The Elephant Catchers

‘Unlike an operation to catch rabbits, trapping an elephant calls for expertise over enthusiasm. Those who hunt rabbits are rarely able to rope in elephants.’ Many organizations, even those that may have a brilliant start, falter in their attempts to achieve transformational growth in their later phases. In The Elephant Catchers, Subroto Bagchi distils his years of on-the-ground learning to explore why this happens, and what such organizations and their people must do to climb to the next level and beyond. Through a combination of engaging anecdotes from his experiences as co-founder, and subsequently Chairman, of Mindtree Ltd, and insightful stories from our everyday world, Bagchi demonstrates a crucial point: Organizations with real ambition to get to the top need to embrace the idea of scale and then ensure that it systematically pervades every aspect of its functioning. In doing this, he leads you to evaluate: • Is your organization’s infrastructure designed to evolve and ultimately mimic the simultaneity of a living organism? • Are you constantly nurturing and renewing your brand identity or letting it stagnate and decay? • Does your sales force have as many hunters as it has farmers? Or is it dominated by a grizzly who just waits for the salmon to land in its mouth? • In a fiercely competitive environment, are you really ‘stepping out of the box’ and learning from unusual sources? • Are leaders in your organization truly building capacity or merely solving problems? Practical advice on real issues, from how to deal with consultants to the question of succession, words of caution on strategy traps and M&As, and invaluable insights into a whole range of growth-related issues –The Elephant Catchers has it all. Engaging, wise and thoroughly accessible, this book is a must-read for everyone in every organization seeking breakout success.'