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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 3:28:38 am

When agreement kills growth

In the early stages of building a business, growth is often driven by clarity, speed, and conviction. Founders make decisions quickly, rely on their instincts, and push forward with a strong sense of belief in their methods. This decisiveness is not only necessary, it is often the very reason the business begins to grow. However, as businesses cross certain thresholds, particularly beyond the Rs 5 crore mark, the nature of growth begins to change. What once created momentum can quietly begin...

When agreement kills growth

In the early stages of building a business, growth is often driven by clarity, speed, and conviction. Founders make decisions quickly, rely on their instincts, and push forward with a strong sense of belief in their methods. This decisiveness is not only necessary, it is often the very reason the business begins to grow. However, as businesses cross certain thresholds, particularly beyond the Rs 5 crore mark, the nature of growth begins to change. What once created momentum can quietly begin to create limitations. In many professional environments, it is not uncommon to encounter business owners who are deeply convinced of their approach. Their methods have delivered results, their experience reinforces their judgment, and their confidence becomes a defining trait. Yet, in this very confidence lies a subtle risk that is often overlooked. When conviction turns into certainty without space for dialogue, conversations begin to narrow. Suggestions are heard, but not always considered. Perspectives are offered, but not always encouraged. Decisions are made, but not always explained. From the outside, this may still appear as strong leadership. Internally, however, a different dynamic begins to take shape. People start to agree more than they contribute. This is where many businesses unknowingly enter a critical phase. When teams, partners, or stakeholders begin to hold back their perspective, the quality of thinking around the business reduces. What appears as alignment is often silent disengagement. What looks like efficiency is sometimes the absence of challenge. Over time, this directly affects the decisions being made. At a Rs 5 crore level, this may not be immediately visible. Operations continue, revenue flows, and the business appears stable. But as the organisation attempts to grow further, this lack of diverse thinking begins to surface as a constraint. Growth slows, not because of lack of effort, but because of limited perspective. On the other side of this equation are individuals who consistently find themselves accommodating such dynamics. They recognise when their voice is not being fully heard, yet choose not to assert it. The intention is often to preserve relationships, avoid friction, or maintain a sense of professional ease. Initially, this approach appears collaborative. Over time, however, it begins to shape perception. When individuals do not express their perspective, they are gradually seen as agreeable rather than essential. Their presence is valued, but their input is not actively sought. In many cases, they become part of the process, but not part of the decision. This is where personal branding begins to influence business outcomes in ways that are not immediately obvious. A personal brand is not built only through visibility or achievement. It is built through how consistently one demonstrates clarity, confidence, and openness in moments that require it. It is shaped by whether people feel encouraged to think around you, or restricted in your presence. At higher levels of business, this distinction becomes critical. If people agree with you more than they challenge you, it may not be a sign of strong leadership. It may be an indication that your environment is no longer enabling better thinking. Similarly, if you find yourself constantly adjusting to others without expressing your own perspective, your contribution may be diminishing in ways that affect both your influence and your growth. Both situations carry a cost. They affect decision quality, limit innovation, and over time, restrict the scalability of the business itself. What makes this particularly challenging is that these patterns develop gradually, often going unnoticed until the impact becomes difficult to ignore. The most effective leaders recognise this early. They create space for dialogue without losing direction. They express conviction without dismissing perspective. They build environments where contribution is expected, not avoided. In doing so, they strengthen not only their business, but also their personal brand. For entrepreneurs operating at a stage where growth is no longer just about execution but about expanding thinking, this becomes an important point of reflection. If there is even a possibility that your current interactions are limiting the quality of thinking around you, it is worth addressing before it begins to affect outcomes. I work with a select group of founders and professionals to help them refine how they are perceived, communicate with greater impact, and build personal brands that support sustained growth. You may explore this further here: https://sprect.com/pro/divyaaadvaani In the long run, it is not only the decisions you make, but the thinking you allow around those decisions, that determines how far your business can truly grow. (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

India is Drowning in Its Own Trash

Updated: Mar 6, 2025

India’s streets, beaches, and highways are drowning in garbage. Will we ever learn to clean up after ourselves?

garbage

A recent journey along the Maharashtra-Goa coastline should have been an ode to natural beauty, with verdant cliffs meeting the endless blue of the Arabian Sea, stretches of golden beaches, waves lapping against pristine shores. Instead, it was a waking nightmare that revealed an alarming truth: there is no ten-meter stretch free of waste. Discarded snack wrappers flutter in the wind, plastic bags tangle in the undergrowth and empty water bottles bob along the surf. Once-scenic cliffs are now dumping grounds and the highways are lined with garbage. The sheer scale of the problem is overwhelming, yet strangely unsurprising.


India produces over 9.3 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, and much of it is strewn across our landscapes or dumped into rivers and oceans. Mumbai’s air is already a toxic fog, its AQI levels frequently breach hazardous limits, yet we compound the crisis by burning plastic waste - releasing dioxins, furans and other carcinogens into the air. Mumbai, often dubbed the city that never sleeps, finds itself in a relentless tussle with waste. As per reports, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Environmental Status Report for 2022-23 unveils a staggering statistic: the metropolis generates approximately 6,300 metric tonnes of refuse daily, with over 72 percent comprising food waste. This organic avalanche predominantly consists of vegetables, meat, tea, coffee remnants, and garden debris.


The city’s humid coastal climate exacerbates the challenge, leading to higher moisture content in waste, complicating treatment processes. While the Kanjurmarg facility employs Bio-Reactor Technology to process about 88 percent of daily waste, the Deonar dumping site, one of Asia’s oldest, still receives nearly 12 percent of the city’s refuse.


Landfills overflow while streams and drains clog with trash, leading to urban flooding and outbreaks of disease. Livestock graze on plastic-laden garbage heaps, their stomachs filling with indigestible toxins, slowly killing them.


Pune, Maharashtra’s cultural capital, mirrors Mumbai’s challenges. The city generates around 1,600 tonnes of solid waste daily and its dangerously burgeoning populace has made waste disposal a nightmare.


The beaches of Goa, which once drew backpackers and sun-seekers from across the globe, are now strewn with abandoned fishing nets, broken glass and disposable cutlery. The state generates 22 kg of waste per capita annually, surpassing the national average of 15 kg. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s recent revelation that 70 percent of village panchayats lack proper waste management systems underscores the severity of the issue.


In all this, the deeper malaise is an ingrained civic apathy. For too many Indians, cleanliness remains someone else’s responsibility, often that of municipal workers or overburdened sanitation staff. The sight of a pile of garbage doesn’t elicit shame but rather a passive acceptance. Even in Bollywood films, VFX teams have begun allocating budgets to digitally erase garbage from scenes, painting an illusion of a cleaner India that does not exist.


Broken Promises

At the policy level, India has toyed with environmental responsibility but failed in execution. Plastic bans exist on paper, but enforcement is laughable. Maharashtra’s ambitious 2018 ban on single-use plastics was heralded as a game-changer, yet within weeks, the familiar sight of polyethylene bags, thermocol packaging, and disposable cups returned to markets and roadside stalls. Goa, too, has repeatedly announced crackdowns on plastic waste, but take a stroll through its flea markets or riverside haunts, and you’ll see the evidence of failure.


Single-use plastics persist because they are cheap, available and easy to discard - out of sight, out of mind. Corporations flood the market with non-biodegradable packaging, but consumers, too, are complicit. The chaiwala still serves tea in flimsy plastic cups; the street vendor still wraps snacks in polyethylene; and the middle-class shopper, despite carrying a cloth tote, still picks up a plastic bag “just in case.”


Change, if it is to come, must be radical. No more feeble awareness campaigns or bureaucratic half-measures. We need fines for littering that actually hurt, not token penalties that go unenforced. We need mandatory waste segregation at the household level, with strict monitoring. We need an aggressive push for alternatives to plastic, subsidizing biodegradable options and phasing out non-recyclables.


More importantly, we need a cultural shift. Indians must begin to see littering as a shameful act, an offence to the nation’s dignity, not a minor inconvenience to be ignored. We must call out friends and family when they toss wrappers onto the street. We must demand accountability from our elected representatives and shame businesses that continue to flood the market with wasteful packaging. Name and shame must become a tool of civic pressure, whether through social media campaigns or public reporting.


Community-driven initiatives, like the clean-up efforts by Mumbai’s Afroz Shah who single-handedly transformed Versova Beach, show that change is possible. But one man, one organization or one government scheme will not be enough. India must decide whether it wants to remain the world’s garbage dump or take responsibility for its future.


We are already dangerously close to the point of no return. It is time to stop pointing fingers and clean up after ourselves. Indians, we need to stop littering!


(The author is Founder and Creative Director at Trip Creative Services, an award-winning communication design house.)

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