Aage daud, pichhe pakad!

Read this interesting theory last week.

When org units are small, growing at scale is easy. In sports (Kohli’s average keeps upping, Man-U keeps winning) or like in entertainment (Salman can’t fail, Warner Bros the same).

As org units grow large, the opposite’s true. Large firms and nations grow slowly. It’s tough to build because they have to maintain (their old base) and at scale, other problems creep in –motivation, attrition, goal alignment, etc. They stand for “Aage daud, pichhe chhod” in colloquial hindi.

Large orgs with growth at scale (viz., acceleration) are rare. They are either the fanatics (Swiss, Japs, Singaporeans as countries) or the perennial innovators (tech bellwethers like Alibaba, Intel, Google), the best both. They’ve 3 distinct traits. Their leaders keep them focused on being a fanatic innovator. Their leaders dream “What if” to “Aage daud” as juniors maintain the “What is” to “Pichhe Pakad”. They don’t manage creeping problems; they crush them.

NCR is where we began. Soon, it attained scale but kept growing with these 3 traits. Our new channels, business models and leaders are a tribute to those fanatics.

Sounds tough to do, even tougher to implement: “Aage daud, pichhe pakad” is the only way at scale.