What a startup founder can learn from Lalitha Sahasranama

There are a lot of texts in Indian Philosophy that are referred to in modern context and being applied in Business / Technology. There are also other texts out of generally eastern origin like Zen texts, Art of War etc. that are popular reads in business circles.

Within the context of Indian philosophy, the texts mostly referred are either Bhagawat Geeta, Mahabharata, Ramayana and works of Chanakya (Arthasastra).

However, I recently chanced upon a fairly arcane text – Lalitha Sahasranama which was very interesting. Though the text is a summary of 1000 names of Godhead which is personified as a Woman – Sri Lalitha Maha Tripura Sundari, the text is unique in certain aspects:

1. One of the very few texts in the world that glorify a female aspect of Divinity as Supreme Personality of Godhead (Supreme in the sense, that even the much popular Trinity in Indian Philosophy worship Her in the context of the text!)
2. Though mostly devotional, has a lot of allegorical inserts into functioning of the universe and how the Goddess runs the show

Though the book offers some dramatic insights, I thought I could start with one that has a direct relationship with the Executive Management structure within companies (either startups or big corporates)

One of the attributes is “Iccha Shakti, Jnaana Shakti, Kriya Shakti Swaroopini” – Roughly translates into One Who is in the Form of “Power of Will/Desire/Vision, Power of Knowledge and Power of Action”

I attended a talk by Doug Leone, one of the Founders of Sequoia Capital where he described the single most important role of a CEO in a technology startup – The ability to have a vision. Doug added “I see CEO as a visionary, not as one who is focused on Operational success”. The CEO needs to have a vision that drives the entire company, sometimes changing the face of the entire market or global landscape. In that way, I feel that the term Executive in CEO is rather incorrect. This is indicated by the “Power of Will/Desire/Vision” in the attribute above.

Once the vision of what is needed is clear, the next step is to figure out what is needed to implement this vision. This requires the Power of Knowledge. Without technology know-how, the ideas remain what they are – ideas and not brilliant products. This is the role of a CTO, who bring in the knowledge of how to implement the vision, and what are the various options that can be done to achieve the vision. This is indicated by the “Power of Knowledge”

Infinite brilliant ideas abound, but the only ones that we remember are the ones that are executed brilliantly. Vision and Knowledge needs to be converted into a valid plan and should be executed with precision. Engineering prowess is another important piece of the puzzle. Though Google’s ‘Page Rank’ algorithm was path breaking, without the help of an infrastructure like ‘Map Reduce’, it wouldn’t have reached the scale and users it has now. This is where a President and VP Product Management come in. This is indicated by the “Power of Action”

The same person can take one or more roles (preferably not), but these are the roles that are absolute must to take a company or any product to success.

These are some of the reflections I had on reading this attribute, and I would love to hear your feedback!

There are a few more insights that are available in the text and will share them over time!