Chapter 4: Corporate Management, Business Ethics and Profit Earning: Balancing the Governance Through Ancient Philosophy of Karma and Dharma

We, the people of India, are staunch believers of the philosophy of Lord Krishna that one should concentrate on doing his job, without thinking about the returns. This ideology is unfortunately greatly misunderstood by the people. What Lord Krishna means in this verse is that one should continue doing the job assigned to him by the Almighty on this planet Earth, without getting entangled with the repercussions of it. Though this is true, as we are born in this world, we are bound to live in it. Therefore, someone is going to be the bread winner, and someone is going to be the bread giver. Both these sides are incomplete without one another. Therefore, in today's economic scenario, where the strength of the nation is its industrial development, the role of corporate governance is also considered equally important. Hence, striking the balance between ethics, principles, and morals while still trying to maximize the profit is a delicate task which all the businessmen strive to achieve. Through this chapter, the author will try to establish that the governance and management principles which we learn today should in fact not be new for India because, since time immoral, through our Vedas and other ancient scriptures, we are blessed with the treasure of secrets which tell us how to attain these presumably opposite goals of maximizing profits by following business ethics.