Articles

April 18, 2018

India’s accelerating entrepreneurship culture

6th April, 2018 BUSINESS STANDARD

When I started my HUL career (incidentally, in data processing), some data work was already being undertaken in Tata under US-returned
February 17, 2018

Can startups dance with grownups?

2nd Feb 2018, BUSINESS STANDARD

Nature teaches us that even a big herd of mighty elephants can be distracted and deranged by tiny bees which buzz around their flapping ears
December 8, 2017

Why do not ‘wow’ innovations become unicorns?

8th Dec 2017, BUSINESS STANDARD

The two ends of the innovation journey are rich with literature: the early stage, associated with start-ups, emphasizes creativity and cleverness, and the late stage, associated with large companies, emphasizes scaling and discipline. The in-between pathway is scantier in literature-richness.
November 10, 2017

Start-ups should grow as per their nature

10th Nov 2017, BUSINESS STANDARD

Every species has a natural growth rate, determined by its genetics, metabolism and its environment. Nature frowns on a species grown artificially except within certain limits. Fruit-flies don’t try to become as big as cows, and cows don’t try to become big like elephants.
October 23, 2017

A Biography of Innovations: How to develop a culture with creative failures

21st Oct 2017, BUSINESS STANDARD

When an organization wants to be more accepting of failure and experimental, what are the barriers? Everyone agrees that breakthrough attempts are essential for innovation and, hence, the risk of failure must be accepted by organizations.
October 16, 2017

Start-ups: the good, the bad and the ugly

13th Oct 2017, BUSINESS STANDARD

Businesses have been regenerative for centuries. Today’s established corporations were start-ups at some stage.
September 15, 2017

Can start-ups really impact the economy?

15st Sep 2017, BUSINESS STANDARD

My answer is ‘No’ if we refer to e-commerce type of start-ups and the time horizon is 10 years. For sure, technology can and will impact, for example, India’s healthcare and education access issues in the long run.
September 6, 2017

THE SMILING BUDHA OF HR: Tarun Sheth

ECONOMIC TIMES

While reflecting about the column on careers and business life, I asked myself what purpose could be served by such an effort.
July 31, 2017

Infatuation with cleverness more than impact

31st July 2017, BUSINESS STANDARD

R. Gopalakrishnan, Author, Corporate Advisor and Distinguished Professor at IIT Kharagpur How do you assess the impact of an innovation? Consider which of these four innovations has made greatest impact on mankind - invention of anesthesia, synthesis of urea fertilizer, discovery of penicillin or internet / email. The answer depends on how greatly the innovation has been adopted and how much it has changed peoples’ lives.