The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 32 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Shivakumar: 90% of Indian brands fail due to excessive promotions
“90% of the brands in India have gone down the tube because of excessive promotions.”
Shivakumar: Initiatives that fail to surprise competitors offer no advantage
“If you're not going to be surprising competition, which means there's no advantage, ok? Forget it.”
Shivakumar: Rich people buy brands for vanity; poor people for security
“So I always say rich people buy brands for vanity to show off. Poor people buy brands for security.”
Shivakumar: Jockey performed well in apparel but is now becoming diffused
“I think Jockey was doing a great job in the Aparil business for quite some time, but I think today they might be getting diffused.”
Shivakumar: Job candidates should not trust grand CEO career promises
“Don't get swayed by a CEO who talks rubbish, who makes grand plans, five years you'll be here, 10 years, don't get carried away by that. Because a lot of CEOs promise and don't do anything.”
Shivakumar: MNC budget-setting exercises are exercises in minimalization
“In most MNCs, a budget setting exercise is an exercise in minimalization. What is the least I can get away with?”
Shivakumar: Hire 'whole number' managers, not 'decimal point' managers
“So, always look for what I call the full number manager, not the decimal point manager.”
Shivakumar: Academic degrees never factor into my hiring decisions
“I have never bothered about whether this guy is from an IM or an MBA or this or that. Never bothered. I only look for results. Can this guy work with people? Can this girl work with people? Can they produce results? Never in my consideration has been a degree.”
Shivakumar: At least 50% of founders massage data for investors
“I believe at least 50% of founders massage the data and the numbers before they come to the investor.”
Shivakumar: India's middle class is at most 430 million people
“If you're talking the middle class of India, that's about 404 hundred and thirty million people. Can't be more than that.”
Shiv Shivakumar: Founders should invest in innovation over price cuts during turbulence
“You know, a lot of founders, the other mistake they make is, the first sign of rough weather or turbulence, they cut price. In fact, I would say the first sign of turbulence, invest in innovation. Get something new to the table. Because in every troubled times…”
Shivakumar: CEOs should never outsource presentations to junior staff
“A lot of CEOs outsource their presentation to a junior manager. Don't do that. It's your voice. When somebody else does it, it's not your voice. It's a voice over. A voice over is very different from a voice.”
Shivakumar: Legacy FMCG companies have entirely missed the quick-commerce disruption
“Yeah, but today that model is severely disrupted with Q-commerce and e-commerce, etc, severely, which the same old legacy companies haven't woken up, which is, you know, the point of disruption.”
Shivakumar: FMCG industry talks constantly about innovation but actually has none
“In these industries, product mattered, innovation mattered. In FMCG, innovation didn't matter. They all talk about it, but there's no innovation.”
Shivakumar: Companies will hire for soft skills and train hard skills
“So I think, I personally believe in a future world, we will hire for soft skills and train for hard skills. In the past, we hired for hard skills and trained for soft skills.”
Shiv Shivakumar: Projecting the past forward is a CEO's biggest sin
“One of the biggest sins of a CEO is past forward. You think that the past will repeat itself.”
Shivakumar: Junior employees possess more tech insight than senior executives
“Today, the information and the insight logic, that pyramid is upside down. Today, young people have much more information and insight on everything to do with technology and the impact of technology. In fact, the higher up you are on the value chain, the lower…”
Shivakumar: Brands targeting narrow age cohorts risk dying as customers age
“So if you target only for Gen Z's, they age, remember, in five, 10 years time. So you have to be relevant. Like we used to say, it's not about age, but do you, are you young at heart? That's what it is. You know, and if you are not able to straddle that as a b…”
Shivakumar: India's elder care boom stems from 1980s brain drain
“The elder care has become a very big market thanks to that brain drain as an example. Now, that's what you go back as a brand person. You have to correlate events to say, okay, that happened in the nineties, eighties. This elder care business is taking off now…”
Shivakumar: A lot of talented Indians will return to India
“Now, I personally believe you'll see a lot of talented Indians coming back. A lot of talent Indians will say, hey, there is good opportunity in India. Maybe there was some kind of opportunity in this country, but maybe India is worth trying.”
Shivakumar: 90% of My Decisions Over 20 Years as CEO Were Correct
“When I look back at my decisions over the last, ah, 20 years as a CEO, I could say that nine times out of 10 I was right. And that's a pretty good strike rate.”
Shivakumar: Experienced Leaders Face Friction When Others Cannot Intuit Solutions
“Now what happens when you are prepared, when you have experience, and by and large you want to do the right thing for the institution is, the answer comes to you intuitively. So when the answer comes to you intuitively, there is certain pride in saying that an…”
Shivakumar: Background verification agencies find 5% to 7% fraud in candidate checks
“Today I was talking to somebody in the verification business. They verify candidates for first job to IT companies, banks, etc, etc. I asked him, ah, you know, hey Ravi, if you interviewed hundred people, the company asked you to interview hundred people, do t…”
Shivakumar: I never outsourced or repeated a presentation in 30 years
“I've never outsourced my presentations to anybody. I do it myself. Number one. I've never repeated a presentation in 30 years of my life.”
Shiv: Nokia scaled Indian retail outlets beyond China's mobile phone industry
“So we went from about 40 distributors to about 400. We went from I think, 10, 15,000 outlets to more than a lakh outlets or two lakh outlets, which is more outlets than China mobile phone industry.”
Shiv: Mobile phone makers die without 40% yearly revenue from new models
“Then suddenly you are in an industry like mobile phones where if half, 40% of your sales don't come from new models launched that year, you are dead. It's over.”
Shivakumar: 2003 pricing strategy drove 43% quarterly volume growth at Unilever
“And when we did that, the first quarter, when we put this whole strategy in place, we grew 43% volume growth.”
Shivakumar: Rare Rabbit has done a fantastic job over past six years
“A rare rabbit, ok, in Aparil, in the last five, six years, they've done a fantastic job.”
Shivakumar: Faster-Drying Fabrics Are a Key Unmet Need in Sarees
“One of the biggest unmet needs for poor women on sarees is faster drying sarees. Because a number of those sarees are polyester sarees. They wash it. They want it to dry fast.”
Shivakumar: Only 5% to 7% of business school grads become mid-to-large company CEOs
“If you look at empirical data of mid-sized to large-sized companies, not startups and people who start their own company, about five to seven percent of a batch makes it to CEO.”
Shivakumar: Aging parents and teenage children trigger diaspora returns
“When I interviewed those people, there were two, what I call crossroad points. The first crossword point is, my parents are getting old Shiv, I want to come back. I need to take care of them. Ok, whatever I've done is enough, fine, but I want to come back. If …”