Building Blocks: Decoding the defining factors beyond fundamentals

Last week, we explored resilience, integrity, and accountability through experiences shared by prominent business leaders. Now, we turn to the other defining factors that kept them afloat and propelled them to where they are today.

Success is never certain. Life and careers bring ups and downs, and true strength is shown by how fast we recover and keep moving. Setbacks often stem from complacency—trusting past wins or slipping into autopilot. Comfort zones grow quietly, often unnoticed until a crisis forces awareness and change.

Complacency kills

In my conversation with Rajesh Krishnamurthy, Business Director, CPD-India, Himalaya Wellness, he reflected on a mid-career failure that became a defining turning point in his journey. Midway through his career, Rajesh faced a major setback. After 12–13 years of strong success, he admits he had grown overconfident, believing he had the Midas touch. Looking back, he realised that he had not fully understood what he still needed to learn or unlearn.

As the business began to struggle, he was forced to confront difficult truths. The failure was tied to his leadership, his appetite for risk, and his inability at that time to fully understand the local realities around him. Some decisions, he says, were made without going deep enough. It was a painful lesson, but one that changed him. That phase pushed him to pause, reflect, and look inward. He took a break to understand what had gone wrong. Even today, that failure continues to shape him. It makes him restless in the face of challenges, but in a constructive way. It gives him energy, sharpens his judgment, and makes him unafraid to act.

In many ways, that setback laid the foundation for the second innings of his career. When the Himalaya opportunity came, it arrived at the right moment. This new phase was very different from the first—less structured and global, but far more entrepreneurial and empowering. Leading a smaller business gave him the space to experiment, grow, and rebuild. What once felt like failure ultimately became the force that helped him shape a far stronger second innings.

Our iceberg was melting

Rituparna Chakraborty, Partner – Regional Lead, True Search, reflected on this reality through her TeamLease experience during the Lehman Brothers crash.

At that time, TeamLease was heavily dependent on the financial services industry, and the crisis wiped out nearly 50% of its revenue in just 45 days. It was a moment of truth for her and the organisation.

There are moments in business when a crisis demands action in an impossibly short span of time. For TeamLease, the Lehman Brothers crash created exactly such a moment. The company had to stabilise itself quickly just to stay afloat. It was a defining period that demanded honesty, resilience, hard work, and difficult decisions. A major question weighed heavily on Rituparna and the founders: should they wind up the business, or find a way forward? At that stage, survival itself was uncertain. The easier option would have been to retreat, but they chose instead to fight, rebuild, and adapt.

They invested in process and technology, strengthened the business, and diversified into other sectors. What initially felt like a devastating setback turned out to be a blessing in disguise, pushing the company out of its comfort zone. The crisis forced sharper focus, closer customer alignment, and better decision-making. Over time, it reinforced a lesson that many leaders come to understand only through adversity: success teaches little, but failure teaches far more. The lessons learnt under pressure stay with you because they are hard-earned.

As Rituparna reflects on that period, she sees it as one of the most valuable learning experiences of her career. When the ground beneath you is shifting, every part of your skill set is tested. In such moments, resilience, judgment, and courage matter most. What was once a period of uncertainty and fear ultimately became a defining chapter of growth and transformation.

The devil is always in the details

In crisis, leadership is defined by calmness, compassion, and clarity. Sanjay Sharma, CEO, Orkla India, shared an incident that forever reshaped his view of business.

Among the many lessons he learnt across his career, one of the most defining came during his years at Dabur. Turning around a young business was never easy, and in its early years the team had focussed far more on sales and marketing than on the deeper mechanics of the business. The margins appeared reasonable, and there was passion in the team, but they had not yet developed a sharp enough understanding of what was really happening beneath the surface of the numbers.

That changed abruptly when Amit Burman called him in for a meeting with Mr. GCB (G.C. Burman). Until then, neither of them fully realised how serious the situation had become. The numbers were stark: on a turnover of ₹28 crore, the business had recorded a loss of ₹18 crore for the year, while cumulative losses had climbed to nearly ₹32–34 crore. The message they received was blunt. They had 12 months to bring the loss down to zero or the business would be shut. If that happened, they would not only be held accountable for the failure, but would also have to personally let go of the 150 employees working in the business.

The ultimatum came as a shock, but it also became the turning point. They went back immediately, reopened the P&L, and began studying it line by line. With the help of a strong finance team, they worked to understand every journal entry, every cost head, and every area where the business was bleeding. Over the next year, they institutionalised systems, tightened controls, and pushed the team to think like owners. Importantly, they never passed the pressure of the deadline onto the larger team—that burden remained with the leaders.

The results were dramatic. The business grew from ₹28 crore to ₹34 crore in topline revenue, while losses were cut from ₹18 crore to just ₹4 crore within a year. That performance earned the business another chance to continue. From there, there was no looking back. Over time, the company scaled from the thirties to ₹50 crore, then ₹100 crore, then ₹200 crore. Nine and a half years later, it had reached ₹250 crore, wiped out the cumulative losses, and delivered its first ₹14 crore profit. For him, that turnaround became a major turning point in his career.

The experience taught him that there is no substitute for hard work, commitment, and a deep understanding of the numbers. To lead a business well, one must understand the P&L in detail—not just the headline figures, but every entry that shapes performance. He believes many companies fail because leaders do not examine the details close enough. To remove ₹14 crore in costs, they had to identify dozens of wasteful expenses, some seemingly small but symbolically important. One such example was a casual culture of distributing juice cases as gifts, with the cost routinely charged to the business. It was not the biggest cost item, but it represented the larger problem: unnecessary expenses kept alive by habit and inertia. The lesson that stayed with him was simple—the devil is always in the details.

Easy decisions rarely define leadership

In business, the line between personal and professional life is often blurred, making tough decisions even more complex. As the workplace becomes an extended family, leaders are frequently tested on values and judgment. Sujit Das Munshi, Former COO and General Manager, Gracenote, shared a powerful incident in which his integrity was put to the test and how he balanced professional duty with personal compassion.

Across 32 years of leadership, Sujit had seen many colleagues leave—some voluntarily, others as part of difficult business decisions made in the interest of efficiency. Yet only once did he feel compelled, with complete conviction, to ask someone to leave. It was the only time in his career he felt so strongly that either the individual would remain in the company, or he would. That moment, he says, stands apart not only because of the decision itself, but because of the intense emotional and moral clarity it demanded.

The incident took place while he was leading the India business. He does not name the individual or disclose the details, except to say that it involved an integrity issue—not financial misconduct, but a deeper violation of human integrity and the values he considers non-negotiable, both in work and in life. The act was committed against another person, not against him directly. But as the leader of the unit, he believed accountability rested squarely with him. What happened under his watch was his responsibility, and that was what made the decision unavoidable.

What made the moment difficult was not deciding whether the behaviour was wrong. In his mind and in the minds of others who knew of it, the line had been crossed. The conduct was clearly unacceptable. The real difficulty emerged only after he made the decision. Almost immediately, he began hearing about the consequences the individual and his family would face. Friends and associates tried to impress upon him what the decision would mean: a lost job, financial stress, uncertainty about future employment, children at a vulnerable stage of their education, and a household carrying responsibilities for ageing, unwell parents. No one directly told him he would regret the decision, but that message was clearly being conveyed.

He admits those realities made him pause. He is human, he says, and hearing about ailing parents and dependent children naturally stirred empathy. But the pause was brief. He returned to the same conclusion: the consequences were not the result of his choice, but of the individual’s own failure of judgment. To overlook that breach would have sent the wrong signal to the entire organisation. A leader cannot condone values violation simply because the consequences of accountability are painful. If such behaviour is tolerated, culture itself is weakened.

Still, he did not want compassion to disappear from the process. So while he went ahead with the decision as leader of the unit, he also reached out privately through mutual friends with an offer to support the family in practical ways. If the individual’s children needed help with education, he would contribute personally. If the parents faced medical difficulties, he would help where he could. It was, in his view, the most humane response possible in circumstances where the professional decision itself could not be altered.

For Sujit, that experience captures the essence of value-based leadership. Leaders are not tested when everything goes according to plan; they are tested when circumstances go off track and difficult calls must be made. Easy decisions rarely define leadership. The real test comes when one must uphold values despite discomfort, pressure, or emotional cost. If a leader truly believes in a value system, then he or she must be prepared to make the toughest call in its defence. Otherwise, there is little point in claiming those values at all.

You do not always get to play in your own courtyard

Sunay Bhasin, CEO, MTR Foods, shared a simple story that continues to remind him that adaptability, preparation, and humility matter as much as ability. A small hostel tournament, though not life-altering, left a lasting mark on him. It taught him the value of doing his homework, preparing for changing circumstances, and never assuming that past success will automatically translate into new situations.

“Not every important lesson comes from a life-changing event. Some stay with you because they arrive in small, unexpected moments. One such lesson came to me during my post-graduation days, when we used to play a game in the hostel that was similar to foot volleyball. We played on a badminton court, using only our legs and heads, never our hands. My team was reasonably good (not exceptional), but strong enough to think of ourselves as one of the better groups around.

“That confidence grew further when an inter-hostel tournament came around. We genuinely believed we were among the strongest teams. But the tournament was held in another hostel, on a completely different court. We were used to an old, worn surface where the ball bounced low. On the new tiled court, the same ball behaved very differently, it bounced far higher and changed the rhythm of the game entirely. “We walked in overconfident, without practicing or familiarising ourselves with the new conditions, and were badly beaten in the very first round.

“That failure taught me something I have never forgotten: never take your strengths for granted. What looks like a strength in one environment can quickly become a weakness in another. Performance does not depend only on talent or confidence; it also depends on context—your surroundings, the conditions, the competition, and how well you adapt. You do not always get to play in your own courtyard.

“What hurt most was not just losing, but realising how preventable it had been. We had not even competed properly because we had failed to prepare. A little practice, a little humility, and some time spent understanding the new court might have made all the difference. Instead, we relied on confidence alone, and that confidence turned into complacency.”

Bankruptcy taught me how to build with wisdom, discipline, and resilience

Entrepreneurial risk-taking drives growth, but disciplined management ensures survival. K.S. Kamalakannan (KSK), Chairman, Naga Limited, reflects on rebuilding his business from bankruptcy without resorting to mass layoffs.

Growing up in a business family shaped his ambition early. His father was a first-generation entrepreneur who worked with large companies such as Britannia, Hindustan Lever, and Tata, and that exposure created in him a strong desire to build something equally large. But, as he later realised, ambition had outpaced experience. Without first learning how to manage a large business, he tried to build one.

After a family business partition in 1992, his brother chose to separate, believing KSK was too entrepreneurial and prone to risk. That instinct proved partly right. In 1995, after losing his father, he went on an aggressive expansion spree, opening factories across Tamil Nadu. One after another, they began to fail. By 1998, he was bankrupt. His liabilities had far exceeded his assets, to the point where even selling everything would not have cleared what he owed.

It was one of the most painful phases of his life, but it also forced a defining choice: give up and let the bankers take over, or fight back and rebuild. Having already lost everything, he decided he had nothing further to lose. This time, however, he would rebuild slowly and carefully, one block at a time, with the hard lessons of failure behind him.

At that low point, he turned to an auditor who was far more than a financial professional—he was a guide and philosopher. The advice he received was strikingly simple. First: do not let anyone take you to court. Second: no more losses. Whether the business made one rupee or one hundred was secondary; the first priority was to stop the bleeding. Those two principles became the foundation of his recovery.

He began approaching lenders one by one, explaining honestly what had happened. He had not wasted their money; he had expanded the business, but the expansion had failed. Some responded harshly, and many conversations were difficult, but he persisted. He had borrowed from around 40 places and had roughly 80 contracts to settle. The only way forward was to humble himself, negotiate patiently, and work through each obligation one at a time.

At the same time, he focussed relentlessly on eliminating losses. Every part of the business had to move from bleeding to at least generating a modest profit. Slowly, over time, the business stabilised and began to rebuild. Looking back, he says many people might see the decade from 1998 to 2008 as years lost. He does not. For him, those 10 years were a profound education—painful, humbling, and transformative. He had seen both extremes of business life: success and collapse. And it was from bankruptcy that he learnt how to build with wisdom, discipline, and resilience.

Happiness is choosing to see beyond life’s inevitable imperfections

When asked about the defining moment that shaped her life, Rekha Nahar, General Manager and Head – Marketing, Jockey India, goes back to her father. Rather than speaking about her father’s achievements, she points to something even more powerful: the way he has lived through adversity. Despite facing a major health challenge and undergoing regular dialysis, her father has never allowed illness to define him. He remains active, cheerful, and deeply engaged with life, even on the toughest days.

For her, that example has become a daily source of perspective. Whenever she faces challenges, she thinks of her father’s simple response to hardship: it is part of life, and one must keep moving. Having closely seen what chronic illness does to patients and their families, she knows how profoundly it changes everyday life. Yet she feels that, rather than the family giving strength to her father, it is her father who gives strength to everyone around him.

One incident remains especially vivid in her mind. On a day when her father had just returned home after dialysis—typically a time when he would not be feeling well, someone came seeking help for a family wedding. The person could not afford a wedding hall and hoped her father might assist, since he had a connection there. Without hesitation, her father got up, walked to the venue, spoke to the management, secured the booking, and returned home. That act, done quietly in the middle of personal discomfort, became for her a living example of guidance, leadership, generosity, and grace.

That example changed the way she looks at life. It reminded her that everyone faces setbacks, but resilience is not about avoiding pain—it is about responding to it with courage and positivity. She learnt that true strength lies in choosing not to be consumed by hardship, but to continue spreading hope and kindness despite it. In that sense, her father became her greatest lesson in resilience, and the defining influence on how she chooses to face life and leadership.

(Part 4 of a four-part series. The writer is the author of Building Blocks: Lessons on leadership that I’ve learnt on my journey, and the founder of Prajna Consulting, a boutique consulting firm. Views are personal.)