How did you personally go from being an ant to becoming a butterfly? What was your journey?
Former CEO at HCL Technologies
I was 23 years old selling computers in Mumbai with a team of six or seven people and we had almost no market share. I went to a bookshop to buy a love letter card for my girlfriend, who became my wife. Next to the love cards I saw condolence cards. I picked up ten of them, brought them to the office, and told my team we should sign one and send it to the CEO of our biggest competitor every time we won a deal. Everyone laughed because we were not winning anything. But every day people would walk past the condolence cards on the desk and their desire to beat the competition grew. Over 18 months we went from less than one percent market share to 50 percent. Same product. Same service. Same employees. The trick was not the card. The trick was that when a human decides to want something, they find a way. Inspiring the desire for change is the real lever.
This answer is part of a full interview with Vineet Nayar, Former CEO at HCL Technologies.
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