Podcast Themes

Viral Doshi speaks about the evolution of trends in how students make choices over the years. He also speaks about the distinction between how children in cities are making choices compared to those in Tier 2, 3,4 towns in India.

Viral speaks about the fork in the road when he and his father shut down the Alloys business in early 2000s. He mentions that if he hadn’t come down this path of counselling children, he would have loved to be the headmaster of a Boarding School.

Bill Burnett speaks about how he thought about navigating through various choices and transitions and how he balanced pursuing his passion and being pragmatic in terms of providing for his family without swinging too far to one side.

Neeraj Aggarwal speaks about how he has tuned into the vital few things that energize him (good conversations with good people, kids, sport, Plaksha). He speaks about how he has been intentional in architecting this portfolio.

Michiel Kruyt speaks about how Ambition can be a finite resource which could empty at some point in time but Purpose can be a perennially replenishing driving force if we tune into it.

Jeffrey Pfeffer speaks about how he came around to studying Power. He also goes on to speak about the kinds of career choices he has made and what he has said No to over time as his Power increased over time.

Tarun Khanna speaks about how enduring families think of dealing with the question of the next generation entering the business. He speaks about how the more evolved families give the next generation an opportunity to actualize their potential and go on a process of self-discovery.

Alisa Cohn speaks about the phenomenon where the Founder, as the company scales up, has to give away some part of the job that he or she really really enjoyed. As the company scales up the Founder often needs to get involved with the building of the company and not really the specific activity or function that really brought him or her energy. And that can be a non-trivial transition.

Alisa Cohn speaks speaks about how with certain Founders, their passion can lead to them turning into a “bully” when they lead teams. Their internal drive and energy can spill over into the team and that can have negative consequences for the organization

Ravi Venkatesan refers to the work of Charles Handy and says that in the future, there will be three broad kinds of work – Creatives, Caregivers and Custodians. He goes on to say that it is critical that we map ourselves into one or two of the three and develop deep capabilities to ensure that we are the top of that particular field as there is a significant risk of commoditization if we are an “also ran” in a field.

Harsh Mariwala speaks about how his children are charting their journey. He goes on to say that he would like them to make choices on their own terms based on their interests and skills.

Harish Bhat speaks about him taking a sabbatical 25 years into his career. He reflects on the fact that he was in a good place in his career and there were enough forces that were urging him to continue. He speaks about what he gained from the pause.