"No, I am not a chief anything," asserts Bagchi. The company did think of head Gardener as his title, but a board member said the prefix smacked of hierarchy. The symbolism is that titles do not nourish you. "I am sending that message to our leaders. I am who I am, call me by whatever name. Titles are as meaningful or meaningless as the person holding them," says Bagchi.

There are strong echoes of gardening in what he does. No plant reports to the Gardener; the Gardener attends to the plants in their time and space. This would mean interacting with the plants (or leaders) even during weekends, since it is voluntary and one-on-one.

"The time has come for all of us to take the idea of organisation, titles, roles and everything else in between, to the next level. The so-called modern organisation we created for ourselves and then became a product of is an extension of the factory-economy of the last century," says Bagchi.

Image: MindTree Global Village, Bangalore. | Photograph, courtesy: MindTree Consulting Website

Also read: Nandan Nilekani on the idea of a new India

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