Shoghi Effendi, CEO, PD

How to Succeed as a Baha'i Hatchetman

By John Taylor; 2008 Jan 19, 1 Sultan, 164 BE

Newspapers today assume that the world of business is fascinating, and I have to admit that sometimes there is high drama there, and even heroism. A reforming leader can make the difference that a new sheriff in town did in the old West. They call a leader who is good at rapidly improving a company's outlook a "turnaround specialist," and the more ruthless among them are feared and given nicknames like "hatchetmen" or "hired guns." Perhaps an individual with know-how can make a difference in the short term but I wonder how long the changes will last, and what effect they have on the overall business climate. In the long run, surely structural changes are the only way to permanent change.

 If so, does what we read in the paper about individual CEO heroes amount to nothing more than high-profile office gossip?

I recall one of my favorite comedies in my youth was "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," the story of a savvy fellow who is hired as a mail clerk and by clever manipulation of personalities makes his way to the top in no time. I am not very often tempted to write fiction, much less an update on "How to succeed in business...," but the following dry article from the business section of the Globe and Mail tweaked my interest.

 

Copy that: Xerox tries again to rebound
"When Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy took the reins in 2000, the iconic firm's operations were in a shambles. ... her seven-year struggle to rebuild the company and her next big challenge - a landmark rebranding campaign she's rolling out... Today, the Stamford, Conn.-based company is setting out to change all that with its most comprehensive corporate overhaul in more than 40 years, as it looks to leave its recent history of stock overstatements and brushes with bankruptcy in the rear-view mirror." (Globe and Mail, Electronic Edition, 07/01/08, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080107.wrxerox07/BNStory/Technology/?cid=al_gam_nletter_dtechal

 

The exploits of Anne Mulcahy at Xerox make me wonder what a Baha'i would do suddenly plunked into the CEO position in a large corporation. Would she do what Mulcahy did? How would she go about using Baha'i ideas to reform a struggling operation?

I know, there have been real-life Baha'i CEOs, notably Harry Randall in the time of the Master. But the problem with Randall's example is that God used his career to work out one of those saprophagous proofs of deity that I discussed in yesterday's essay. In other words, everything conspired against him and he got turfed. And okay, today there probably are some Baha'i CEOs kicking around the business world. But I am sure that they have worked their way up the ladder and arrived at the inevitable compromises that largely nullify their effect, qua Baha'i, on the business climate.

What I would want to write is a complete fantasy, a Baha'i enters the mail room and starts everybody consulting, discouraging backbiting and applying Baha'i principles at every turn. Okay, not likely, I know, but in this story she meets with the sort of success that you only find in fiction. The mail room becomes the most efficient department of the company, which draws the attention of higher ups, and, long story short, she is appointed CEO.

What would she do? How would she change things?

For one thing, surely she would reduce her own prominence as a charismatic leader. Decisions would be group decisions and it would be her duty to stay in the background like the members of the UHJ do. Here is a question: how did the members of the UHJ learn to act in that unique, extremely self-effacing way? Most leaders would not be leaders if they did not revel in the limelight, yet they are the very model of a Platonic philosopher king, or king philosopher, who values truth first and only reluctantly takes on the burden of power. Okay, the UHJ members learned by following the example of the Hands, who refused to be elected to that supreme body. It is well to remember the Hands, now that the last of them is gone. But where did the Hands get that model? Not from Plato, safe to say.

The answer to that question came to me lately like a bite in the derrière. My atheist friend, known here as ePhilo, in an email aside said something like "I do not see how that man Shoghi Effendi could be a proof of God." I asked ePhilo what the heck he was talking about. Of course a man cannot be proof of deity. Did I say that Shoghi Effendi is a proof of deity? He replied, and I saw what had happened.

In fact, I did say that, way back months ago on this Badi' Blog, talking about something else entirely. ePhilo had used Google Blog Search to uncover a little commentary on the Master's will and testament around the time of the Day of the Covenant (you can find it yourself there if you preface your keyword with "badiblog:"). The Master implies there that Shoghi Effendi was a standing proof of God, and I had picked up on that, not expecting it ever to be read by a non-Baha'i, much less an atheist.

That set me to thinking. Yes, the Master is our exemplar, but Abdu'l-Baha was appointed to leadership of the Baha'i Faith and had no choice but to become a charismatic leader. When His Father was alive He had stayed in the background, even refusing to write books and tablets save when Baha'u'llah ordered Him directly to do so. Then, when Baha'u'llah put the Master at the Center of the Covenant, and the doctrinal body of the Faith was still inchoate, the Master took Baha'u'llah's revelation out of the sky and placed it in concrete form into the mainstream of current thought. You cannot do that without standing center stage.

But then, when Shoghi Effendi was appointed Guardian, the charismatic function of individual spiritual leader endowed with doctrinal power had been completed for the duration of this prophetic cycle. Thus liberated, the new Guardian could act in a manner of a man who, well, does not have a capital "M" in man. In other words an ordinary person like you and me.

Shoghi Effendi proved that there is a God when eschewed the limelight.

He acted just like Plato's ideal leader, the reluctant philosopher king who hates being singled out, who is happiest in obscurity, in pure contemplation of being. He hated being photographed or lionized. He instead let the average Baha'i stand out with pioneering and performing other sacrificial services. Shoghi Effendi logged, mapped and planned, but did nothing for us average believers. Just think of it, Shoghi Effendi could easily have stood out. Shoghi Effendi never traveled officially or spoke in public meetings. He could easily have given talks, better than any of the Baha'is (he did give a few in England before being appointed, and he was even on a public speaking club in school, as I recall), but he was moved not to do so for the duration of his Guardianship.

Instead, we stood out, we average believers manned the plan worked out by the Guardian. His work was done behind-the-scenes, far from the glitz and paparazzi, and he did everything he could to let us think we did it all ourselves. He, our "true brother," gave us the credit. He was only severe when it came to keeping him out of the limelight; we were allowed to adore him with nothing more exalted than the title "beloved Guardian." No, the average Joe working in consultative groups now is the only charismatic leader in the Baha'i Faith.

How does that prove God? How does this ordinary brother of ours stand as an example of the Godhead? The Godhead does exactly that. It stays in the background. Only those who know or love His Delegate, those who ask for Him see or receive Him. He selflessly vacates the universe to make "room" for us creatures. God so effectively vacates this reality that many intelligent people live their lives as atheists, never once recognizing His existence. An effective disguise indeed.

So a Baha'i CEO would follow this exalted, divine example by taking on the job of eliminating her own job. She would institute profit sharing, so that the workers and the shareholders would not be two opposing interests, they would be largely the same entity. She would see that policy decisions are made only after as broad as possible consultation has taken place. She would see to it that the CEO and the Chairman of the Board are, like an LSA, part of a unified body, with no more than one equal vote. She would treat consultants with the affectionate closeness of a auxiliary board member who has rank but not power. She would do everything in her power to stay in the background and let the workers take prominence, as their "true sister."

The nickname for a radical reforming CEO is "hatchetman," because of the number of firings that soon follow his appointment. The appointment of a Baha'i CEO would be like that, except that she would take the hatchet to her own job.

 Our story for the day from "Mother's Stories of Abdu'l-Baha" (this "mother" was the daughter of Howard Colby Ives) is from page 40, called "Lover of Truth." It illustrates how our heroine, the Baha'i CEO, might go about encouraging co-workers to adopt the foundation of all virtues, truthfulness.

Lover of truth
"It was some years before this, when Abdu'l-Baha was in Paris, that a group of men from Teheran came to Him deeply troubled, They had walked all the way from their homes in Persia - since traveling on foot was the only proper way to meet their Master - to make what they considered a most vital request. In a village, there was a Baha'i who was causing a great deal of trouble because of the lies he told. He lied about everything with the result that misunderstandings, distrust and confusion reigned. This dreadful situation, Abdu'l-Baha would, they begged, have to do something about. Abdu'l-Baha agreed; indeed it was a most dreadful situation and certainly He would do something about it. He would write the man a letter. And the salutation at, the heading of this letter was, "O thou great lover of Truth" (Sadly there is no record I have seen of the balance of this Epistle - which must have been priceless.) - Muriel Ives Barrow Newhall, Mother's Stories, Self-Published, Shawnigan Lake, BC, 1998

Oh, and speaking of truthfulness, the Master once promised that if you tell the truth for a month you will find great success visit all your affairs. Around that time somebody wrote a fantasy play not unlike the reverse of "How to succeed in business without really trying," where a young man on a bet starts telling the truth. He insults his fiancée, his boss and everybody else, and ends up after a month on the street, utterly penniless, friendless and without a love life.

That was the way it was; until recently anybody would have laughed in your face if you had suggested that telling the truth could get you ahead in the business world. Then came Google, whose unofficial motto is "Do not be evil." Its founders were firmly committed from the start to telling the truth and never cutting corners with their integrity. Now the Master's statement has to be taken deadly seriously by anybody trying to follow their path on the road to success.