The BounceForward Blog

Notes on leadership, founders and performance

Written by someone who made most of these mistakes first, so you don't have to.

VSVishnu SarafFounder, BounceForward · IIM Ahmedabad · Ex-McKinsey · Author

16 essays

Indian Cricket Team Won't Have Coaches Anymore! — Breaking news from a parallel universe: BCCI has terminated all coaching contracts. The five excuses sound awfully familiar — because every company uses them.

The Skill That Pays Millions — Ronaldo earns $275M, The Weeknd $298M — and top CEOs are valued at billions. Leadership may be the most richly rewarded skill in the world. Are you practising it?

The Invisible Part of Growth — We all want more fruits — money, success, influence. But what are we doing about our roots? The part of the tree nobody sees determines how much of the tree everybody sees.

Why You Need a Leadership Gym — Show me one smoker who doesn't know smoking causes cancer. Awareness isn't the problem — so why do leaders assume knowing what to change is enough to change it?

Are You Mad? Then You Might Be an Entrepreneur. — No capital. No partner. A city I'd never been to. My boss asked if I was mad. I said yes — and then an architect I'd just met built my gym with his own money.

₹5,000 in 4 Years. ₹1 Lakh in 30 Days. — Our investor called it a stupid idea. We had no capital, no factory and no packaging. Yet we went from ₹5,000 in four years to ₹1 lakh in 30 days.

Feedback Is So Last Year. Try Feedforward. — Most employees dread feedback. Feedforward — asking what you could do better next time — turns the same problem into a completely different conversation.

Fail Fast, Fail More, Fail Cheap — “I want to try 10 new things, because 8 will fail and only 2 will succeed.” The intention is good. But the keyword is “try” — and most founders confuse experimenting with launching.

Who Would You Invest In: Amit or Rohit? — Amit wants to grow 30% every month and launch ten new initiatives. Rohit focuses on the same product for years. Most investors would pick Amit. I would pick Rohit.

The Success Trap — Success creates options. Options are dangerous. Why the biggest reason smart leaders stop growing isn't failure — it's success.

The Biggest Addiction in Corporates? — Dileep is the smartest person in the room. Sid makes himself unnecessary. Whom would you hire to lead your 500-member organisation?

Do You Want to Hire Elon Musk as Your Mentor? — Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are unavailable. But their lessons are not. The best mentors in history are waiting to teach you — for the price of a book.

Practice Makes a Man Imperfect! — Virat Kohli doesn't skip practice. Yet most leaders spend thousands of hours improving the business and almost none improving themselves. Imperfect practice makes a man imperfect.

The Jungle Taught Me More About Leadership Than My ₹2 Lakh Coaching Course — I paid lakhs to learn 'don't be judgmental' in a classroom. I actually understood it watching lions, hippos and impalas in the wild.

Does Your Company Have Accidental Managers? — Your best salesperson became a manager. Nobody told them the job had changed. That is how companies quietly build a layer of accidental managers — and a ceiling on their own growth.

Why Indian Leaders Need Coaches More Than Their Global Peers — Indian leaders are given enormous respect and enormous power — and, as a consequence, the least honest feedback in the building. That is exactly why coaching matters more here.