Meditation improves the mind, improves the body. But R. W. Montgomery, CEO of a chemical company in Detroit, found that meditation also improved his company's health to an incredible extent.

In the face of economic stagnation in the United States in the early eighties, Montgomery and his colleagues were forced to rethink the 40-year-old organization. New perspectives, new plans, new management methods were needed. After failing in several initiatives, in 1983 they started a six-month company-wide meditation program. Meditation has already started in every division of the company. The officers and employees began to meditate twice. At certain intervals before starting work in the morning and in the middle of work in the afternoon. The next three years saw unimaginable changes. Absence rates were reduced by 75%, illness by 8% and work accidents by 70%. On the other hand, sales increased by 120% and product quality control standards increased by 240%. As a result, the company's profit increased by 520%.

This unimaginable progress is due to the meditation practice of the company's officers and employees, says CEO Montgomery. Because meditation has freed them from anxiety and they have been able to work with more performance, creativity and joy than before. As Montgomery puts it nicely, “The biggest asset of a business is its human resources. Because if the employees of your organization are tired and exhausted, if they can't be motivated to work and if they can't think that they have any creativity, then no matter how much modern equipment you give him, it is nothing but a waste of time.

The triumph of meditation in business around the world

Not only this, with the help of Meditation you can do great things for many companies and businesses around the world. These include world-renowned companies such as Toshiba, Sony, Toyota, Sumitmo, Volvo, General Motors or IBM. General Motors has announced that the company will cover the expenses of its employees who are interested in taking part in the meditation course. To teach workers meditation, Korea's Samsung Industrial Group has set up a huge training center on an 18-acre site south of the capital, Seoul.

Why is the triumph of meditation in business circles around the world? There has been extensive research on the role of meditation in the professional field. The results of the study, conducted in more than 200 universities and institutes around the world, have been published in leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Science, Psychosomatic Medicine, Hyper-Tension, American Psychologist and the American Journal of Managed Care. These studies have shown that the introduction of meditation in the company has reduced employee tension, restlessness, fatigue and insomnia, reduced smoking and drug addiction, and significantly increased skills, job satisfaction, and interpersonal relationships. Employees who are creative, intelligent, healthy and lively naturally can do more. Then productivity increases, absenteeism decreases and the tendency to work in groups increases.

Jobstress - The main challenge in the modern business world

According to a 1993 report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), jobstresses cost the United States ২০০ 200 billion a year.

Allen Prize is a business stress consultant. He taught clients at his consulting firm in Minneapolis how to use meditation in daily life and in his profession. "The use of computers has made people's lives easier rather than easier," he said. Because this has increased the expectations of the organization from the employees on the one hand, on the other hand there has been a huge change in the type of work and the demand for qualifications. As a result, businesses in today's world are struggling to make ends meet. And the victims are the executives, managers and workers of these organizations are suffering from professional stress and various complications. A study from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that those who worked for ten years in the face of occupational stress were five and a half times more likely to develop colon and rectal cancer than others.

Allen Price says that the negative effects of job stress or professional stress on employees are that their morale decreases; Relationships with bosses, coworkers or subordinates are problematic; Depression, instability occurs. As a result, their productivity decreases and their healthcare costs increase. An unhappy or sick worker can never use his or her energy at work. ”

Tackling Meditation-Jobstress

A 1996 issue of the Journal of Alternative Therapy stated that 54% of cases were due to chronic pain, hypertension, and headaches. And all of these problems are caused by stress and anxiety. And here is the role of meditation. Multiple studies from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Massachusetts and Harvard University in the United States have shown that meditation enhances the ability of the human brain to make decisions, increase brain activity, . On the other hand, workers are often affected মেড meditation helps to relieve various types of pain. For these reasons, the world's largest corporations are now motivating their employees to meditate. Arranging free meditation classes. Because the production capacity is increasing much more than the cost. It can be said that meditation is one of the most effective and affordable ways to alleviate professional anxiety.

Puritan Bennett Corporation is one of the world's leading medical equipment manufacturers. In August 1993, the company launched a pilot program at its corporate headquarters in Kansas to address the harmful effects of stress on employees. Two groups of 36 workers were formed. Only one group was taught meditation. After 3 months it was found that the group was meditating, they were more lively, more calm than the other group. They are less physically ill and have lower blood cholesterol levels than others. They have even a reputation for maintaining good relations with everyone in the organization. There was no change for those who did not meditate.

A tool of competition

Meditation enhances intelligence, creativity and decision making which are some of the qualities that are very necessary for business. Burton A. Dole, chairman of the Puritan Bennett, said: “The key to success in today's world is to be able to offer better quality products and services than competitors. And it requires something new, the ability to think of something exceptional and creativity. And meditation enhances the creative ability of the staff. ”

Eva Solomonson, director of the Ericsson company in Sweden. "I have been meditating since 1984," he said. And now more than a hundred of my colleagues are meditating. I take the help of meditation to gain and implement new ideas about my company's products. ”

Japan's National Institute of Industrial Health and St. Mariana's Medical Institute conducted a study simultaneously. In this, 448 workers of Sumitmo Heavy Industry were given training in meditation. Five months later their condition was monitored. It was found that their physical illness, mental instability, irritable mood and nighttime sleep problems were much less than before. T Watanabe, chairman of Sumitmore's health insurance department, said: "We've arranged this meditation program for the mental health of our employees. Because meditation is an essential element to keep pace with the modern competitive world.

Employees of Tower Company, a real estate firm in Bethesda, became so ill after meditating that the insurance company not only paid 5% of their premium, but also agreed to pay 60% of the cost of taking the meditation course.

Sir John Harvey Jones, former executive vice president of Procter & Gamble. One day, at the age of 36, he had a heart attack. Open heart surgery was performed. After the operation, he started meditating on the advice of his cardiologist. "I start and end each day with some time for myself," Jones said. And as a result, I am much calmer now, physically and mentally. Tension and anxiety are almost non-existent. Creativity and memory have also increased more than before. If I could learn meditation earlier, life would be more enjoyable. ”

Location of developing countries

Not only the western or developed countries but also the business executives of developing countries like India are now facing this risk of corporate life. According to an India Today report, one out of every five executives in India suffers from depression. More than half of those with coronary heart disease are mid-level executives by profession. As a result, it is seen that the career life of 10/15 years as an executive has come down to only 5/6 years. For all these reasons, Tonak has moved in the corporate arena of India. They are taking various steps to deal with stress. In addition to improving the work environment, empowering staff, etc., they are organizing various stress management workshops, taking refuge in Indian Yoga or Vedanta Meditation. As Benugopal Dhoot, CEO of Videocon, India's largest consumer goods company, has done, by training more than 600 employees. Stress management workshops are now being organized regularly in organizations like Birla Group of Companies, Tisco, Telco, Godrej, Reserve Bank or State Bank of India.

Meditation in the industry and commerce of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is not backward either. Over the last 12 years, hundreds of professionals and industrialists have participated in more than two hundred batches of Quantum Method courses. These include doctors, engineers, lawyers and bankers, as well as chairmen of large industrial groups, CEOs of multinational companies and executives and businessmen of numerous public and private companies. In addition to personal development by practicing meditation, they have also got professional benefits. A research paper on this was published in 2004 in the November-December issue of The Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh's journal The Cost and Management. Entitled ‘The Influence of a Meditation - Relaxation Technique on Executive Performance’, this article reviews the post-meditation experience of 20 industrial owners and managers who participated in the Quantum Method course. Dhaka University, Associate Professor of Management Studies. Farooq Ahmed and Dr. Researcher Rabia Nazreen collaborated with Abdul Hannan Mian in this study.

As can be seen, meditation has increased the enthusiasm and agility of owner managers in their work. Significant progress has also been made in relationships with bosses, colleagues and subordinates. By controlling negative emotions i.e. anger-anger-jealousy they are now able to make decisions in a colder head than before. Physically and mentally they are healthier and calmer than before.

Meditation has come out of the boundaries of sages and saints long ago. The effectiveness of meditation in self-improvement or healing is now an old fact. But the way meditation is proving to be effective in money-making, such as industry-trade-business, is surprising but true. Maybe that's why Harvard Medical School Mind / Body Medical Institute President Dr. Herbert Benson commented, "If business authorities were smart, everyone would have a separate room in their organization and give employees some time each day separately so that they could meditate as they wished."