The same goes for Dunya, which after all has as one of its founding companies Maror nv, an organisation aiming at helping client companies to establish a strategy of sustainability, and which has been an active participant in KAURI since its inception.

 

But the responsibility of Dunya goes a lot further that merely this. Indeed, being a business unit meant to propagate, establish and sustain intercultural diversity on the workfloor and in the community, not only does Dunya play a role in furthering diversity as part of a strategy of sustainability, but it treats the concepts of both intercultural diversity and sustainability in a truly intercultural way.

Here is where Dunya is consistingly different (from other cultural diversity training providers):

  

  

In other words: Dunya walks the talk.

 

Consider, for instance, the following tale of an Indian king from antiquity, and see how sustainability, ethical governance and corporate social responsibility are not necessarily concepts of a modern Western world and plain old Anglo-Saxon management practice. At Dunya, we believe that we might learn from how other cultural frameworks have treated our subjects, and the best practices provided by these historical examples might serve as our inspiration.

 

  

 

Once upon a time there lived in Magadh, in Northern India, a king who called himself Devanampiyadassi. He was the grandson of Candragupta, who had successfully united a coalition of Indian petty kings and chiefs against the onslaught of the Macedonian general Iskander, better known by the Western public under the name of Alexander the Great (4th Century BC).

Having fought a devastating war with the aim of taking over the territory of the Kalingas, in modern Orissa, and having witnessed the abysmal plight of many hundreds of thousands of  KIA, MIA and POW, Devanampiyadassi came under a mind-boggling psychological strain. Today, one would say that he suffered from extended melancholia, with more than a twitch of depression and, who knows?, psychosis. Or was it just a mid-life crisis?

Since the emperor was duely put on sick-leave, the chores of daily government were taken over by a group of devoted ministers, and the emperor himself had ample time to consult any shrinks he wanted, hoping to overcome this frustrating, unnerving powerlessness of his.

 

Who and what did the poor king consult? Did he meet psychotherapists? Business consultants? Was he annoyed by a never-ending train of management trainers offering solid and water-tight solutions to his needs and expectations, both conscious and unconscious? Did he devour management books and loose his way in a variety of motivational speeches delivered by self-conscious professional public speakers, self-appointed leadership coaches and other gurus of his day? – He probably did. And he most probably was. Going through the entire sham. For, of course, budget was not a problem, and if it didn’t help, would it really hurt?

 

We do not know exactly how, but by whatever means it was realised, the fact remains that after some time the king resurfaced on the public arena as a reborn man, and he set about proclaiming and implementing a completely novel dhamma, a polity and policy, changing the landscape and philosophy of governmental business for good.

 

In other words: Came out of the chambers, a king with a new vision, a new mission statement, and a set of new organizational values which had been utterly unheard of by anyone as far as remembrance went. And henceforth the king became known as the Emperor Ashok, the one without sorrow.

 

Ashok at once realised that his new vision would entail a meticuously outlined change management program, and to this end he carefully selected and appointed a core team of dhammamahamattas, a term best translated as organizational ethics project managers. From what follows, it will be clear that these not only acted as dhamma content providers and implementation officers, but, inherently, as fully responsible project managers, PR managers, concept marketeers, intercultural consultants and even, occasionally, as spin-doctors.

Indeed, about the dhammamahamattas role description, there was no doubt:

 

 

 

           

With his management team in place, Ashok now started giving body to the program, under the well-chosen project headline of Dhammavijaya, or, the Conquest through Righteousness Project.

 

The objectives of this formidable endeavour, to be rolled out throughout the then-known world, were published on rocks and pillar edicts all over the then-known world, an example of which can be seen here at the left.

  

In short, the objectives were crystal-clear, viz. to construe a society producing a tangible net added value in the private, professional and economic spheres, and based on:

 

  

the least possible amount of interpersonal ill-faith (apaasinave, literally sinlessness),

the greatest possible number of virtuous deeds (bahukayaane),

an overall layer of genuine forebearance, or compassion (daya),

a general spirit of liberality (daane),

an ethical code of thruthfulness in communication (sace)

and purity in performance (socaye).

 

In order to achieve this end, the dhammamahamattas were charged to develop, propagate and implement a series of field programs designed to further the overall dhamma competence of the citizens, which meant to introduce sustainable measures to nurture, in all strains of society, a well-definied set of generic primary qualities, such as:

 

kindness, forebearance, compassion (daya),

generosity (dena),

truthfullness (sace),

internal and external purity (saucham),

role-modelship, literally saintliness (sadhuta),

self-control (samyame),

purity of heart, ownership (bhavasudhi),

gratitude (katamnata),

firm devotion, commitment (dadhabhatita),

and attachment to morality (dhammarati).

 

Furthermore, Ashok and his dhamma task force encouraged harmlessness towards all forms of life (avihisa bhutanam), which entailed both absolute non-violence and strict veganism; and moderation in spending as well as in saving (apa vyayata apa bhadata), obviously a combined form of reducing unsustainable consumption and at the same time enhancing the national cash flow. Generally, Ashok suggests, treating people properly (samya pratipati) is key, and when it comes to ROI, this certainly outranks performing (religious) ceremonies supposedly advancing prosperity and good luck.

 

 

 

With all the above, Ashok truly ranks among the illuminated forebearers of our modern CSR policies, and careful examination of the Ashoka program can help us set out an effective program of sustainability for ourselves, as well as provide us with the answers and solutions to what might go wrong along the way.

 

For more information on Ashok and on how to use dhammavijaya in a corporate setting, contact info@dunya.be.

 

 

Francis Laleman