"Chanakya’s 7 Secrets of Leadership" Debuts in Bookstores

“Chanakya’s 7 Secrets of Leadership,” co-authored by Radhakrishnan Pillai, director-founder of Chanakya Institute of Public Leadership, and D Sivanandan, former Director General of Police, Maharashtra, debuted recently at the Landmark bookstore in Chennai, India.

The authors have collated and presented the theories and philosophies of the fourth century BC Indian political strategist, Chanakya, into a format that will be accessible and relevant to the contemporary leadership world. The authors have drawn from their personal experiences of applying these principles, and based the book on these. The book acts as a case study of Chanaky’s philosophies, in the context of the police force.

“Normally, people associate Chanakya with wisdom and intelligence, but he strategized the ethics of good governance. The man is always beyond comparisons,” said Pillai. Chanakya is also known as Vishnu Gupta and Kautilya. He was the advisor of Chandragupta Maurya, the Indian king who established the Mauryan empire in India, on of the largest empires of its time, stretching across north India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to many legends, Chanakya is said to have been the brains behind Chandragupta’s strategy of conquest, and later of administration. He was contemporaneous to Alexander of Macedon.

Chanakya himself is the author of two books, namely the Arthashastra and the Chanakya Niti, both written in Sanskrit. The books are a compilation of Chanakya’s thoughts in the relams of governance, administration and defense of the kingdom, and also cover other kingly duties and state matters. They are still considered by many Indians to be valid advice for leaders, and they are frequently published today and translated into many languages. Chanakya quotes are frequently used in corporate strategy and leadership seminars as inspirational and pithy statements to convey a point.

One of the authors, Pillai, was awarded the Sardar Patel International Award for his work in management and industrial development in 2009. The other author, D Sivanandan, played an important role in stabilizing the police and security infrastructure of the city of Mumbai in India. Pillai says, “Police force is the face of government. So, I couldn’t find a better person than Sivanandan to help me out with his experiences. Moreover, it needs courage to come up with real case studies. These are not the stale sentiments that every random management author comes up with.” The 264-page book is published by Jaico Publishing House and can be purchased at Amazon for INR 190 ($3).