Managers as little prince: Fiction explains unquantified business principles

The narrative is created to put an unconventional spin on educational concepts

ISLAMABAD: Can poetry and fiction resolve the dilemmas of business and management? Can a manager afford to be a poet?

Author Khurram Elahi has tried to prove that it can as his book launched in the capital on Friday.

The book “Managers as Little Prince” looks at business and management through the lens of poetry and fiction has been written by Khurram Ellahi, an academician, public orator, motivational speaker, and a radio jockey.

The book, published by Gufhtugu Publications, presents the author’s thoughts on the subject of management as a composite of various aspects such as communication, organisational culture, leadership, personal development, human resources management and governance in unison with poetry, fiction and literature.

The author uses poetry as a tool to look at current issues of business and management sciences. He also uses the novel ‘Little Prince’ written by Saint Exupery to attend the long-lasting dilemmas of business and management.

The book also looks at the conventional technique of addressing those dilemmas and how thinking like the character ‘Little Prince’ can help managers.

Ellahi explained his approach as a fresh means of addressing the age-old problems of management.

Author Ellahi, who is a lecturer at a public university and pursuing his PhD in leadership, stated “Philosophy ages but poetry rejuvenates.” This, he said, is the central philosophy of the book.

“Poetry and prose have been guiding mankind since ages,” he said.

Quoting Allama Iqbal, he said that “a mathematician cannot encompass infinity, but a poet can.”

“Different sciences chemistry, physics and biology, all together are never able to satisfy the soul. Science failed every time. This is where fiction walks in. Spirit of man needs fiction” he wrote on fiction and the failure of science.

“Today our education system lacks any mechanism to incorporate aesthetics and morality. Students are studying their subjects and making the wall of ignorance even taller. Education which was meant to set us free is caging us” the writer notes.

During the book launch, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Assistant Professor Dr Hassan Rasool noted that the study of management sciences is in dire need of unorthodox practices and a new age approach. Poetry is not an unorthodox practice but can be the active tool needed to guide managers.

“Thinkers and psychologists remain indebted to the work of great fiction writers and poets, said Bahria University Assistant Professor Shaheer Ellahi while speaking about the importance of higher poetry in the lives of scholars.

Joint Information Secretary Dr Najeeb Khan added how language strengthened the relationship between man and the universe.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2018.