Leadership & Execution

Making strategy happen inside institutions: decisions, teams, execution, and the inner game of the people doing the work.

Filter by Scale, Sort by Velocity – Building Momentum

For most organizations (startup or otherwise) building momentum might be the #1 goal. Increasing momentum on revenues, margins, customers, transactions, data-footprint etc etc. A big part of it…

Dec 2023
Game Theory, No-Regret Plans and the role of Iceland in World War II

Game Theory and understanding options available Game theory provides a strong framework for strategic options in a dual player game. Options available both to self and the other…

Oct 2020
How to find and keep True North | Susan Wojcicki – Masters of Scale

Serendipity Susan (YouTube CEO) was raised in the valley area as her dad taught at Stanford. She decides to not pursue her PhD but get an MBA instead.…

Oct 2020
The Playbook – A coach’s rules for life

Sports has been a very important part of my life. While, I didn’t manage to reach a level that would allow me to play my chosen sport(s) even…

Oct 2020
Problem Framing and choice of adjectives – story of ventilators and sanitizers

Problem Framing is considered a crucial step in the development of a new solution/product or in problem solving. Yet, we miss spending enough quality time on this step,…

Jun 2020
Talpiot – Israel’s super school for military tech – lessons in sustainable innovation

Talpiot – the Super School I have always wondered how has Israel, given its challenges, managed to position itself as a leader in cutting-edge military tech. And it…

May 2020
Find what’s really broken before fixing it

I enjoy coding. While I have a long way to go as a programmer, coding does put me in a zen kind of a state. The mix of…

Feb 2020
Factory and Lab mindsets in product management teams

Factories and laboratories evoke very different images. With a factory – I am usually thinking the industrial revolution in all its glory – machines, assembly lines, robots, workers,…

May 2019
Why so serious ! Need for humor at work

This happened yesterday – We settled down for a discussion first thing in the morning and a colleague says- smile guys, its a good day! But, it was a spirited discussion…

Jan 2018
Good rules should be designed for higher adoption

How do we drive adoption for rules in a community, or even at a country level ? Should a good rule be designed to make it easily enforceable…

Sep 2016
Public policy, ripple effects and feedback loops

I have always been intrigued by product design and by extension policy design (& implementation). If the government were to look at itself as a start-up technology venture,…

Apr 2016
Easier to be Krishna than to be Arjun

The other day, my mom shared a powerful and thought-provoking quote, that she had just read. It’s easier to be Krishna, than to be Arjun !! And she…

Sep 2015
Lessons from “David & Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell

“David and Goliath – Underdogs, Misfits and the art of battling giants” is the new book from Malcolm Gladwell which is based on the premise that maybe we…

Jul 2014
How to save the Boiling Frog?

We have all heard about the boiling frog phenomenon – Put a frog in boiling water and it would immediately jump out. Instead keep a frog in cold…

Feb 2014
Simplest way to build trust and confidence

Many a times, we face a situation where we feel that our team members do not have trust and confidence in us or each other. Whether its a…

Oct 2013
Why Financial Services Cos need Designers and fast !

I just came back from depositing a cheque into a relative’s HDFC Bank account. I know, its a crime that I did not use the Online Money Transfer…

Oct 2013
Leadership Lessons from Making of India – Book by Ranbir Vohra

It was quite some time back that I read the book – Making of India – by Ranbir Vohra. This was December 2006 and I had a habit…

Sep 2013
Bell Curve and the Appraisal Process

Imagine that a football team needs a manager/coach, someone who can motivate the players and help them deliver much more than they ever imagined they could. Now imagine…

Aug 2013