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Looking back to the ancient knowledge of the Indian scripture, the Upanishads, Ram Nidumolu finds the core philosophy of sustainable leadership that's needed today. In this remarkable book, he uses a powerful parable from these scriptures to create a business vision that our world desperately needs.

There are two birds, two sweet friends, who dwell in the selfsame tree, says the Upanishads. The first bird, dwelling on the lower part of the tree, lives in sorrow and anxiety. Unable to see beyond the branches, it hops around compulsively indulging its appetites, eating every fruit, sweet and sour. The other bird, higher up, can see the whole tree and the wider world-this perspective puts it in touch with its innate sense of being, the quality of existence that it shares in common with all other living beings and the natural world. Content, it looks on in compassionate silence at the other bird.

Ram Nidumolu's beautiful book on business leadership uses this allegory to highlight why many businesses are distrusted by the public and contribute to social ills like environmental destruction, wealth inequality, and climate change: they mimic the bird on the lower branch. But can business, compassion, and stewardship really coexist? Ram's surprising insight is to hearken back to ancient wisdom traditions to reclaim their lessons for acting in accordance with our connection to Being.

Two Birds in a Tree uses evocative parables and stories from the Upanishads to introduce Being-centered leadership. Being-centered leaders are guided by an innate sense of interconnection-the good of the whole becomes an integral part of their decisions and actions. Using the experiences of over twenty trailblazing CEOs, as well as those from his own life, Nidumolu describes a four-stage road map every aspiring leader can use to reconnect business to the wider world-to the benefit of all. It is time, he writes, to look up from our rickety perch on the lower branch of a storm-tossed tree and begin the journey to the higher branch.

Jim Manchester is a retired English and theater teacher in Rhode Island. He has directed and acted in many theatrical productions over the years and has done voice-over work in the Providence area. Jim resides in the lovely seaport town of Bristol, Rhode Island.

Ram Nidumolu is a celebrated entrepreneur, business scholar, and student of Hindu scripture. He was lead author of the 2009 Harvard Business Review cover story Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation and has also written for Stanford Social Innovation Review. He served as an assistant professor at Santa Clara University and University of Arizona. He has founded and led two companies since leaving academia, Gandiva and InnovaStrat, and is currently CEO of the latter. Nidumolu recently served as research director of the Corporate Eco Forum, speaks frequently to business audiences, and continues to teach classes at the University of California, Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology.

Chip Conley started out as a rebel entrepreneur, building one of America's most successful boutique hotel brands, Joi de Vivre. As the company's leader for twenty-four years, Conley was honored as the Most Innovative CEO in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times in 2007. He is the author of three books, including the bestseller PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow. As a speaker, he has shared his philosophy with a number of successful companies and some of the country's top academic institutions.