Note from US Army Major General John C. Raaen, Jr.

(Read about Major General Raaen)

The book is an extensive collection of management and leadership principles. As I read, I searched for and found most of my own ideas discussed and analyzed. The author seems to have found many leadership concepts in his studies of management. He later was able to find these concepts in the text of the Bhagavad Gita.

The Bhagavad Gita is much like the “I Ching”. Ask it a question and it covers so many things, you re bound to find a good answer in it that fits your question. But you will probably have a long search to find an answer that fits. However, the Bhagavad Gita is consistent in its search for perfection and you won't find many, if any, bad answers.

Using my wording of some of the principles of management I believe that when assigned a task of any sort no matter how odious or exciting the job, you must do your best to complete it and to complete it to perfection. If you do this, your work will be recognized and remembered and somehow, somewhere, sometime, you will receive your reward. Krishna says this over and over again.

And you must never do your work expecting to be rewarded with a promotion, a bonus, a rewarding assignment. As you and your work are recognized are outstanding, rewards will come.

Still, more on the basic theme, never sub-optimize! By that I mean, do not solve a problem in a way that benefits you. Always work for the betterment of the organization, not for yourself. Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita agrees.

In fact the goal of management, according to Krishna , is a search for perfection, and definitely not for rewards, perks, wealth. Those rewards will come as you approach that perfection.

- John C. Raaen
May 22, 2006

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