India Inc seeks mystical union

The first session of the day titled Corporate Shared Value, organised by Art of Living and the World Forum for Ethics in Business, gave a platform to officials to talk on giving back to society and CS

The audience exhaled collectively. It was not a sigh of relief but part of the meditation technique that marked the end of the main sessions on Day 1 of "Corporate Culture & Spirituality," the annual mega conference organised by Art of Living founder Ravi Shankar and the World Forum for Ethics in Business at the sprawling 70-acre Art of Living International Centre campus in Bengaluru.

The members of the audience reflected the spiritual-meets-corporate tone of the event: LinkedIn India Head Nishant Rao, Nasscom Product Conclave Chairman Ravi Gururaj and other business honchos in their blazers and ties closed their eyes and took deep breaths as instructed, along with various devotees in white kurta-pyjama.

The event was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar, attired in his trademark flowing white robes, in the presence of Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala and various dignitaries from corporate India, including Fortis group CEO Daljit Singh and Bosch India Joint Managing Director Soumitra Bhattacharya.

"We need to showcase to the world that people doing ethical business are still making a profit. Business, if it is to be respected, has to be connected with ethics. Conferences alone will not be of any use. With talks should go action plans which will benefit society at large," Ravi Shankar said.

The first session of the day titled Corporate Shared Value provided a platform for company representatives to talk about giving back to society and corporate social responsibility.

And in view of the growing start-up ecosystem in India, it was succeeded by a session around 'Entrepreneurship Redefined' that saw several eminent businessmen sharing their journeys and experiences.

The day had begun with a special spine-care yoga session, in a nod to the amount of time corporate honchos, no doubt, spend sitting in meetings.

Gururaj, who was part of the panel for this session, told reporters on the sidelines that events like these provided great opportunity for the rather "lonely" entrepreneurs to open up and find support.

"Earlier promoter-led companies were built by joint families that had a huge support system. Today, young kids from middle-class families are looking to start up by themselves. And entrepreneurship is a very lonely and stressful journey, so it is very important that we provide them support through tough times," Gururaj said.

While Uber might have been in the news for all the wrong reasons in India, at least two panellists used the example of the cab aggregator while talking about connecting with customers and the importance of collaboration in the new business order. Few seemed to have noticed the irony of using Uber as an example of where customers have to trust the cab driver.

The second day of the conference has State Bank of India Managing Director Arundhati Bhattacharya to Snapdeal founder and CEO Kunal Bahl and Amazon Country Manager (India) Amit Agarwal.