The Ken

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Chaîne • 6 émissions

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12 janv.

27/07/2023

Everything that could've gone wrong is going wrong at Urban Company

Nine years ago, Urban Company (then UrbanClap) disrupted the market and eventually went on to become Asia's largest home services marketplace. Last year, the US$2 billion company was ranked as one of the top-rated platforms for gig workers in Fairwork India Ratings. But just a year later now, Urban Company partners are are protesting nationwide against the platform's arbitrary and unfair policies. Meanwhile, customers are growing increasingly unhappy with the services. The company is also grappling with losses and has been cutting costs to achieve profitability. But the rising anger from both ends, customers and partners, is coming in its way and managing both is getting quite difficult. Tune in. RecommendationUrban Company is caught between angry customers and angrier partners Urban Co’s three-way balancing act in search of profitability Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

27/07/2023

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13 min
07/09/2023

Is Rapido trading passenger safety for growth?

Lately, India's bike taxi leader, Rapido, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. With numerous complaints of sexual harassment, theft, and even impersonation, the startup has been reckless with the safety of its customers, epecially women. Despite these incidents, Rapido still enjoys a 60% share of the bike-taxi market in India. It clocks in as many as 750,000 rides every single day and yet, the level of scrutiny it deploys for the drivers on its platform is close to non-existent. What’s is the bike-taxi not fixing these issues? Tune in to find out. Free Read How Domino’s defied the might of Zomato and Swiggy Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

07/09/2023

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13 min
22/02/2024

Five founders on creating trust, patience and careers in their organisations

Welcome back to First Principles. I’m your host, Rohin Dharmakumar. Thank you for listening to us. We’re thankful that you choose to spend a few hours with us each week! Today we have a “supercut” episode. Normally our conversations go deep with one specific guest, but every now and then we zoom out and go broad by stitching together a multi-guest conversation. And the invisible thread that connects the conversations with 5 founders we picked for today is company culture. What’s the best way to empower your talent? What do founders expect from employees? And how do they build their company culture? This is where it gets interesting. In most cases, our guests have differing opinions on these subjects. But while putting this episode together, we kept encountering one word – or a substitute for it, in some cases. And that was, patience. Patience in the way that they give feedback to their employees. Patience in investing in your employees. Building this patience not just within themselves, but the entire organization. There are some very interesting perspectives in this episode on how these founders approach and practice patience, among other principles of leadership and management. Here’s a rundown of our guests in this episode: First up, we have Krish Subramanian of Chargebee, who has a simple and powerful dictum, “Move the chairs and get out of the way of good people.” At Chargebee, you wouldn’t fit in if you limit yourself to a strict hierarchy – he sees employees more as his peer group. Next, we have Varun Dua of Acko Insurance, who spoke about growing in a company from an employee’s point of view. One of the things he told me was that when you find something you love, you should be at it for 10-15 years. Because it is the payoff of years of perseverance that is fruitful – and not the short term gains you make along the way. Yashish Dahiya, the co-founder of PolicyBazaar, was quite candid in our chat. He spoke about why an employee who spent five years at PolicyBazaar is considered a new employee. He also went on to explain why he distances himself from making hiring decisions. Next, you’ll hear Archit Gupta of Clear. When talking about employees, Archit was very specific. He told us why investing into the ‘sincere’,‘earnest’ people in the organization is necessary, and why uplifting them is important. Lastly, MN Srinivasu or Vasu, as he’s often called, spoke to me how he built BillDesk by essentially teaching the first set of employees to be well-versed in the line of business BillDesk was creating. This is a part of BillDesk’s culture. There is a broad belief in patience, at Billdesk. Why does patience matter? What allows his employees to be patient? And how do you find meaning in practicing it? This is First Principles—The Ken’s weekly leadership podcast. The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform. Check out our deeply reported long-form stories, insightful newsletters, original podcasts and much more here.

22/02/2024

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1 h 26 min
17/02/2023

The ray of hope in Zomato's grim quarterly numbers

A few days ago, Zomato announced that it was withdrawing its services from 225 cities in India on account of "not so encouraging" performance. Last week, the food tech giant also reported its financial results for the last quarter of 2022. It saw its losses soar 5X to nearly 350 crore rupees. The volume of orders also declined during this period. But in these numbers there also lies hidden a glimmer of hope for the company. Tune in.

17/02/2023

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12 min
8 JANV.

Friday Round-up: Who pays when Grok fails, Venezuela's crisis is Reliance's win, and more

In this episode we fill you in on four standout stories from the past week. First, a quick look at how the Venezuela crisis is benefiting Reliance and ONGC; Next, why the quick fashion promise stands on shaky ground; Third, how AI has been filling up Indian shopping carts; And finally, why the discourse about Grok AI is starting to sound a little lopsided. Tune in. Read The Ken's story on quick fashion here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

8 janv.

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18 min
02/10/2025

Phonepe is taking the IPO leap. But can it avoid Paytm’s fate?

Phonepe is stepping into the public markets with a $15 billion IPO. For Walmart, which has pumped billions into the payments firm, this is both a chance to cash in and a test of its India strategy. Unlike Paytm’s disastrous, hype-heavy listing in 2021, Phonepe is going in with steadier financials, fewer regulatory scrapes, and the scale to back its story. Yet, the timing isn’t without risk: subsidies are shrinking, UPI share caps are on the horizon, and investor appetite has cooled since 2021. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

02/10/2025

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10 min
13/08/2024

How an e-ticket discount has become IRCTC's Achilles' heel

For many in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), this year’s Union Budget announcement was a damp squib. On 23 July, several officials from the ticketing-and-catering arm of Indian Railways waited for over an hour, with the collective hope that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would quash the discounts on UPI payments. The reason behind their discontent is that the discount has cost IRCTC an arm and a leg. The company has lost Rs 40 crore in revenue. But despite all of the pushback, this year’s Budget did not mention revoking the mandate anywhere. So, what’s going on? And why isn’t the government backing down? Tune in to find out. P.S. The Ken podcast team is looking for a talented podcast producer and an audio journalist. If you fit the bill or know someone who does, please apply!

13/08/2024

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12 min
18/01/2023

How Mahindra Finance dealt with the RBI curb on recovering loans via third party agents

For Mahindra Finance, the RBI directive against it couldn't have come at a worse time. The rural financier had barely recovered from the effects of the lockdown since it had higher bad loans than its rivals. Add to that the dent on its reputation. How did the NBFC deal with the RBI's restriction on using third party agents for repossession? Tune in to find out.

18/01/2023

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12 min
01/03/2024

Why Tata Motors doesn't want to make the Indigo-Indica mistake with its passenger EVs

Tata Motors' EV subsidiary, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), is prepping for a potential IPO in the next year or so. It wants to raise $1-2 billion. In the first half of 2023, Tata Motors dominated 75% of the passenger EV market share in India despite relentless competition from the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra and other newer rivals. The auto-maker's revenue for FY23 stood at almost $8 billion. The not-so-secret secret behind this success Tata Motors' its Xpres-T EV sedan—the go-to for cab companies and fleet operators that are looking to switch to greener alternatives. Xpres-T could easily to capture the cab market except Tata Motors maybe deliberately downplaying this bit of its success so far. Tune into find out why. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

01/03/2024

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10 min
26/06/2024

At-home blood tests are soaring, and throwing up wrong results

The pandemic, as brutal as it was, forced a lot of businesses to double down on convenience and accessibility. Whether it was your online education or quick deliveries or at home blood tests. Just to be able to skip that dreaded visit to a hospital or a diagnostic centre meant so much to most people. Accredited labs popped up all over promising to come right to your doorstep and collect your samples from the comfort of your home and that too for super affordable prices. Healthians, a testing lab startup has seen bookings triple since the pre-pandemic era. Now, the company handles 12,500–13,000 bookings daily, with nearly 75% of its business coming from home collections. But while home tests are gaining popularity, whether you can trust them 100% is still under question. Phlebotomists and runners hold the keys to a sample’s fate and accuracy. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

26/06/2024

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14 min

The audio edition of The Ken’s Make India Competitive Again newsletter, spearheaded by Seetharaman G. Every Wednesday, our editors and reporters read the latest edition and chronicle what India is doing, will do, and should do—to not just survive but thrive in the chaos unleashed by Donald Trump.

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ACTUALITÉ ÉCONOMIQUE
First Principles is a weekly interview podcast comprising authentic, candid, and insightful conversations between some of India’s most accomplished founders and business leaders, and Rohin Dharmakumar, The Ken’s CEO & co-founder. From personal philosophies, mental models and decision making frameworks, to reading habits, parenting styles or personal interests, each episode will delve into what makes each of these leaders unique.

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ENTREPRENARIAT
The Two by Two podcast is a premium business podcast from The Ken that investigates, discusses and breaks down the most important business stories around you. Hosted from The Ken's newsroom by business journalists Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Two by Two will feature guests and experts from across the industry and academia to talk about issues no one else is talking about.

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AFFAIRES
Join Brady Ng, Praveen Gopal Krishnan, and Rohin Dharmakumar of The Ken as they discuss the big ideas in artificial intelligence. You’ll get the macro view, explore their experiments in practical applications, go deeper than the news coverage you’ve seen, and hear about the implications of the latest developments. Nothing is off the table.

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TECHNOLOGIES
You’ll spend 90,000 hours at work in your lifetime. How do you make that time count? 90,000 Hours is a weekly podcast from the newsroom of The Ken that helps you navigate today’s changing world of work, where the traditional 40-year career is gone, entry-level jobs are being replaced by artificial intelligence, and staying relevant means constantly reinventing yourself. Hosted by Rahel Philipose and Vidhatri Rao, the show features conversations with the people creating, breaking, and rewriting the way we work.

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CARRIÈRE