol of Swastika on the entrance wall. I asked her to explain its significance. She explained that this sacred symbol signifies the cycle of universal change. Through civilizations, the interpretation of this symbol has changed. In essence the symbol signifies Good Luck, Harmony and Wholeness of Being. Our conversation further dwelled into the Seven Chakra System and the significance of light and its seven shades of colors – wow! a lot I learnt in the two hours chat with her. Wish I had an audio recorder to capture those precious words of wisdom.

The way I interpret the meaning of Swastika, is that, it represents continuum in every aspect of universal change. Its cyclical, not linear. For example, the four seasons: Spring starts with creation of the new. Summer is vivid, refreshing and brings joyfulness. Fall season reveals itself slowly and naturally where we feel obliged to slow down and take the stock of our lives and let go of the unwanted. During the winter season, nights are long, humans and animals pass the time in peaceful reflections. 

Thinking further and co-relating to the business strategy and change management perspective … 

Create the New: Just like spring season, this is the high energy phase of creation and growth where leaders & workforce come together to implement the new ideas into action generating value for the stakeholders, shareholders and community at large.

Recognize, Share & Preserve Success: Just like summer season, this is the phase of enthusiasm, joy and optimism recognizing the creation and celebrating success. Leaders and workforce collectively acknowledge each other’s performance through formal and informal reward systems. They also work towards forming solutions for the sustainable ecosystem.

Discern and Let-go of Past Failures: Just like the fall season, this phase naturally brings slowness, as tone and tempo of business changes. The appearance of this phase can be deceiving as it may appear like the endings rather than the transitions. The time to take an inventory of what’s working and scale down what’s not working.

Dream and Visualize for the New: Just like the winter season, if the leaders surrender to what this phase intends to be, that is, to slow down the pace and allow the innovators to incubate on new ideas, foster connections and develop feasible business plans. This phase is the preparation of the next new cycle of growth, optimization and sustenance. 

Journey is the reward. Enjoy the process of changing.

Have A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year 2011.