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Substance Over Optics
During my consulting days, while working for a healthcare client, we made a beautiful PowerPoint deck -- what else would a consultant do? 😊 But the client asked us to get the presentation jazzed up by their favorite visual graphics company....
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Embracing Abnormality
When I landed at Wharton, the constant refrain I heard was – “MBA is all about networking. So build connections and make friends.” Academics and...
Intuitions
During my stint as an investor, once the CFO of an Indian conglomerate came to our office with his team. They were looking for funding since their...
Prioritizing Health Over Career
I first went to a gym in class 12th, for three days. And then, I quit. After many false starts, in 2009, I finally nailed the habit. For the last 12...
Ego’s Paradox
Ego is not always your enemy. I first realized this in 2001, when as a police officer, I was facing a fierce agitation by a tribal group from...
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Winning is not everything
VCs love to talk about the unicorns in their portfolio – and understandably so. But why don’t we talk about how many of our companies are ethical? Sometimes, winning at ANY cost is not 'winning’ -- it is ‘cheating.’ Long ago, when I came to Kerala...
Principle of leadership
A few years ago, at an organic food show in Trivandrum, a girl at the entry counter stopped me. And with the zeal of a convert, she shoved a pamphlet in my face, and started lambasting how evil genetically modified (GM) food was. I am not for or...
Lessons from Finance
In a finance class at Wharton, I realized the root cause of the 2008 financial meltdown -- complexity. And if we are not careful, for the same reason, many will get hurt in the current crypto craze. In the abovementioned class, the professor...
Individuality
In my first year at IIT, we had a race -- no, not the rat race, but a literal one. We had to pick a humanities course, which was assigned ‘first come, first served.’ Prof Amit Ray’s course on arts/design was the most popular -- he gave ‘A’ grades...