The Best Advice I Ever Got

What was the problem you were grappling with?

We were re-strategising a business when I took up my role as a CEO for the first time in late 2012. I was tasked with creating the product lines, organisation design and its structure.

Whom did you approach for advice?

I reached out to Raamdeo Agrawal, Chairman and Co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, and my then boss.

What was the advice you received?

He told me with his characteristic earthy intelligence: “kapda jaise katoge, suit waisa silega; silne se suit nahin silega”. As we all know, tailoring a good suit that fits well is an art and a science; and very few tailors get it right. Paraphrasing in English, he meant that a well-fitted suit is not tailored by stitching. A suit is tailored the moment the cloth is cut. If you don’t cut the cloth as per the suit you intend to tailor, the quality or precision of stitching is irrelevant.

How effective was it in resolving the problem?

I think, for a first-time CEO back then, there couldn’t have been a better piece of advice. In fact, any company or business plan I evaluate, it is a habit for me to first ask them: How is the organisation designed? What is the structure? And, what kind of people have the key roles? It tells me a lot about the intent and the potential to deliver.

—ALOKESH BHATTACHARYYA

Vol. 31, No. 19 for the fortnight September 5, 2022 to September 18, 2022. Released on September 5, 2022. Total number of pages 108 (including cover)

‘A suit is tailored the moment the cloth is cut’