Foreword by Chip Conley
Introduction: Being Inspired to Lead
Part 1: Being-Centered Leadership
Chapter 1: Being in Business
Chapter 2: Being Connected
Part 2: Recognition
Chapter 3: The Higher Reality of Rituals
Chapter 4: The Higher Reality of Business
Part 3: Experience
Chapter 5: Engaging with Experience
Chapter 6: Deepening the Experience
Part 4: Anchoring
Chapter 7: Anchoring in Suffering
Chapter 8: Anchoring in Well-Being
Part 5: Leading by Example
Chapter 9: Leading by Inclusion
Chapter 10: Leading as a Steward
Chapter 11: Leading as a Sage
Freedom
Conclusion: Real Business Freedom
Notes
Glossary of Sanskrit Terms
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Ram Nidumolu is the founder and CEO of InnovaStrat, which provides strategic consulting services to global corporations. He is also a scholar at Stanford University's Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory and a former professor at leading US business schools.
“This book provides a timely—and eloquent—reminder that business
does not operate in a moral vacuum and that tomorrow’s business
leaders will need to be driven by a deeper sense of purpose. After
reading it, no one can doubt that business can—and should—become a
giver and not a taker in a system that gives it life in the first
place.”
—Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
“Two Birds in a Tree beautifully describes principles that enable
leaders to give back to humanity and nature while running
successful companies. It is a book filled with wonderful images and
stories, both ancient and modern, that are worth savoring.”
—Casey Sheahan, CEO, Patagonia
“Two Birds in a Tree helps open up our minds to the importance of
leadership that is anchored in our interconnection. As leaders, we
need to listen more deeply to each other, find purpose in our work,
and commit to making a positive change in the world.”
—Eileen Fisher, founder and CEO, Eileen Fisher, Inc.
“If we are to make a transition to a humane world where business
restores equality, ecology, and equanimity, it will be based on the
principles revealed in our ancient collective wisdom as so
beautifully portrayed herein.”
—Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce and Blessed
Unrest
“Through an illuminating journey into ancient Indian wisdom, Two
Birds describes a new type of leadership that can help us manage
our businesses successfully and sustainably, rather than at the
expense of the planet and people. It beautifully shows that the
true sustainability of humanity is actually a matter of the heart
and mind, compelling us to act consciously for the future rather
than continuing to ignore today’s realities.”
—Jochen Zeitz, Director, Kering; former Chairman and CEO, Puma; and
cofounder of The B Team
“Two Birds provides unique insight about the balance needed between
our roles in meeting the financial goals of our business and in
improving society. The reader can quickly identify with each bird
and the branches we all navigate in our career and personal lives
to enable continuous learning and adapting.”
—Kevin Kramer, President of Wiring Division and Vice President,
Stoneridge, Inc.
“Ram Nidumolu has done a beautiful service by reintroducing us to
the ancient wisdom of the Upanishads. Far from being out of date,
this wisdom is a contemporary, brilliant lamp that both exposes our
current destructive ways and illuminates the way out of this
perilous time. For those who yearn to offer meaningful leadership
in service to this time, this book offers clear guidance.”
—Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science and
So Far from Home
“A brilliant and inspirational look at how business—which today
controls global economics and politics—can fix the messes it
created. Two Birds encourages those responsible, now and in the
future, to take the reins of leadership and truly lead.”
—John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
“Those who read Ram Nidumolu’s remarkable book on the future of
leadership will find a deep well of inspiration and wisdom. Both
are things they desperately need at a time when so many of them are
being forced to draw on their deepest selves to provide their
people with purpose and a sense of direction.”
—John Elkington, cofounder of SustainAbility and Volans and author
of The Zeronauts
“Nidumolu’s use of the Upanishads weaves an ancient story about
Being that is still deeply relevant today but has been hidden by
our Western ways of thinking. Being must be reawakened if we are to
find our way out of the havoc our thinking has produced.”
—John Ehrenfeld, former Director, MIT Program on Technology,
Business, and Environment, and coauthor of Flourishing
“People forget facts and figures, but they remember good stories.
It’s no accident that the world’s great spiritual leaders all teach
by storytelling. Great business leaders know this too. Ram Nidumolu
is a master storyteller. Read him and reap—great results!”
—BJ Gallagher, coauthor of A Peacock in the Land of Penguins
“The most compelling executives today have mastered not only
business strategy but the philosophical realms of social and
environmental responsibility. Two Birds in a Tree cleverly explains
how today’s business leaders can leverage ancient Indian wisdom to
achieve holistic corporate and personal success today.”
—M. R. Rangaswami, founder of Corporate Eco Forum and
Indiaspora
“The conversation about a new level of consciousness in business
leadership is overdue. Two Birds in a Tree not only informs this
important conversation. It inspires us with powerful stories rooted
in ancient wisdom. I will share these beautiful allegories with
colleagues and clients for years to come.”
—Larry Dressler, author of Consensus through Conversation and
Standing in the Fire
“A brilliant story-based approach to effective leadership, Two
Birds in a Tree takes a very different path. Rather than offering
the latest-and-greatest management theory or practice, it draws on
insights from the world’s oldest recorded wisdom, making it
enormously relevant to today’s business challenges.”
—Dr. Chris Laszlo, coauthor of Embedded Sustainability
“Two Birds draws from the universal well of ancient wisdom and
offers us stories and modern examples that literally change our
minds about business. We imagine and live out of the idea of a
separate self at our own peril and that of future generations. With
this book, Dr. Nidumolu has provided the key that inspires and
empowers us to change the mistaken idea of separation. It is a
must-read for every person in an organizational leadership
role.”
—Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, Spiritual Director, Center for
Spiritual Enlightenment
“Two Birds in a Tree is truly inspiring. The writing style is
beautiful and authentic, attributes that are rare for a book
intended for business. The balance between personal experiences,
personal observations, stories of business leaders, and stories
from Upanishads is just exquisite and quite a feat. This is a book
I will read and reread, since a book like this is a highly personal
journey.”
—Mohan Sodhi, Professor of Operations Management, Cass Business
School, London
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