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Why Continuous Improvement Beats Market Leadership
Around 2006, Steve Ballmer, the then CEO of Microsoft, came to Wharton for a talk. After he finished his talk, a student asked why Microsoft was not as innovative as Apple (or something to that effect). Ballmer said that Microsoft was a 95% market...
Recent Posts
Status Quo Is Just Furniture Waiting to Be Moved
When I first landed in Kerala as a Civil Services officer trainee, we were staying in a guest house managed by the police department. One evening,...
Success and Niceness: Why Being Kind Still Matters
Recently, I saw a familiar face in the news -- this person was appointed as a leader of a major global corporation. And I remembered that I had...
Effective Delegation: Letting Go Is the First Step to Leadership
When you delegate work, remind yourself that: 1. People won't approach problems the way you do. 2. People's slides or spreadsheets won't look...
You Will Never Feel Ready – Take the Shot Anyway
All my life, for any big goal I set my eyes on, I always felt underprepared and under-confident -- be it an exam, a job, or a startup. I never felt...
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Why Articulation Matters More Than Performance
The last few days, my wife has been busy writing recommendation letters for her junior IAS officers applying for Fulbright and various other scholarships, for pursuing higher studies. And just like the MBA admissions at US B-Schools, here also,...
Why Struggle Never Ends – Even After Success
There is a 99% chance that your struggles will never cease, no matter how successful you become. But this can't be true! What if one achieves superlative success? How many successful entrepreneurs have you seen who go into quiet retirement after a...
How the Need to Fit In Shapes Our Choices and Behaviour
An ex-colleague used to show up at work with a Tumi bag. When I learned how atrociously expensive these things were, I asked him, "Why did you buy this? Was it worth it?" This guy had bought it while working with a top-tier private equity fund,...
Why Prestigious Jobs Still Leave So Many People Unhappy
About half of the IAS/IPS officers who reach out to me ask me about career opportunities outside the Services. Of course, there is an obvious self-selection here (why else would they reach out to an ex-Civil Servant). Yet, the number of...