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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved...

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved up and revived in the past few years, AI official sources said.   It marked a symbolic milestone for Air India itself - founded in 1932 by the legendary Bharat Ratna J. R. R. Tata - which once ruled the roost and was India’s pride in the global skies.   Once renowned for its royal service with the iconic Maharaja welcoming fliers on board, in 1953 it was taken over by the government of India. After years of piling losses, ageing aircraft, decline in operations and standards – almost like a Maharaja turning a pauper - it returned to the Tata Group four years ago.   This time it was not just the aircraft, the brand and the deflated Maharaja coming into the large-hearted Tata Group stables, but a formidable challenge to ensure that the airline could regain its old glory and glitter. Of the total around 190 aircraft in its fleet were 30 – or 15 pc – that had been grounded and neglected for years.   At that time, the late Ratan N. Tata had directed that all these valuable aircraft must be revived as far as possible and join the fleet. Accordingly, the VT-ALL, languishing at Nagpur for nearly five years, was ‘hospitalized’ at the Air India Engineering Service Ltd., its MRO facility in May 2025.   New Avatar Then started a thorough, painstaking nose-to-tail restoration of an unprecedented scale, in which over 3000 critical components were replaced, over 4,000 maintenance tasks executed, besides key structural upgrades like the longeron modification, engines, auxiliary power units, avionics, hydraulics, landing gears and almost every vital system was rebuilt or replaced.   After the repairs, the old aircraft was reborn, under the gaze of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and technical assistance from Boeing, and the new ‘avatar’ jetliner emerged with the highest global safety standards.   The aircraft cleared all the rigorous checks, a successful test flight, earned the mandatory Airworthiness Review Certificate and then made its maiden commercial flight from Monday, March 16 – after a wait of six years.   Sturdy Fliers Created in 1946 to become an instant global icon, the Air India’s mascot Maharaja now sports a youthful and chic look, a welcome with folded hands, closed eyes, featuring a bejewelled turban, stylish jootis, and a textured kurta in Air India’s new colours. He is prominently visible at various touch-points in a flyer’s journey, such as First Class, exclusive lounges, and luxury products.   Today, he commands a mix fleet of around 190 narrow and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft like : A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321neo, A350-900 and B787-8, B787-9, B7770200LR, B-777-300ER. With the merger of Vistara and agreements signed for 10 A350 and 90 A320 aircraft, the Maharaja’s fleet is slated to soar to some 570 in the near future.

Before You Scale the Business, Fix the People Story

Most businesses don’t stall because of strategy or capital. They stall because the people story quietly breaks before the growth story begins.

Every Indian SME founder knows this moment. Orders are coming in. Customers want more. The market feels ready. And yet, something inside the organization feels… off. Meetings take longer. Decisions get reworked quietly. Good people seem tired, not lazy. Managers appear busy, but outcomes feel thinner. Nothing is technically broken. But momentum feels fragile.


Over the few quarters, while working closely with growing Indian businesses, founders, second-generation owners, leadership teams, one pattern has shown up again and again: Growth doesn’t derail because leaders make bad decisions. It derails because people dynamics change faster than leaders notice. Before scaling begins, there is always a people story unfolding underneath.


Like Families

Most Indian SMEs start as families … literally or emotionally. Early employees grow with the founder. Roles are fluid. Trust is personal. Everyone “figures it out together.” But growth changes the social contract.


Suddenly, the salesperson becomes a manager. A peer becomes a boss. The founder steps back or tries to and the team doesn’t quite know how to relate anymore. People don’t resist change. They resist unclear change. When roles evolve faster than capability, confidence quietly erodes. Managers hesitate. Team members second-guess authority. What once felt like closeness now feels awkward. This is not failure. It’s a transition most businesses underestimate.


The Gap

Founders speak in vision. Teams hear consequences. A town hall about “new direction” feels energising to leadership — but unsettling to employees who are trying to decode what it means for deadlines, targets, and job security. People nod. They clap. And then they return to their desks with five interpretations of the same message.


Soon, employees spend more energy interpreting leadership than executing work. This is where alignment quietly dies … not in conflict, but in confusion.


Like Favouritism

Ask most founders if they reward merit, and they will say yes … honestly. Ask teams the same question, and you’ll often hear a pause. Who gets access easily? Whose mistakes get forgiven? Whose opinions carry weight without explanation? When criteria remain invisible, teams stop competing on performance and start competing on proximity. This doesn’t create rebellion. It creates silence.


People play safe. High performers disengage quietly. Politics replaces ownership. Favouritism is rarely intentional but perception does the damage anyway.


The Pace

Many founders succeed because they move fast. Decisions are quick. Energy is high. Urgency is default. But what feels natural to a founder often feels overwhelming to a team. When everything is urgent, nothing is thoughtful. When speed becomes identity, reflection disappears. Over time, teams stop thinking ahead and start reacting.


Creativity becomes shallow. Initiative becomes risky. The business becomes good at firefighting and bad at building. Ironically, the very pace that enabled early growth begins to limit the next phase.


Kindness Control

Modern micromanagement doesn’t look harsh. It looks caring. “Just loop me in.” “I’ll quickly review.” “Stay reachable.” But when every decision feels provisional, autonomy evaporates. People don’t relax on leave. Managers don’t fully own outcomes. Teams stay mentally “on” … even when they’re off. The cost isn’t workload. It’s psychological fatigue. And tired teams don’t scale.


Invisible Power

Every growing business has two structures. The org chart — and the real influence map. Long-time loyalists. Trusted insiders. External advisors. Family voices. Star performers. When unofficial influence overrides formal roles, clarity collapses. People don’t know who to listen to. Managers lose authority. Decisions feel unstable. Systems don’t break loudly. They bend quietly.


Growth Begins

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most growth derailers are not operational. They are emotional and behavioural. Before you add headcount, ask: Are roles clear and respected? Is trust visible or assumed? Does speed allow thinking? Are boundaries stable? Is authority aligned with accountability? Growth doesn’t demand perfection. It demands awareness.


Forward Look

Fixing the people story doesn’t require dramatic interventions. It starts with slowing down to observe. With naming what feels off. With building clarity before adding complexity. The strongest businesses I’ve seen didn’t scale because they pushed harder. They scaled because they repaired trust, reset roles, and redesigned leadership behaviour before growth forced the issue.


Before you scale the business fix the people story. Everything else follows.


(The writer is Co-founder at PPS Consulting. He helps growth-stage leaders design systems where people and performance evolve together. Views personal.)

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