Book Description

The forces generated by an explosion in human knowledge and exponential increases in technology have brought about tectonic shifts in personal as well as corporate worldviews. And while globalisation has ushered in many benefits for companies and consumers alike, this book posits that it is the fierce competition of global market-places which drives the largely unopposed belief that firms exist solely to enhance shareholder value. The author in arguing for a wider definition of 'shareholder' is of the opinion that this is a potentially lethal fallout, because single-minded pursuit of profit for profits' sake, in yielding to the tyranny of the bottomline, has undermined traditional and long-enduring value systems, and placed ethics on the sacrificial altar of vested interests, as scams such as Enron, WorldCom and Computer Associates have amply demonstrated.To bolster his arguments, the author compels the reader to think, assess and analyse for himself as he whisks him through a whirlwind tour of western ethical and value systems beginning from the halcyon days of Plato and Aristotle, right down to modern times, running the gamut of Newton, Hobbes, Descartes, JS Mill followed by the Utilitarians, Kant, Hegel and even the Jack Welch model. He then guides the reader the labyrinth of eastern thought, including Vedic and Taoist disciplines, before citing three pragmatic Indian models with firm philosophical underpinnings, one of which he zeroes in as having the greatest potential for good governance. Written in a very lucid style, this book is sure to remain fresh in the reader's memory as long as questions of right and wrong confront him in his daily life. No book on the subject can hope to do more.