I recently organised and co-hosted an event in EY London as co-chair of the EY Hindu Network alongside my co-chair, Preeya Sachdev. The event was titled “Dharma in the Workplace: leading with purpose”, taking the form of a panel discussion with two remarkable partners, Purvi Domadia and Rohan Malik. Despite having vastly different personal and professional journeys, they were united by their values, which have been shaped by dharma.
We heard how dharma has given them strength to make tough decisions where the right decision is the harder path, how dharma has motivated them to achieve greatness in their careers, and dharma has given a balanced scorecard approach to strategising.
What is Dharma?
Dharma can be crudely translated into ‘duty’, the work unique to each individual’s circumstances that one must undertake to uphold positive order within the world. It emphasises the importance of taking action, ethical conduct, selflessness, and good intentions.
How do ancient values map onto ours?
It was of no surprise to see how many similarities our ancient concept of dharma and EY’s values share. This was clear on many occasions, particularly when Rohan spoke about decisions the firm made that prioritised societal and stakeholder wellbeing ahead of profit for partners, the example he gave was a high stakes situation, when making the ‘right’ decision was definitely the easy thing to do, nor self-serving.
EY’s values are one of many reasons I am proud to work for EY, where creating value for society along with inclusion and equity are ways of life.
Purvi spoke about how dharma has empowered her to get out of her comfort zone and seize opportunities. She backed this up by speaking about the unexpected twists and turns in her career and personal life, and how she has faced challenges head-on.
Evening entertainment
We were treated to two dazzling cultural performances by the UCL Hindu Network, Bharatnatyam and Garba, along with some insightful thoughts on dharma. It was wonderful to see future professionals being so engaged and brave.
Taking initiative and seizing opportunities
In the spirit of seizing opportunities, this event happened for two reasons.
Firstly, I ran into Rohan as he headed to the lifts in 2024 when I was in the middle of an important phone call and leapt at the opportunity to tell him about what we were trying to achieve through the EY Hindu Network. Secondly, as Purvi joined us for our second sewa evening I arranged through the EY Hindu Network as she heard about it from a colleague, I was able to get to know her and build a connection.
Sadly, this will be my last event as co-chair of the EY Hindu Network, and I definitely finished on a high!
A heartfelt thanks
Thank you to Purvi and Rohan for being such enthusiastic participants, to Preeya for co-hosting, Guneeka, Soham and the rest of the team from UCL Hindu Society for your mind-blowing performance and insightful speech, Nikul and Sravya for supporting with managing our external guests, to Idris and Noam for your continued support and dedication to EY’s faith networks, the central UK&I DE&I team and to the various support teams – Audio-Visual, Hospitality, and Catering.
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