Anuraaga Chandra, is the Global Head - Sales Drivers (Commercial Compressors) at Danfoss, a Danish multinational. Anuraaga joined Danfoss in the year 2004 and has held several leadership positions. Prior to Danfoss, he had a successful career with Blue Star Ltd. where he handled many senior managerial roles. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mysore, Karnataka. His passion for outdoor activities is a defining characteristic of his nature. He has an innate pull towards adventure and risk. He is a staunch supporter of 'Learning in the Outdoors' and has extensively made use of it to achieve his business strategies that ultimately brought him the desired results.




CA: What are the differences in acquiring & managing customers at the local level, versus managing those at a regional and international level?
 

Michael Puett is a celebrated professor of Chinese philosophy and history at Harvard. Puett's Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory course has been touted as a life-changing experience and was lauded as the third-most-popular undergraduate class at the university. Simply written, full of examples that we can all relate to, this book gives us a sense of why the course is so popular.

The book focuses on the questions that most of us ask ourselves at some point or another in our lives. What is the purpose and meaning of life? How do I become a better person? How do I lead a better life?

The book is more of a condensed introduction to the thoughts of a few celebrated ancient Chinese philosophers and thinkers - Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi on some of these questions.

Each chapter draws lessons for modern life from a Chinese thinker or text. So, we hear about Confucius the great philosopher who lived from 551 BC to 479 BC, on the usefulness of social rituals; Mencius and the impossibility of making plans; Zhuangzi on "trained spontaneity"; Xunzi on preferring artifice to nature; Laozi on soft power.

The teachings of these sages do appear fresh and relevant to the world we live in, because these sages especially Confucius (who lived during the decline of the last great bronze age), lived in times of great turmoil and uncertainty. Their views are practical as they were concerned with helping ordinary Chinese live better lives. Some of the concepts explored in the book are described below.

Autonomy and being true to ourselves vs rituals.

With our modern emphasis on autonomy and being "true to ourselves", such rituals can seem to us as conservative and stifling. But, the authors argue, this is wrong: properly understood, these rituals are transformative, allowing us to explore other perspectives and mould our habits for the better. According to the authors, Confucius' views are rooted in a more realistic view of human nature. We tend to believe that, as rational beings, we know what is best for ourselves, and that "self" is coherent and stable. The ancient Chinese, however, understood that we are in fact fragmented and malleable and our actions are driven more by emotion and custom. We therefore do not become the best we can be by seeking some illusory "true self", but instead by "honing our instincts, training our emotions, and engaging in a constant process of self-cultivation". This, Confucius believed, we achieve through daily rituals ranging from saying thank you to ancestor worship and recognising and breaking our patterns of behaviour.

We live in a capricious world.

Mencius believed that how we live and make decisions comes down to whether we believe we live in a world that is coherent and stable or one which is unpredictable and capricious. Mencius believed in a capricious world and the only way to deal with this world is not to take decisions either completely rationally or only by emotion but to balance the head and heart by paying close attention to a situation, controlling one's emotions and taking small steps or decisions about how to behave and respond to shape the situation in one's favour as one navigates one's way.

Wu- wei (Non-action)

The great Daoist sage Zhuangzi frequently mocked Confucius. This eccentric and irreverent thinker emphasised spontaneity over ritual, and a return to nature over obedience to social convention.

Edward Slingerlands's book 'Trying not to Try' has covered this concept of spontaneity with much greater sophistication.

The most famous parable that illustrates this concept is the story of Butcher Ding.

"A good butcher changes his knife annually, since he uses to cut. A half decent butcher changes it monthly because he uses it to chop. But there are gaps between the joints and there is no thickness at all at the edge of the blade. By using what has no thickness and inserting it where there is no gap - there's lots of space to move about . That's why though I've been at this for nineteen years, the blade of my knife is as sharp as if it were just sharpened yesterday."

Butcher Ding understood trained spontaneity.

Through this parable and many others, we are introduced to some influential Chinese philosophers and to the credit of the authors they have done their best to make this introduction easy yet relevant.

In the world we live in, how could the wisdom of these ancient Chinese philosophers help us become better than who we are?

By becoming aware of a few 'home truths' and acting upon these truths. To abandon the search of our true self in the hope that once we do that, we would be free. There is no true self to discover. Our patterned behaviours and rote habits get in the way of our caring for other people. It is necessary to break these patterns in our day to day lives. In our everyday interactions with customers, colleagues and family, we will be able to influence every moment of engagement. In the process, we become more 'attractive' to others. This in turn will open a constellation of possibilities for all.


The world is capricious. What does that mean? Your neighbour looks after his parents does not mean his children will look after him. Your efforts do not always produce results you expect. People who do 'bad' things sometimes get away scot free. Recognising the nature of the capricious world means accepting these outcomes. Yet, at the same time, one can thrive in a capricious world. To do so, one needs to be willing to get into any situation resolving to be the best human being one can be. Not because of what one will get out of it. Rather, to affect others around one for the better regardless of the outcome. We can cultivate our better sides and face this unpredictable world, transforming it as we go.