By topic and by series
Articles
Here are 26 articles by Rahul Kulkarni and Rashmi Kulkarni on how a founder-led or family-run business comes to run on systems rather than on a few people.
Most belong to a series and read best in order, so they are grouped by topic and by series. A version of several of these first ran in our weekly column in The Perfect Voice, a Mumbai English daily.
The three newest
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The Hidden Game of Taking Over · part 9
Coalition Math and Why the Majority Doesn’t Matter
Change fails when the wrong people are on board. Build a small winning coalition, neutralise the veto players and let the passive majority follow.
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The Hidden Game of Taking Over · part 8
Negotiating With the Old Guard
The old guard is protecting something, not blocking change. Trade for their interests instead of fighting their positions, and let them keep their dignity.
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The Hidden Game of Taking Over · part 7
BATNA for Internal Politics
Your authority is limited and your alternatives decide your leverage. How a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) works in internal politics.
Person-dependency
When decisions, knowledge and approvals sit with a few people, and what moves them into the business.
Series · four parts
The Cognitive Load Trap
Why a business stalls when its rules live in one person's head: the inbox nobody else can see, decision debt, half-delegation, and the exits that move decisions into the system.
By Rahul Kulkarni and Rashmi Kulkarni · 2025 · about 20 minutes in all
- 1
The Inbox That Never Closes
5 minThe decisions, exceptions and rules a founder carries in memory make an inbox nobody else can see. How it stalls a business, and how to start emptying it. By Rahul.
- 2
Decision Debt: When Memory Becomes the Operating System
5 minWhen the rules live in one person's head, every decision waits for them. What decision debt costs a business, and how to pay it down. By Rashmi.
- 3
The Illusion of Control: Why Half-Delegation Doubles the Load
5 minHanding over a task while keeping its standard in your own head doubles the work. What half-delegation costs, and three ways out of it. By Rahul.
- 4
From Headspace to System Space: Designing the Cognitive Off-Ramp
5 minHow to move decisions out of a leader's head and into the system, with role charters, decision ladders and escalation windows, and what changes when you do. By Rashmi.
Series · two parts so far
Let Go to Grow
Two articles on why systems fail when the leader steps outside them, and why a busy team can stall while it waits for a decision: the Trust Loop and the Queue Effect.
By Rahul Kulkarni · 2025 · about 6 minutes in all
- 1
What Is the Trust Loop in Leadership Systems?
3 minTeams trust a system only when their leader follows it first, most of all under stress. What the Trust Loop is, and five steps to build it.
- 2
What Is the Queue Effect in Team Execution?
3 minA busy team can be stalled, waiting on a decision or an approval. What the Queue Effect is, how to recognise a queue, and five steps to break it.
Scaling
What breaks, in process and in people, when a business outgrows the way it works.
Series · four parts so far
The Boss Paradox
Why a leader's good intentions land differently with the team: the communication gap, favouritism nobody intended, the pressure of a founder's pace, and boundaries that give way to kindness.
By Rashmi Kulkarni and Rahul Kulkarni · 2025 · about 24 minutes in all
- 1
The Communication Gap
6 minLeaders think in narratives and teams operate in consequences. Why a clear announcement leaves every listener with a different message, and the cost. By Rashmi.
- 2
The Power Paradox
6 minWhy teams see favouritism even when a leader believes they are being fair: comfort, familiarity and proximity read as a hierarchy within the hierarchy. By Rahul.
- 3
The Pace & Pressure Paradox
6 minA founder's natural speed becomes the team's daily anxiety. How urgency turns into mood-watching, silent compliance and shallow work as a company grows. By Rashmi.
- 4
The Boundary Collapse
6 minWhen a leader's version of supportive becomes the team's version of always on. How generous micromanagement and the override reflex erode autonomy. By Rahul.
Series · five parts
The People Paradox
What happens to people as a company grows: when the family metaphor stops working, the accidental manager, warmth that hides avoidance, loyalty that outgrows skill, and the cost of carrying everyone.
By Rahul Kulkarni · 2025 · about 32 minutes in all
- 1
The People Paradox: When Teams Stop Behaving Like Families
6 minWhy the family metaphor stops working somewhere between the fifteenth and the fiftieth hire, and what leaders can build in its place.
- 2
The Accidental Manager: When Competence Outruns Capability
7 minPromoted for performance, unprepared for people: why growth turns good performers, and founders, into accidental managers, and what fixes it.
- 3
The Culture Mirage: When Warmth Hides What Hurts
6 minWhen a warm, polite culture hides avoidance, deadlines slip and nobody can say why. How the Culture Mirage forms, and how to keep kindness and truth together.
- 4
The Talent Mismatch: When Loyalty Outgrows Competence
7 minGrowth tests loyalty. When early loyalists are outgrown by the company, gratitude becomes costly. How to honour history without letting it run the future.
- 5
The Cost of Carrying People
6 minA founder who carries everyone's feelings freezes. He names the weight, redesigns one role and shares the load. The closing story of The People Paradox.
Single articles
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The System Maturity Index (SMI) for Scaling Businesses
A five-pillar self-diagnostic to test whether your systems, not your software, are ready to scale: process, ownership, invocation, simulation and feedback.
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Why Your Strategy Isn’t Working, Even Though It Should
Strategies rarely fail; they vanish when the plan is never tied to a repeatable rhythm. Why SOPs that sit in a folder fail, and how to make clarity reusable.
Succession
Taking charge of an established business: the unwritten rules, the old guard and the people who built it.
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