The Parable of Sadhu
The Parable of the Sadhu
On a mountain climbing expedition to the Himalayas, Bowen McCoy, a managing director of the Morgan Stanley Company, and his party found a pilgrim, or Sadhu, dying of cold. Although the climbers helped the holy man, Mr. McCoy and his team ultimately pressed on with their trek, determined to reach the summit. This unexpected ethical dilemma left them questioning their values--and the values of business, which often places goal achievement ahead of other considerations. In this moving article, which received the Harvard Business Review’s Ethics Prize in 1983, Mr. McCoy relates his experience in the distant mountain of Nepal to the short and long-term goals of American business.
Last year, as the first participant of in the new six-month sabbatical program that Morgan Stanley has adopted, I enjoyed a rare opportunity to collect my thoughts as well as do some traveling. I spent the first three months in Nepal, walking 600 miles through 200 villages in the Himalayas and climbing some 120,000 vertical feet. On the trip my sole Western companion was an anthropologist who shed light on the cultural patterns of the villages we passed through.
During the Nepal hike, something occurred that has had a powerful impact on my thinking about corporate ethics. Although some might argue that the experience has no relevance to business, it was a situation in which a basic ethical dilemma suddenly intruded into the lives of a group of individuals. How the group responded I think holds a lesson for all organizations no matter how defined.
|[pic] |The Sadhu |
|Sadhus, or holy men, roam the countryside |Nepal experience was more rugged and adventuresome than I had anticipated. Most commercial treks|
|of India and Nepal, begging for food |last two or three weeks and cover a quarter of the distance we traveled.
On a mountain climbing expedition to the Himalayas, Bowen McCoy, a managing director of the Morgan Stanley Company, and his party found a pilgrim, or Sadhu, dying of cold. Although the climbers helped the holy man, Mr. McCoy and his team ultimately pressed on with their trek, determined to reach the summit. This unexpected ethical dilemma left them questioning their values--and the values of business, which often places goal achievement ahead of other considerations. In this moving article, which received the Harvard Business Review’s Ethics Prize in 1983, Mr. McCoy relates his experience in the distant mountain of Nepal to the short and long-term goals of American business.
Last year, as the first participant of in the new six-month sabbatical program that Morgan Stanley has adopted, I enjoyed a rare opportunity to collect my thoughts as well as do some traveling. I spent the first three months in Nepal, walking 600 miles through 200 villages in the Himalayas and climbing some 120,000 vertical feet. On the trip my sole Western companion was an anthropologist who shed light on the cultural patterns of the villages we passed through.
During the Nepal hike, something occurred that has had a powerful impact on my thinking about corporate ethics. Although some might argue that the experience has no relevance to business, it was a situation in which a basic ethical dilemma suddenly intruded into the lives of a group of individuals. How the group responded I think holds a lesson for all organizations no matter how defined.
|[pic] |The Sadhu |
|Sadhus, or holy men, roam the countryside |Nepal experience was more rugged and adventuresome than I had anticipated. Most commercial treks|
|of India and Nepal, begging for food |last two or three weeks and cover a quarter of the distance we traveled.