Chief Belief Officer

We have heard of the CEO, CMO and CTO, How about the CBO?

Well it is a new post, I had not heard of it and I don’t think you would see any advertisement for that either. However that’s what exactly what Devdutt Patnaik is for the Future Group, and like any of the above mentioned positions the “Chief” and the “Officer” part of it remain the same, but the “B” stands for “Belief”.

Now what Devdutt does is decodes mythology and decides on the belief with which one should do business in the present world.

What exactly is the belief with which one should do business? Is it the same as organizational culture or is it different?

I read through many of Devdutt writes(somewhere on timesofinfdia or economic times) and his videos as well(there is one on TED.com).The manner in which he relates the contest between Lord Ganesh and Lord Karthik to race around the world to ego clashes and politics at the workplace is interesting.

What I could essentially understand that mythology is akin to a theory, when you try to explain the current output or behavior based on some past phenomena. However the basis of prediction here is shaky as in the past phenomena here may be false, so mythology is not really an exact theory.

But not all that shaky, Look at what myths is born from; they are a representation of the society, beliefs of individuals that has passed down through ages. Truth or falsehood is a matter of perception however the existence of a tale with some characters would have to be inspired by something which has happened around or let’s say happened partly.

Like the game “Chinese Whispers” each time it would have been recited or handed down over the ages, it would have retained some parts and modified some. Thus myths give a base to predict the outcome and to a certain extent they could be relied upon as they have stood the test of time and incorporated prediction errors. Like statistical predictions which get more accurate with more and more data, mythology as a theory would augur well simply because it has passed the test of ages.

And btw ,you, don’t have to be religious to believe in myths. I used to have my sporadic doses of mythology when my mother used to do the ritual pornami puja at home. I liked the way she sat all the three of us cross legged in front of the plethora of gods and explained to us the reason why she spent time cooking all the delicacies which we couldn’t touch till God had it first.