MBA enrolls Yoga
Burnt-out bankers and spiritually impoverished climbers of the corporate greasy pole keen to take a fresh look at their lives will have another option in the New Year a London-based MBA which combines business and management theory with yoga and philosophy.
India's Manipal university has joined forces with the Ayurvedic Company of Great Britain which promotes the ancient Indian healing system of Ayurveda to offer an MBA in humanistic management. Alongside the usual components of a business qualification such as accounting, marketing and organisation, the course offers modules in yoga and stress management, alternative health and well-being, the environment and even poetry and philosophy.
According to Gopi Warrier, the company's chairman and tutor on the poetry course, there is a “dire need” for an alternative, more holistic approach to business without which, he argues, workers in the City are in danger of flaking out en masse as their single-minded pursuit of riches takes its toll at an increasingly early age.
“A lot of my friends are in the City,” he says. “They are burnt out, they have no idea of life outside. They make money, but making money doesn't make you happy.”
Mr Warrier, an MBA graduate of the London Business School, argues that without changing business attitudes, companies can expect only minimal loyalty from young people taught nothing but “greed and Enron values”.
So far around 20 students are expected to enroll on the three-day-a-week course, which begins in February. Mr Warrier expects them to be staff of NGOs or international organisations. But he would also like to attract “executives who are fed up”, and hopes to lure younger students away from the conventional MBA courses which, he claims, merely reinforce society's morally-bankrupt values.
“The younger you go on one of these programmes the more you are contaminated,” he argues. “The laws of capitalism are taught as if they are mothers' milk.”
. Purveyors of established MBA programmes rejected Mr Warrier's assertions, saying business ethics and cultural awareness were now on the curriculum at all the world's top business schools.
“All of us focus quite heavily on the softer side of things now, because that is what people want,” the London Business School said.
印度瑜珈加入MBA课程
对于身心透支的银行家和攀登公司等级阶梯、精神空虚的公司人士而言，如果他们渴望重新审视自己的生活，那么新年里他们将可以对一个新型的MBA课程加以考虑。
印度马尼帕尔(Manipal)大学联合英国Ayurvedic公司，将在伦敦推出人文管理MBA课程。除了会计、营销和组织等通常商务课程外，该MBA课程还提供瑜珈和压力管理模块，以及另类健康和康乐、环境，甚至还有诗歌和哲学模块。Ayurvedic是一家推广印度阿育吠陀(Ayurveda)古医疗法的公司。
公司董事长及诗歌课程教师戈皮?瓦里亚(Gopi Warrier)表示，人们“迫切需要”一种替代性的、更全面的经商方法。他认为，如果不采用这种方法，伦敦金融城的员工将面临集体性精疲力竭的危险，随着他们一心追求财富，所带来伤害也越来越早。
“我许多朋友都在金融城工作，”他表示，“他们身心透支，他们不知道外面的生活。他们赚钱，但赚钱并没有赚来快乐。”
伦敦商学院的MBA毕业生瓦里亚先生认为，如果不改变商业态度，各企业将看到，年轻人只有最低限度的忠诚，因为他们除了“贪婪和安然(Enron)式的价值观”外什么也没学到。
这一每周3天的课程将于明年2月份开始，迄今为止，预计将有20名学生参加。瓦里亚先生预计，这些学生将来自非政府组织或国际性组织。但他也想吸引“已经感到厌倦的”经理人，并希望吸引更年轻的学生，让他们放弃传统的MBA课程。他声称，这些传统课程只是强化了这个社会从道德上讲已经破产的价值观。
“你接受那些课程时的年龄越轻，你受污染的程度就越深，”他声称，“资本主义法则被当作母乳来传授。”
提供主流MBA课程的机构不接受瓦里亚先生的观点，他们表示，商业道德和文化意识现已进入世界所有顶尖商学院的课程。
伦敦商学院表示，“目前，我们都相当重视事物较软性的一面，因为这是人们所需的。”
