The Culture Conundrum in SMEs
A Founder’s Blind Spot That Quietly Sabotages Growth In the global discourse on entrepreneurship, culture is often celebrated as the ultimate differentiator—a silent architecture that determines whether a company compounds its capabilities or collapses under its own weight. Yet in the world of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially across India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, […]
Ownership Is a Responsibility, Not a Trump Card
Across geographies and industries from Silicon Valley’s venture-backed start-ups to India’s relentless SME sector one truth stands unchallenged the founder owns the business. This fact is incontestable, immune to dilution, and self-evident to every employee who walks through your door. Yet a curious paradox persists. Many founders feel compelled to announce, assert, or signal this […]
Why Enterprise Sales Is a Different Species and Why Founders Struggle with It
Enterprise sales isn’t just a bigger version of normal sales it’s a completely different discipline. It demands patience, precision, process, and persuasion across multiple stakeholders. Yet, many founders who’ve never done enterprise sales try to run it on emotion, instinct & charisma and end up derailing their own teams and credibility. Transactional Sales vs. Enterprise Sales Transactional sales = quick, […]
The Silent Risk in Promoter-Led Enterprises: Misalignment, Not Competition
In the landscape of promoter-led enterprises, the gravest threat rarely comes from competitors it stems from within. The quiet assassin of growth is not the market, but misalignment. When ambition begins to outpace execution, momentum fades not with noise, but with silence. Across my professional journey, I have observed this subtle yet recurrent pattern in […]
The Silo Effect, When Decision Makers Drift Away from Doers, The Biggest Boat Leak
In many Indian-SME boardrooms and mid-sized companies, a quiet but serious leak is happening. It’s not in the finances, not in the machines, nor even in the market—but in the distance between decision-makers and doers. I call it the “silo effect” the executive team sits in the cabin, charts the course, yet the rowers in the boat […]
The Peril of Borrowed Wisdom Why Every Business Must Learn to Think for Itself
In countless conversations with founders and directors of SMEs, I have observed a recurring and rather troubling pattern the tendency to run their businesses based on advice borrowed from friends or relatives who neither share the same industry nor possess the same business realities. The intention, of course, is rarely malicious. Most of these well-meaning […]
Stop Debating Fixed Pay. Start Fixing What’s Broken.
Stop Debating Fixed Pay. Start Fixing What’s Broken. A few weeks ago, I was sitting with a founder who confidently said “We don’t want salespeople asking for higher fixed pay. Let them earn through commissions.” It’s a line I’ve heard dozens of times over the years.And every single time, it comes from someone who’s never […]
Hiring & Retaining Exceptional Talent the Hardest Task, and the Truest Test of Leadership
Context & Purpose At the heart of every enduring organization lies one differentiator — its people. While strategy, capital, and technology can be replicated, culture and talent cannot.Yet, despite competitive compensation and modern HR policies, many companies struggle with high attrition and disengagement.Conversely, some, like Idea Cellular, Aditya Birla Group, Tata Group, Trade Kings, Cisco, […]
Most ERPs Don’t Fail at the Project Level, They Fail in the Boardroom Itself
ERP failures rarely begin in the IT department or at the implementation stage. They begin much earlier — in the boardroom, where the direction, intent, and priorities of digital transformation are first defined. In most companies, especially in India’s mid-sized manufacturing and family-run enterprises, ERP becomes a topic of prestige rather than purpose. Executives talk […]
Customer Experience Is Not a department “It’s a Culture”
Great customer experience doesn’t start with customers. It starts with employees who care. In boardrooms and shopfloors across India, the phrase “customer experience” sounds strategic, even aspirational. Yet too many SME’s especially family-run businesses treat CX as a checklist item: a complaint desk, a polite receptionist, or a wishful tagline on a brochure. That’s the […]