Corporate leaders' half-life has shrunk over the past few decades. That is the Tata experience as well. Over 144 years till 2012, Tata Sons had just five chairmen. However, in the 15 years till 2027, the same group will see three, points out R Gopalakrishnan.
Susim Mukul Datta has not passed away, rather he is the ever-youthful leader to all who knew him, points out R Gopalakrishnan.
These are 'hidden champions' of strategic research and innovation. They are worthy of emulation within Indian industry, and maybe even a Padma!, notes R Gopalakrishnan.
Here stood a man who embodied the legacy of whatever Brand Tata stood for, embellished it, and departed into the long night, leaving the brand legacy for others to further enrich, notes R Gopalakrishnan.
Here is the Brahma Mantra for mankind. So long as the world has leaders with judgement -- humane, compassionate, and no-nonsense in their thinking -- natural intelligence will prevail, notes R Gopalakrishnan.
Many lay folks cannot fathom the arcane language of the corporate governance brouhaha. I found that a mythological story connects very well, says R Gopalakrishnan.
The Tata empire turns 150 this year. R Gopalakrishnan, former director, Tata Sons Ltd, imagines a conversation among the group's founder Jamsetji, his son Dorabji, his successor, Nowroji Saklatwala, and his successor, J R D Tata.
For the new millennium generation, slowly and at an accelerating pace, it is attractive to harbour a start-up ambition, says R Gopalakrishnan.
T Thomas, former chairman of Hindustan Unilever, passed away March 2.
India has no idiosyncratic innovation ecosystem, distinctively its own. Our VCs will not rush to fund brilliant ideas, says R Gopalakrishnan.
Technology infrastructure solves many problems, but it cannot build roads or bridges and provide clean water. However, such activities are essential for human progress, and their creation provides jobs, says R Gopalakrishnan.
Let start-ups be start-ups until they become grown-ups, let young entrepreneurs be experimental and bold, let VCs do their job, but for God's sake, the nation must prime the real grown-ups to solve the imminent issues., says R Gopalakrishnan.
'There is little point in getting adoption without profit sustainability or the converse.' 'This is the dilemma that many Indian innovators face,' says R Gopalakrishnan.
Tracing the early life of the humble ballpoint pen to its present.
Swachh Bharat Mission could focus on using technological innovation to eradicate the problem of open defecation, says R Gopalakrishnan.
If an entire business is constructed on the platform of one brand ambassador, there is inherent risk of life-after.
Funding Indian start-ups has slowed down.
The government's Swachh Bharat programme presents entrepreneurs with a chance to curb open defecation and make money in the process.
There are quite a few lesson that upcoming entrepreneurs must learn from housing.com controversy.
Israel is very good at creating innovation engines, India less so.
