10X Growth Strategies

The book The Hard Thing about Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz, narrates the trials and tribulations of a startup journey and the mindset required to be a founding CEO of a startup. Ben who is currently the Partner at Andreeson Horowitz shares tough learning lessons from his experience building several companies.   This episode features Jeetu Patel, EVP & GM of Cisco Security and Collaboration Business Units at Cisco, who shares key insights and deep admiration for the book The Hard Thing about Hard Things. An entrepreneur himself, Jeetu talks about wartime mode vs peacetime mode of operation, managing our psychology as a leader and the importance of setting up a communication framework across the company. Jeetu also elaborates an interesting 6 part stack rank of what a company needs for business success.

Nishant Saxena, CEO of International Markets at Cipla, shares valuable insights from 'The Leadership Pipeline' by Ram Charan. He discusses the common pitfalls that skilled employees face when transitioning to management roles. Nishant emphasizes the importance of mastering competencies to avoid stagnation in careers and the need for effective communication in high-performing teams. He also advocates for cultivating leadership from within organizations, highlighting the role of mentorship and personal growth in developing future leaders.

Phil Jackson, former head coach of the Chicago Bulls team, is popular for introducing the zen approach to the game. In his book, Sacred Hoops, he shares his  experiences of marrying sports with spirituality, and building  high-performing teams by being an invisible coach.   In this episode, Linda Tong, GM of Cisco AppDynamics, lifetime Bulls fan, shares how the book inspired her leadership journey. Let’s listen to the podcast and understand how to put WE before ME, how to visualize like a leader and mentally prepare for tough times, and how mindfulness can help you achieve 10X growth for your team.

Robert Iger, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, is considered one of the innovative and successful CEOs of our time. In his book, The Ride of a Lifetime, he shares his journey and pens down the values that ensured his success. One of the most exciting parts of the book is about Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, a move that re-establishes Disney in the field of animation.  In this episode, Arun Mani, Chief Revenue Officer, talks about what he loved about the book, some principles he related more closely with, and shares some examples of innovation, failures, and the lessons learned from his own life.

We had the pleasure to connect with Ash Seddeek, Chief Excitement Officer at Executive Greatness Institute, formerly with Deloitte Consulting, Oracle and Cisco. His book “Road to Success” outlines 3 strategic steps for career development - Own it, Win it and Crush it. Let’s listen to the podcast  and understand how  strategy, excitement and energy can pave the way for your 10X growth.  

Why do some companies make the leap and others don't? Is it the level 5 leadership qualities of the management team?  How to confront brutal facts in the startup world? How to balance the three levers of doing what you're best at, being passionate about solving a  problem,  and doing something which drives the economic engine.How to bring equilibrium between the culture of discipline and the risk taking entrepreneurial spirit? We had the pleasure of connecting with Madhu Shalini Iyer, entrepreneur, partner at Rocketship.vc (a Silicon Valley based-global VC firm), and a former data scientist to hear about  her contrarian view on Jim Collins’s book - Good to Great. Check out this podcast to learn how to adapt insights from the book to your personal and business goals for 10X growth.

In this episode we connect with Swati Bhatia, Partner at Goldman Sachs to discuss the leadership principles that shaped the innovative culture of Silicon Valley.  Trillion Dollar Coach, authored by Eric Schmidt, Alan Eagle and Jonathan Rosenberg, showcases the life story of Bill Campbell who coached executives across Apple, Google, LinkedIn and several startups in Silicon Valley and helped drive 10X growth and beyond.  A football coach turned high tech executive, Bill Campbell brought out the best in leaders and teams by building an envelope of trust and creating a team first environment. Hear this episode to learn how you can apply the silicon valley success strategies in your life and business.   

'What is The Unknown Edge that separates the mystical from the mundane, the life-transforming from the life-threatening and the ethereal from the earthly'?   In this episode, we speak with Rajita Kulkarni Bagga, Author of the book Unknown Edge and President of Sri Sri University. After a stellar career in banking, Rajita has taken an even bigger initiative to shape the future generation and bring global impact. The Unknown Edge is a guide for business growth, relationship building, and self discovery

Hear key takeaways from the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. Our featured guest for this episode is Gayathri Devi Kalyanaraman Senior Vice President, DBS Bank. Women (and men) take on multiple roles, and these roles often come with a lot of responsibility. So how does one make time to get their work done. How does one prioritize their work among other responsibilities and distractions? In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport talks about the various philosophies one can adopt to do deep work. Cal describes deep work as: "Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate."

In this episode we have a guest host Madhavi Ravanan, SI Delivery Head at Nokia. Madhavi sits down with Ajay Goel, VP of Engineering at Altran, to discuss the book Give and Take by the author Adam Grant.  Ajay shares his insights on what it means to be a giver and how building trust and relationships with people can enhance success. He delves deeper into how vulnerability can help one connect with others and a giver's role in motivating and cultivating talent. Ajay also reveals critical leadership skills he looks for when building a team.