Abstract—“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviour. Keep your behaviour positive because your behaviour becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.”-Mahatma Gandhi The word Mahatma refers to the great soul. It is not an title that gets worldwide approval and acceptance for a title given to an individual who was known for not just his simplicity, but a man who lived to leave behind a legacy which none has ever attempted to occupy or can ever hope for. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world. His thoughts on wide ranging areas extends from politics, to spirituality, business and economics, poverty, suffering, love, non-violence, civil disobedience, and many more areas ,besides his own life all have a great message and learning for humanity. The paper is important, from the point of view, for understanding the modern generation, post-independence India, globalization, and a review of the current values attitudes and lifestyles and their relevance to Business management. The paper is an empirical qualitative research study and provides insights into the existing levels of awareness in the form of theoretical and conceptual reflections in understanding one man’s ideals values and principles practiced nearly seven decades ago. In-depth interviews and focus groups was conducted for exploring to see if such values and principles are relevant and effective even to this day. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said. “Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable... We may ignore him at our own risk.” These words reflect Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s heart felt respect for Mahatma Gandhi.
Index Terms—Leadership, qualities, ideals, values, management concepts, sustaining, modern businesses.
Swaroop Simha is with the JSS CMS, JSS S&T, Mysuru, India (e-mail: simhaswaroopa@gmail.com).
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Cite: Swaroop Simha, "Significance and Relevance of the Leadership Qualities, Ideals and Values of Mahatma Gandhi, in Sustaining Successful Businesses in Today’s World," International Journal of Knowledge Engineering vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 91-95, 2018.
