Soft Science

I was looking at some articles on good governance and I came across a quote by Mr. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus of Infosys. He says, "The primary purpose of corporate leadership is to create wealth legally and ethically. This translates to bringing a high level of satisfaction to five constituencies – customers, employees, investors, vendors and the society-at-large. The raison d'être of every corporate body is to ensure predictability, sustainability and profitability of revenues year after year." This statement makes for interesting reading, that the primary purpose of corporate leadership is to create wealth. But, then he goes on to qualify it by saying – both legally and ethically.  Those become the rails on which good corporate governance must run.

 

That's a change in governance over the years. Probably 10 or 15 years back, or even less, corporate governance was more hard-nosed; it was dealing with more pragmatic approaches. Bottom line profitability was all that mattered. And yet today, more and more we are seeing that there is a softer approach that is coming in. more soft sciences are being introduced to leadership and there's something that is being asked of employees beyond just bottom-line profit.

 

Schumpeter, writing in The Economist on 'The Art of Management' in an article entitled 'Business has Much to learn from the Arts' talks about how the hard sciences, for so long, have been at the core of leadership management studies. But he says, "The bias starts at business school, where "hard" things such as numbers and case studies rule. It is reinforced by everyday experience. Bosses constantly remind their underlings that if you can't count it, it doesn't count. Quarterly results impress the stock market; little else does. However, more and more soft sciences are coming into leadership and management, bring a change into this hard-nosed concept of leading."

 

I was talking to a friend the other day about the many suicides that were happening in the southern part of India, especially in a particular town. The policemen there had appealed to some of the people there to come and help in counseling. He said, "We can look after the law. It's very clear – black and white. But there are aspects that we don't have any idea about, like how do you talk people out of suicide?" they felt completely inadequate to deal with these things. It made me think about how the softer sciences are so needed in today's world. Many people are beginning to realize that it is crucial for our navigation.

 

In fact, I came across an article entitled 'Why Soft Science is the Key to regaining Leadership in Marketing Knowledge' by Alan Tapp and Tim Hughes, out of the Bristol Business School. They had the same idea, that there's a great need for soft science to begin to help understand corporate governance and leadership.

 

I was intrigued when I saw that the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, had a program a couple of years back called 'Spirituality and Management International Conference on Indigenous Models of Sustainability, Good Governance and Spiritual Transformation'. I thought that very slowly, we are beginning to realize that there is a spiritual component that can help in governance. As I reflected on that, I thought "Why not?" So often we intuitively feel that something is not right, or something is not adding up, or we like to go with our gut response which is not backed up by any of the hard sciences. I like to think that it is in these places that God is speaking, that He brings a certain amount of wisdom and understanding that is far beyond our capabilities to help us work well in the spheres that we have. He is all-knowing. He has wisdom. Often, I think these hunches that we have could actually be God trying to break through our legal, pragmatic, hard-nosed world, saying, "I want to bring to your attention something that you need to look at."

 

I get solace from our Scriptures that say, "The eyes of the Lord roam over the whole earth to encourage those who are devoted to Him wholeheartedly." I would love that encouragement.

Another verse in our Bible says, "He will not let your foot slip; He who watches over you will not slumber." How nice! I would love to yield to this Godly influence in my life because I know that in everything I do, there could be more space for wisdom.

 

Friends, maybe today, the Lord is the soft science that we need to bring into our hard-nosed world of profitability. Just a thought for you and for me today. Maybe that's the invitation that we need to make today as we go through the day. Invite Him to be a part of our day at the office.

 

May I pray with you? Almighty God, we do invite You into our spaces this morning and we ask that You would come and give Your wisdom. Let Your wisdom come to bear on all the decisions that we make, that they may be tinged with godliness and divinity. I pray a blessing on each one of these who will read this post. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

 

·       Mr. Narayana Murthy quotes: https://www.scribd.com/document/48809293/INFOSYS-SERVICES

·       Schumpeter, "Business has much to learn from the Arts." https://www.economist.com/node/18175675

·       Conference on Spirituality, http://www.iimb.ac.in/sites/default/files/SPIRITUALITY%20AND%20MANAGEMENT%20Latest%20(3).pdf

·       Bible references: 2 Chronicles 16:9a and Psalm 121:3