[deehunk]

He is just a bad old middleman harassing drivers and passengers, enjoyed borrowing money all these years.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

While this is both true and a problem, do not underestimate the challenges of running an organisation. Bhavish is possibly the best founder/entrepreneur in India today, though that title will probably be hotly contested by Naveen Tewari, Byju Raveendran, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Yes there are always challenges in running organizations. Yes also to the fact that one has to be smart, hard nosed, factual, take decisions based on data and be careful with the cash flow and keep an eye to the revenues and profits in a sustainable manner.

Yet let us not forget that organizations depend heavily on people too. So it is most decidedly NOT Ok in my view, to be nasty. One has to be human, build a culture of participative, collaborative positivity and above all, it is absolutely NOT right to be either abusive or discriminatory, irrespective of in however much of a ‘hurry’ the founder may be!

As a Senior professional with more than 30 years of working directly in various first class companies (old and new economy) and working closely with customers (both old and new economy), I firmly believe in some of those early words of wisdom taken to heart.

Richard Branson famously said, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

So let us Please, not try and condone crass behaviour by some of these chaps, by making excuses for them. Bad manners and bad behaviour are simply inexcusable in any circumstance. Every single person in the organisation deserves respect and the human touch, from the person who kindly opens the door or the reception person who greets you or the housekeeping person who keeps the premises clean or serves coffee to anyone else in the organozation, upto and including the ‘big’ people and founders and all.

All these so-called ‘entitled and senior, high-net-worth, hgh-achiever, high-end people’ who cannot follow or respect the above simple tenets of decency, are simply ‘lesser people’ in my view. Such persons aren’t worth anyone’s time or respect.

[WorkingGuru]

Originally Posted by Guna

Bhavish Agarwal hurls abuses at staff over trivial things. Looks like a case of a man in a hurry with unrealistic goals.
"Inside Ola Electric, employees said the culture has turned hostile over the last couple of years. In meetings, Aggarwal ripped up presentations because of a missing page number, directed Punjabi epithets at staff and called teams “useless,” according to current and former employees. Executives said in interviews that meetings scheduled for an hour often lasted 10 minutes because Aggarwal would lose patience over a superfluous sentence in a memo, a crooked paper clip or the quality of printing paper."
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bu...k-9339251.html

lol The tone of this article totally reads like a sponsored hit-piece

Agreed Bhavish has taken seemingly excessive loans, but the lenders aren't babies. They very much know the risks of their bets.

His marketed commitments seem fairly credible compared to those by Elon Musk, especially in terms of product tech specs that they reveal.

Anyway, the ball will keep rolling atleast till the cash keeps flowing, be it from investors, or customers.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by WorkingGuru

lol The tone of this article totally reads like a sponsored hit-piece

Is the tone of the article more important than facts? Do you think Money Control lied about Bhavish Aggarwal making a manager run 3 laps around the whole campus? If they lied, I am sure Bhavish Aggarwal will sue them.

If your manager or CEO asks you to run 3 laps around the campus as a punishment for minor mistake, would you consider it fair treatment? I know it is acceptable in military, but this is corporate world.

[shankar.balan]

I was a bit shocked to read this excerpt from that article;

Quote:When Bhavish Aggarwal arrived for a recent visit at the Ola Futurefactory, marketed as the world’s largest electric two-wheeler plant, the company’s founder was quick to spot a shuttered entryway that should have been left open. He immediately summoned a custodial manager, people who were present said, and meted out a punishment: run three laps around the several-acre-large plant. Unquote.

I submit here that this article if true, paints the startup scenario in a poor light. This is just dictatorial behaviour or the typical behaviour of a school yard bully. Absolutely to be reviled.

After all a company is not a boarding school or an army punishment posting. And the CEO is not the prefect or physical education master nor the headmaster or commandant and nor does he own anyone’s soul just because he founded the company that pays the employees’ salaries. Corporal punishment is frowned upon everywhere. Should it be allowed in an aspiring multinational Corporate?

It would be nice though if this man made a rebuttal to the allegations in that article. If he did so, then to be fair we must read that rebuttal too.

Basically, none of us have the right to demean anyone else.

Irrespective.

Period.

There is an old old tenet- Praise in Public. Reprimand in Private. These new-age venture and PE funded heroes would do very well to learn some of these truisms and practise the same diligently.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by WorkingGuru

lol The tone of this article totally reads like a sponsored hit-piece

This is the tone that Bloomberg (whose article it is) and most international journals take. It is actually very mild compared to investigative tech reporting. It's the joy of a free press.

Originally Posted by WorkingGuru

His marketed commitments seem fairly credible compared to those by Elon Musk, especially in terms of product tech specs that they reveal.

Elon has actually built a massively profitable business in Tesla - NPM of 14% as opposed to 6-7% at Mercedes. Teslas are acknowledged by independent reviewers to be excellent cars and tech tours-de-force, if not up to the finishing standards of similarly priced ICE cars. He has also very profitably exited multiple businesses in the past. I am no fan of his, but credit where it is due. BA, on the other hand, burnt a lot of money to take on Uber (without too much tech innovation), got bored of that business, decided he could make money in EVs. Now both venture money and the actual vehicles are burning.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

So let us Please, not try and condone crass behaviour by some of these chaps, by making excuses for them

I don't know what gave you the idea that I condone his behaviour. In fact, I said I would hold off on the hagiography for now. I am responding because it was my post that was quoted. In fact, if I were an employee, I would pay this fine entrepreneur back in his own coin. I hate bullies.

In today's milieu, BA is amongst the best entrepreneurs by way of investor management and value creation. He has managed to create insane value for some very happy investors, and has made a lot of people very rich. Whether that value is deserved is a question that I will not ask now. A similar question might well be applied to ITC, IOC, Exxon, or Reliance.

You and I may not like his way of functioning (I certainly don't) but he is still a better entrepreneur and manager than I am. The ultimate barometer of what is 'better' is market sentiment, both public and private. BA's track record speaks for itself in this regard. Naveen Tewari of InMobi and Glance is probably the polar opposite in behaviour, but he is a rarity.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Richard Branson famously said, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Ah yes, the good Mr. Branson who famously told his employees to take 8 weeks of unpaid leave, while he luxuriated on his private island, where he moved to avoid tax 15 years ago. A tax-refugee billionaire on a private island who preaches austerity is certainly someone I hold in high esteem.

In the long term, no one remembers the bad stuff you do if you make enough money. Some of India's most storied business houses have very questionable antecedents, and it is the same globally. While this is no excuse for bad behaviour, money and the markets simply do not care. You can do what you want to make money, and they will make movies, write paeans, name roads and buildings in your honour. You may even get quoted on topics like employee care, which you don't really believe in.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

I don't know what gave you the idea that I condone his behaviour. In fact, I said I would hold off on the hagiography for now.

In today's milieu, BA is amongst the best entrepreneurs by way of investor management and value creation. He has managed to create insane value for some very happy investors, and has made a lot of people very rich. Whether that value is deserved is a question that I will not ask now. A similar question might well be applied to ITC, IOC, Exxon, or Reliance.

You and I may not like his way of functioning (I certainly don't) but he is still a better entrepreneur and manager than I am. The ultimate barometer of what is 'better' is market sentiment, both public and private. BA's track record speaks for itself in this regard. Naveen Tewari of InMobi and Glance is probably the polar opposite in behaviour, but he is a rarity.

Ah yes, the good Mr. Branson who famously told his employees to take 8 weeks of unpaid leave, while he luxuriated on his private island, where he moved to avoid tax 15 years ago. A tax-refugee billionaire on a private island who preaches austerity is certainly someone I hold in high esteem.

In the long term, no one remembers the bad stuff you do if you make enough money. Some of India's most storied business houses have very questionable antecedents, and it is the same globally. While this is no excuse for bad behaviour, money and the markets simply do not care. You can do what you want to make money, and they will make movies, write paeans, name roads and buildings in your honour. You may even get quoted on topics like employee care, which you don't really believe in.

1.I was merely remarking that people in general ought not to condone his behaviour, if indeed that article is true. Bullying, especially by someone in high authority and who is held up as a beacon of virtue to the rest of us mortals, is just not OK. Maybe this is BA’s Weinstein moment. Who knows!
2. There are multiple entrepreneurs out there who have also created excellent value for their investors but who aren’t as high profile and certainly not as badly behaved (again, if indeed that article is true).
3. ITC, Exxon, Standard Oil, Reliance and all these successful startup’s etc - Yes indeed, this is the Age of the Robber Baron in India. Much like it was when the Rockefellers and Stuyvesants and Carnegies made their fortunes in the late 19th century and early 20th century in America, so it is now, in India in the time of Reliance and Adani and these new age VC/ PE funded startups, I guess this will remain true as long as the seemingly endless Cornucopia of funds continues to give of its plenty.
4. Yes also to the fact that Public memory is short. And the “little people” (like the rest of us) don’t matter. They are simply swept aside by the tide of lucre fuelled PR. But I would question BA’s track record because it is not as if OLA is a resounding success. His track record of raising funds on the other hand, like the other chap Monsieur BR of Bjyu’s, is Stellar. To what end? No one knows, except that all of these people have made themselves exceedingly wealthy on the personal front. ‘Investor Management’,’Setting Expectations’ and other such terminology, coined by the glib word smithing fat cats in the consulting world, are merely smart sounding phrases used a lot by people who are nothing more, at a basic level, than a bunch of Snake Oil Salesmen. A descriptor from the James Bond film Die Another Day springs quickly to mind; ‘From Nothing, to Everything, in No Time at All’.
5. Ref the notorious Mr Branson, it isn’t wrong to avoid taxes. Many people do so and quite legally too. Exploiting the loopholes smartly isn’t yet outlawed. And I m sure we’ll all agree that most taxes, such as they are, are absolutely usurious. (Especially here in India and when viewed from the point of view of those who pay them, like many of us here.) Another old quote springs to mind; Scott Fitzgerald said, ‘The Very Rich are different from You and Me’. It may be said to apply neatly in this context.
6. Yes also to the fact that many of the old and respected Business Houses world wide were founded on piracy. It is the norm in the cut and thrust of life, dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost - Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest and Natural Selection coming to the fore. But now, with the advent of great success and fortune, all Sins are Forgiven and to apply soothing salve on any public eyes that may be smarting, there are things like Corporate Social Responsibility and all the rest of it. Aided in no small measure by the shortness of public memory.

A good reflection of some of the above points ref great fortunes is to be found in those fantastic James Clavell fiction books, Tai Pan, Noble House and all - about the founding of Trade on the Island of HongKong, on the back of Piracy and the Opium Trade.

But then, that is indeed the Way of the World. We can debate hotly, criticise and berate these things on fora such as this, all we like, but the world will go on. All the noise will be shrugged off and forgotten very soon.

Brings me to another reference - from the Tintin books - I always find that there are little life-parallels to be observed there. (See pics).

[Apex1815]

Originally Posted by Samurai

No, he is still copying things, this one from Steve Jobs (of the 80s). Such leaders often create very toxic work environments, where others are too scared to put an idea forward. Folks would be too scared to take initiative.

During my interview at Ola for Homologation & Product Compliance, I had understood that the company has got no direction. I am glad that I refused to appear for the next level of interview.

[neeravnaik]

Having been in the startup ecosystem and knowing few people who have worked at Ola at senior levels this is kind of a well known fact. Bhavish Agarwal is known to be difficult to work with. Most people say that it is difficult to work with him for long. Without passing judgment on him few people have said that he is an obsessive individual and what has worked for him so far is single minded focus on solving some very big problems. IF he wants you to do anything he can call up any time and expects immediate results.

This seems to be a common theme among some of the very successful entrepreneurs. They thrive through their great drive and persistence and want to create an organization in their mould. What they see working for them growing up becomes their way of working when in very large organizations growing rapidly. Most times that is not a sustainable way to build large business. Your toxic traits become the company culture.

What happens to the company after that is partly guided by luck. IF you become very successful sometimes these faults get covered and you may get second chance to create a better work culture and get different kind of culture like in Apple. Places like Tesla may continue to run like that for years. But in case of companies that hit turbulent times things can implode very quickly if the company culture is very individual based.

It will be interesting to see which path Ola takes. Lot will depend on what kind of people are coming in second level of leadership and how they drive the company. What is in his favor are his drive to solve big problems and being largely focused on creating value. In some cases it has been seen that some of these big names apart from being toxic are also unethical and corrupt like some recent well known names.

However these kind of reports are not good and indicate a poor company culture which is generally not sustainable.

[vamsi.kona]

What many of these people don't understand or understand but don't bother, is that it is very different to work hard for your business as an owner, as there is a lot riding in it for you. But the same cannot be true for an employee. It doesn't matter how hard they work, they will not be enjoying the results financially as an owner would. So expecting an employee to work like an owner is completely wrong. If you want them to work like you, make them part owners.

[Sandy Damodaran]

Originally Posted by Samurai

No, he is still copying things, this one from Steve Jobs (of the 80s). Such leaders often create very toxic work environments, where others are too scared to put an idea forward. Folks would be too scared to take initiative.

Unlike Steve Jobs, Bhavish is no visionary. Every single thing he has done is a lift and shift from existing ideas, without an ounce of innovation. He is more like our version of Kalanick (Whose idea he nicked) and Musk without any of their Flair and none of their genius. But all the bad traits which can be aped easily and put out for publicity.

If only there was a market where we could bet on individual CEO's, I'd wager that Bhavish would be about as big a fraud as Byju's

[Turbolove]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

While this is both true and a problem, do not underestimate the challenges of running an organisation. Bhavish is possibly the best founder/entrepreneur in India today, though that title will probably be hotly contested by Naveen Tewari, Byju Raveendran, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Naveen Tewari falls in the same group as BA or Byju Raveendran and Vijay SS only by virtue of being a unicorns founder. However the way his companies have grown, developed their people culture are vastly different from what you see at Ola or PayTM. Inmobi's work culture is far less hostile than Ola/Byju's, that being said it operates in a different industry altogether too which generally has had better margins.

[anjan_c2007]

His behaviour with his own employees desires to be criticised if we go by the reported news from Bloomberg. Even his board members and managers have also not been spared. Two dozen employees who spoke, preferring to remain anonymous said he tore papers and presentations, as he would get angry even about sentence construction or the quality of the paper itself.

Aggrawal also told an employee to complete three rounds of the huge Ola Future factory. This was due to an entryway that was supposed to be open was shut when he visited.

His dream electric car:-

"Our car is going to be one of the fastest cars in India – (will accelerate) 0 to 100 (kmph) within 4 seconds (and) it will have a range of more than 500 kilometres per charge," Aggarwal had said.

"We deserve a car that defines this new India. Our car is made in India, by Indians and for the world,” he added.

Only God knows if his dreams about the car will fructify or not. With his mindset about which newer facets are emerging every other day let's hope Ola sails smoothly. The much hyped overbooked scooters are now being offered for a discount of Rs 10 K.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/tr...t-9340611.html

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by Samurai

If your manager or CEO asks you to run 3 laps around the campus as a punishment for minor mistake, would you consider it fair treatment?

It tells you more about the CEO's insecurity and arrogance than anything else. In the US, that employee would have probably filed a workplace harassment lawsuit.

[srh]

Its funny how people accept these kinds of articles from media as some kind of fact. Most of these stories are as good as some cool aid. There is no back story and no context. Random comments on random events from random unnamed (worse still - concocted) sources. Just some tidbits emphasized and some others edited out to fit in a predetermined line of opinion.

And remember, as much as someone may revile the start-up entrepreneurs, they are a part of an entire ecosystem. Most of whom are in it just to find some gullible retail investors to take the companies public through IPOs. Unfortunately, this type of risk capital is best suited to create the next breed of winners who push the envelope of innovation, productivity and execution. As on now, no alternate model exists.

And a lot of people who choose to work for such organisations are no saints themselves - they are also the greedy ones who want salaries which are disproportionate to their skills, knowledge and experience. With great undeserved salaries comes great stress!