The God in the Boardroom

‘The God in the Boardroom’ is a self-help book penned by our alum Guru Prasad. He is the founding member at Guru and Jana Chartered Accountants in Bengaluru.

In his book, Guru emphasises on how and why organisations need to have their value systems in place. He talks about how people become global leaders by following simple value systems. The book is an anecdotal read and picks up real life stories of leaders like HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, ICICI Chairman Vaghul, Vinita Bali of Coke and Mohandas Pai of Infosys to, name a few.

This book is inspired by the concept of ‘living with a legend for a day’. In a heart to heart conversation with the Editorial team, Guru tells us about the book and more.

What inspired you to write the book ‘The God in the Boardroom’?

Over the years, I have met many Board members and every meeting changes my chemistry of thought. I evolve as a person. These experiences of meeting corporate leaders has shaped me as an individual. I maintain a journal of these interactions and when some of these were published in newspapers, I was convinced that these could be converted into a book. I personally took these interviews and that’s how the book was born.

Were you always a writer?

Not at all. I was educated in a college where people never spoke in English, and were comfortable only with the vernacular, so much so that they actually loved it. During my initial years, I realised that there was so much to learn. At a point, drafting even a basic memo was becoming difficult for me. Siva, my then manager gave me a few books to read and that was the start I grabbed on to tightly.

What was the most important learning you picked up while writing this book?

I will summarise my learning from the book in two simple yet powerful sentences:

  • The taller the bamboo grows, the lower it bends.
  • Why do I need what I don’t need!

I believe these two sentences could define a way of life.

To know read more about the book, please click here.
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