There is no doubt that Ramalinga Raju is India’s biggest scamster. This is definitely a lesson for the corporate honchos of India. Undoubtedly India’s Skilling will be behind the bars, having duped several thousand investors and shareholders for unimaginable sums of money. Shareholders and investors will be behind his life even when he is in prison. For all you know, he might be sentenced on multiple cases leading to life imprisonment.

Now what ? Things can not be undone, right ?

Prior to the Maytas fiasco and his candid confessions, he had built a reputation of excellence in corporate governance. We all now know that was a facade. For all the good things he has done in his life, a few instances changed the course of his life and he became the bad boy of Corporate India.

For all that he is capable, I am sure Ramalinga Raju has it in him to do a lot of good for himself, the society and the entire nation. Different matter if he doesn’t want to. Here is a brief analysis as to what he can do to regain at least some portion of his lost reputation.

1. Accept

It is one thing to commit crime and another to accept in its entirety. Ramalinga Raju has accepted his role in cooking the books. There is no point being in a state of denial any further. What he needs to do is to accept the reality, face consequences and may be act in a manner that will bring his image back, at least to a certain extent.

2. Open Pandora’s Box

This is a great opportunity for India to clean up its company affairs and Ramalinga Raju can help the Anti Corruption Squad, CBI-CD team to help achieve their goals. Since he doesn’t have anything to lose, Raju can turn himself as an approver and  name all the black moles that he dealt within the government, his accomplices who helped him, the names of those officials who took kickbacks, politicians who amassed wealth in return for favours etc. This is the time to crack down on corrupt officials – both in corporate world and government

3. Donate assets

Although Ramalinga Raju came from an aristocrat family, he acquired over 6500 acres of land through his real estate company Maytas properties and was among the Top 10 landlords of India, after milking Satyam for his personal gain. Now that the cat is out of the bag, one way of regaining trust is to sell these lands and donate it to charity for better uses.

After all, how much land would he or his family needs to live the rest of their life.

4. Reforms in Jail Management

After he is sentenced to imprisonment, Ramalinga Raju would have a great opportunity to utilize his skillsets. After all, he has been the Chairman of a multi-billion dollar company. The jail authorities, police etc could use Raju’s entrepreneurial abilities to bring about reforms in jail management.

5. Write Book (s), Teach Lessons

Raju could write a book about his life, experience, the many lessons he learnt etc in the form of an autobiography, while he is in jail. This could be his favourite pastime as well. He could also write books on management, creative accounting, greed etc such that the next generations can read and avoid getting into trouble – consciously or unconsciously.

May be he could take up teaching the inmates and many others a few lessons that he has learnt in his life. May be with the help of the authorities and the support of the inmates, he can make a social change.

6. Practice Yoga

They say Yoga gives you health and wisdom, makes you more spiritualistic. Raju should take up yoga, become more spiritualistic and lead a healthy, corrupt free life from here on.

7. Inspire Jailmates

Raju was an inspiration to many before he hit the headlines this Tuesday. His leadership qualities, his company’s surge to dizzying heights were examples of how a family run business can be managed professionally. Now that he has lost it all, there is a natural tendency for the common man to pounce on him and demand a pound of flesh. Fair enough.

But when he goes to jail, he will meet like minded criminals who would have been languishing there for some time with no hope for rehabilitation. This could be an opportunity for Raju to become a Munnabhai and inspire the jailmates.

After all, inspiration is in his blood – for the right or wrong reasons.

8. Be that change

Maya Angelou once said,

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel

Sure, Raju made all of us sad. He broke our hearts, he took our money and put a blemish on India’s corporate image.

Can he change for the better ? Sure he can. There is an opportunity for Raju to make people feel good again – to be that change !.

As Maria Robinson said

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending

Satyam Shivam Sundaram !!!

Image Credit: Mykl Roventine

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