Bhishma@ Management & Governance is not a book on crisis management. It deals with the situations that lead to crisis and how best to avoid them.

And why ancient roots to a modern problem - because human beings are constantly changing to remain the same. See Duryodhana (arch villain in the great human drama, the Mahabharata) and his land grabbing methods; his coterie and the present day power brokers. Sounds familiar. Doesn’t it?

The great warrior Bhishma (one of the central characters of the epic) has left for posterity a treasure trove of tips on how a ruler - present day ministers, chancellors and CEOs - must handle various situations.

The author Prayaga Ramakrishna has tapped this part of the epic to relate to us the nuances of human nature. And he has adopted the style of Francis Bacon - short pithee sentences to convey Bhishma’s message. The book is neither didactic nor does it condescend. He corelates the message with stories and leaves the inference to the reader.

The book covers the entire gamut of governance - micro and macro levels.