Review of a Business Creativity Workshop based on Voices Within, a coffee tabel book on the maestros of Carnatic music (Voices Within, Carnatic Music - Passing on an inheritance, Bombay Jayashri and TM Krishna with Mythili Chandrasekar, Matrka, Rs 1900)
What does MS Subbulakshmi have to do with trendspotting?
Article in Business Line, June27, 07
What does MS Subbulakshmi have to do with Carnatic music? Or GN Balasubramaniam with panneer pizza? Or Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer with Narayanamurthy? What possibly could carnatic music maestros who started blazing trails in the first half of the 20th century have to do with modern day business practices? Or better still, how could they help us with stimulus to brainstorm in our office cubicles to solve market problems that we are faced with every day?
Surprisingly, quite a bit. And that’s what business innovation coach R Sridhar of IdeasRS discovered when he first picked up Voices Within, the coffee table book on carnatic music maestros that was released a few months ago. Reading it at one stretch, he realised within hours that here was a treasure house of entrepreneurial behaviour, way beyond music. A couple of weeks ago, that discovery took the shape of the Voices Within Business Creativity Workshop at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai, which was attended by over 150 senior business professionals across industries.
“The essence of what the maestros practiced is a combination of certain attitudes and principles,” says Sridhar. “They never articulated them clearly or explicitly. They were implicit in whatever they did – in their beliefs, attitude and action.”
Like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar who sensed the time was right to bring concerts out from the temples and durbars to the sabhas that still exist today – realsing the mood was shifting from reverence to entertainment he changed the concert format, taking it from very few pieces sung over six hours to many short pieces over three hours, packed with variety to satisfy the shorter attention spans.
Sighting many such principles, articulating them imaginatively in music lingo, and compiling them into a Business Creativity Workbook, Sridhar pointed out that there was enough inspiration in Voices Within to apply to any business problem that one chose to think about.
In a unique lecture-demonstration, TM Krishna and Bombay Jayashri, the musician-authors behind Voices Within brought alive the principles with great depth of sincerity and passion.
Setting the stage first is sadhana - contemplation and willingness to change the self. Intense Sadhana is a penance that seeks to change the self. It is the yearning for a different state beyond mediocrity. What are you willing to change about yourself to achieve your objective is the first question one needs to ask, when faced with a challenge.
The principles span sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni.
Sruthi – connectedness with the psychology of the audience and an understanding of value as in MS Subbulakshmi’s spirituality. Which business today can hope to survive without a basic level of connection with its target audience? Based on its own attribute and ability, every business needs to find a specific life need that it can fulfill.
Ritu - defining and defying seasons/trends and an intuitive ability to sense change as in the talkies that the musicians acted/sang in. Talking about the talkies, perhaps there is no better example of this than Bollywood itself, which seems to have found the ability to catch social trends just as it begins to happen and reflect it, even better than marketers. Think the return of patriotism in Rang De, think changing marriage rules in KANK, think living-in in Salaam Namaste, and so many more. In business, think of all those who got into the right industry at the right time… be it manufacturing polyester, building residential complexes or something as simple as providing lunch boxes.
Guru - a desire to be a complete master and raise the bar to a totally unexpected and dramatic level as in TR Mahalingam who redesigned the flute itself or TN Rajarathnam Pillai who redesigned the nadaswaram. No better example here, than the film of the same name, Guru, which illustrated the story of Dhirubhai Ambani.
Misram - combining apparently irreconcilable opposites as many of them did with their music, specially GN Balasubraminam. Examples abound of products, services and ideas in this space today… from mobile phones that are also video cameras to spirituality that can be combined with exercising; from Cindrella pavadais to sarees with pockets!
Prasna - asking audacious, uncomfortable questions, some of these musicians made unimaginable demands of themselves, their voices, and their instruments – a unique example being Palghat Mani Iyer who could make a mridangam sing. Surely every great business success started with an audacious question: Why can’t we put a computer in every home?
Druva - standing apart from the crowd and achieving iconic status like Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer who went beyond just singing to innumerable other activities surrounding music to increase his circle of relevance and influence. Many of our business leaders today are going beyond just growing their businesses to playing evangelists for their industry, and aiming to contribute to social transformation.
And Nava-Akanksha – wishful thinking, day dreaming, sheer positivism and relentless determination that drove each and every one of the seven maestros. Something Indians in different fields are doing today… from why can’t I create India’s largest corporation to why can’t I create the world’s largest corporation?
What is amazing is that these maestros, all those years ago, had intuitively applied such strong and enduring business principles.
Responding to the fact that many of the participants felt the music was divine, but felt there was not enough time to think through the business problems and really come up with solutions within the space and time of the workshop, Sridhar says “We will be re-desigining the workshop to include more business examples, and lengthening the duration so as to enable more problem solving.”
A by product of the workshop was that many went away surprised that Carnatic music was after all not as inaccessible as they thought it might be and charmed by the two musicians who opened their eyes to a whole new world of thinking!
Adding to the delight was the fact that every one got a copy of the book, as well as a matching Business Creativity Workbook. The take away flute, and the south Indian lunch rounded it off with flair.
Voices Within was an unusual venture to start with, in that it had musicians collaborating with an advertising professional. With Sridhar, a business innovation consultant now turning it into a workshop, Voices Within takes on a life way beyond where it started.
For a sample chapter from Voices Within, try http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/01/14/stories/2007011400040100.htm
For a review of the book Voices Within,
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1 comment:
Its Definitely good bookmarking for future reference.
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