A busy media house boardroom. Vikram is a very experienced mentor and board member, guiding Veda, a relatively new director, on corporate governance. Sowndarawali, a bright intern, occasionally inputs with practical suggestions. They have been discussing the mindfulness of duty and responsibility (dharma) found in the Bhagavad Gita in terms of considerations about governance for their media company. The discussion is vibrant, practical, and relatable.
Veda: Vikram, I’ve been told that the Bhagavad Gita has great insights into duty. How can it help us to think through the ethical running of this media organisation? I mean, we have advertisers, viewers and we have to think about the integrity of our journalists. Quite the task!
Vikram: Absolutely, Veda, and the Gita is all about dharma – a soldier doing such service without desire but for a higher purpose. There is one verse that conveys this extremely powerfully and it is one of the more significant verses. From Chapter 2, Verse 47:
Original (Sanskrit):
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥
Transliteration:
Karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana,
Ma karma-phala-hetur bhur ma te sango ’stv akarmani.
Translation:
You are entitled to action alone, never to its results. You should not let the results of your actions be your motive, nor be attached to inaction.
This verse is really Krishna telling Arjuna “just be the soldier you are and not worry about what you win or lose”. For us, it can remind us to lead this media company ethically, considering the higher purpose of being truth tellers, and using truth and the consequences of telling the truth, apart from each individual or the body of journalists. Having this distinction will be important.
Veda: Okay, but what does our “duty” mean as a board? We have shareholders who want profits, journalists who want creative freedom, and viewers who want sensational stories. It’s a tug-of-war.
Vikram: That’s a great question. Our dharma as a board means balancing the interests of all stakeholders—shareholders, employees, viewers, and society—while remaining true to our core purpose of informing responsibly. Remember the character from the Gita, Arjuna? His duty was to fight injustice—not to fight for fame or dive into the pleasures or suffering of life. In the same way, our duty is to ensure that a media house stands for truth and trust—even during difficult times. For example, if we are under pressure from advertisers to distort a story, our duty is to defend the editorial independence—not to take the quick buck.
Sowndarawali (intern, interrupting suddenly): I’m sorry for jumping in, but that makes so much sense! Last week, I saw our team debate whether to go with a glitzy ad campaign for a shady product because it would yield a lot of revenue. If we followed the message of the Gita, we would have said, “no,” right? Duty over dollars?
Vikram: That’s right, Sowndarawali! An excellent example too. Declining to act on that campaign aligns with our dharma – in that we are staying credible to our audience. We aren’t chasing profits at the expense of trust. Veda, what do you think we can do to keep all our decisions true to this?
Veda: Hmm, I see. I think we need to keep our mission statement at the forefront. Perhaps we could create a checking system for big decisions: Are we aligned to our values? Are we serving our stakeholders responsibly? But in practice, how do we keep ourselves in check, so we aren’t just focused on what trends give us headlines tomorrow, or what stock prices are doing this year?
Vikram: The verse in the Gita talks about being engaged in action but not getting attached to the results. In our governance role this means making decisions based on what is right. So, this basis is likely going to be long-term behaviour we want to encourage against immediate based profitability. We can embed our values into our governance systems so that they do not merely become rhetoric. For example, we could create an ethics committee to review every major editorial or business decision. Asking if it is informing people responsibly, and asking if we are transparent with our audience regularly will anchor us to our dharma. We can also use stakeholder engagement, we want to hear not just from journalists and ah-hah or even some branding campaigns. But also, we want to hear from current viewers, and even small shareholders about what a trusted relationship looks like for them.
Sowndarawali: Oh, I get it! It’s like when we took heat for that bias op-ed last month. If we had listened to our junior reporters who called it out in the beginning we could have avoided backlash altogether. Maybe part of the task is to honestly listen to everyone, not just the big guys?
Vikram: Exactly! Dharma is not simply about vertical accountability, but horizontal fairness. When Krishna told Arjuna to take action without ego, he meant without favoritism and influence. In our language, accountability requires participation. If we want to make sure to avoid blind spots, we need to have participation from various viewpoints and backgrounds, so the more inclusive the board is with respect to background, the better off we will be exploring those views together. For example, a board with journalists, technology support staff, students, and even people younger than you, Sowndarawali, can be a check on the blind spots we might have when considering our organizational mission and public accountability.
Veda: That is very helpful, Vikram, but I think I am more stuck on conflicts of interest. I worry we can make decisions because of personal relationships and pressure from others from the outside. How does the Gita help us work through that?
Vikram: Krishna states it clearly in that range of verses: don’t be the “cause” of results, which is to say, don’t let personal motives dictate action. In our case, conflicts of interest, such as a board member that is trying to assert a deal with a friend’s company, undercuts dharma. We can mitigate this with strict policies and practices: required disclosures of relationships; independent audits; making calling out bias a part of a culture; and establishing a focus on the purpose of the media house and taking the personal or organizational interests out of the equation.
Sowndarawali: Like when our editor turned down a sponsor’s story because it seemed more like a propaganda piece? She said, “My role, as an editor, is to tell the truth, not satisfy a sponsor.” That’s Gita in action, isn’t it? Just doing your job regardless of who is watching?
Vikram: Exactly! This editor was practicing nishkama karma – she acted without attachment to the outcome. She put truth ahead of pleasing a sponsor. As a board, we should reward and protect that kind of integrity. Veda, how do we put integrity in our governance DNA?
Veda: What if we tie incentives to ethical outcomes, not to just financial return? Like rewarding editors for producing credible reporting (credibility), or taking action against journalists who cut ethical corners that hurts our reputation? And probably regular training around ethics just to keep us ‘sharp’ might help. But what happens with shareholders put pressure on compromising?
Vikram: The Gita encourages courage. Krishna instructs Arjuna to act, despite fear or doubt. For us, accountability means standing steadfastly on our values, even when some shareholders are pressuring for fast rewards. Clearly communicate to your team the rationale for why ethical governance builds long term value—trust is at the core of viewers, who then generate revenue. The data demonstrates this. Organizations with strong and deeply ingrained ethics often outperform their peers over the long haul. It is only about aligning shortest of term actions with the longest of term dharma.
Sowndarawali: Absolutely, it’s like planting a tree today but knowing you’re not using it for shade until later, and we undertake our duty—truthful media—and hope we will cash in at some point. I also think we should also tell the stories where we have been right, like rejecting the dishonest ad, so the team is inspired to grow from it.
Vikram: That’s an excellent point! This is how to build a culture of dharma. Veda, as long as you can articulate your mission clearly, have excellent policies in place, and processes that include everybody, then the last piece is leading by action—not enforcing the plan but demonstrating to the team that your dharma supersedes temptation.
Sowndarawali: Let me put it this way: In a media house, your dharma isn’t maximizing clicks or dollars—it’s shining the light of truth, even when the road ahead looks difficult.
Comments are closed.