Beyond the Case

Sohin Shah
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A podcast where global leaders from the Harvard Business School Owner/President Management (OPM) community join in a personal capacity and share the real decisions, failures, and mental models behind building enduring companies. This podcast is independent and not affiliated with Harvard Business School.

  1. The Inner Operating System of an Entrepreneur: Advisors, Yoga, and Time - Sudhakar Kadavasal

    7 HR AGO

    The Inner Operating System of an Entrepreneur: Advisors, Yoga, and Time - Sudhakar Kadavasal

    Send a text Sudhakar Kadavasal, a second-generation entrepreneur from Chennai has built and led businesses across IT services, logistics, chemicals, construction, and energy, with operations in India and Dubai. Sudhakar shares how his father’s early entrepreneurial leap created a foundation that enabled him to take bold risks, including returning to India in 1997 and later starting afresh in Dubai. He reflects on leadership lessons that transcend industries, especially people management, capital allocation, and managing chaos. Sudhakar openly discusses failure, humility, and the importance of healing and reflection through advisors, yoga, and time. Over the years, his definition of “enough” has evolved from financial success to the freedom to pursue purpose-driven work, including music, education, and nonprofit service. He believes success follows purpose, not the other way around, and emphasizes lifelong learning through programs like Harvard’s OPM, which he describes as both a reminder and a sharpening tool for forgotten fundamentals. For Sudhakar, wisdom lies in surrounding oneself with people smarter than oneself, maintaining integrity, and refusing to compromise on personal disciplines like early mornings and self-reflection. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation: Foundations matter: A strong business and values foundation enables bolder, smarter risk-taking.Integrity wins business: Saying “no” to what you can’t do builds long-term trust and credibility.Second-gen ≠ easy path: Advantage exists, but courage and execution still matter, especially in new geographies.People management is universal: Across industries, success depends on managing people and chaos well.Failure humbles and teaches: Early setbacks are powerful teachers if faced honestly and quickly.Healing takes time and tools: Advisors, reflection, and practices like yoga help recover from setbacks.Enough is freedom: True “enough” is the ability to do what you enjoy, not just financial milestones.Purpose precedes success: Doing meaningful work naturally leads to sustainable success.Learning is lifelong: Programs like OPM reinforce forgotten basics and prevent leadership negligence.Wisdom is collective: The wisest leaders attract and retain people smarter and more balanced than themselves.Books: The Daily StoicThe Almanack of Naval RavikantAutobiography of a Yogi Maverick

    18 min
  2. From $2,000 to 800,000 Subscribers: Building a Values-Driven Media Giant - Lucas Ferrugem

    3 DAYS AGO

    From $2,000 to 800,000 Subscribers: Building a Values-Driven Media Giant - Lucas Ferrugem

    Send a text What began as a $2,000 experiment at age 13 has grown into one of Brazil’s most influential independent platforms, bootstrapped to over $40M in cumulative revenue, 800,000+ paying subscribers, and 30M annual viewers. This conversation goes beyond the mechanics of building a media company. It explores how belief systems, values, and shared identity can become a lasting competitive advantage. Lucas Ferrugem’s story shows that when media gives voice to what people feel but rarely see represented, it moves beyond entertainment and becomes a movement. Throughout the discussion, Lucas makes a clear case that sustainable media businesses are built less on algorithms and capital, and more on courage, clarity of values, community, and long-term persistence. The episode unpacks how values-driven storytelling and cultural alignment, not just technology, create durable loyalty, and how these same principles are now guiding Lucas’s expansion into the U.S. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation: Start with a real cultural gap: Brazil Paralelo was born from political protests where millions felt unrepresented by mainstream media. The business began by serving an unmet cultural and informational need.Values drive loyalty more than content volume: Lucas argues that people don’t just consume media for entertainment. They seek values, meaning, and identity reflected back at them.Storytelling shapes culture: Like Disney shaping childhood values, media influences beliefs about heroes, sacrifice, courage, and truth. Often more deeply than formal education.Brand is not a commodity: Consumers buy brands they see themselves in. Loyalty comes from shared identity, not just quality or price.Why investors struggled to “get it” early: Financial metrics were easy to explain; cultural resonance and values-based differentiation were not. Brand equity doesn’t fit neatly into spreadsheets.Community is the ultimate growth engine: A strong community acts as free marketing, lowers customer acquisition costs, and reinforces trust through social proof.Say your beliefs out loud, consistently: Brazil Paralelo repeatedly and explicitly states its mission and values across all content. Clarity builds trust and alignment.Freemium works when you trust your product: Giving content away isn’t fear, it’s confidence. If the product truly delivers value, free access converts better than ads.Go local when entering new markets: Expansion requires local partners, cultural humility, fast experimentation, and small initial bets. Not copy-pasting a home-market playbook.Persistence + emotional softness wins long-term: Lucas’s biggest OPM takeaway: problems never stop. Success requires persistence without bitterness, fighting challenges with resilience, humility, and a smile.Books PrincipleMy Life and Work

    24 min
  3. From Control to Trust: The Real Shift Every Entrepreneur Must Make - Ankita Gupta

    4 DAYS AGO

    From Control to Trust: The Real Shift Every Entrepreneur Must Make - Ankita Gupta

    Send a text This conversation is a powerful reminder that entrepreneurs must consciously evolve from being hands-on operators to becoming true leaders. In the early stages, control feels necessary. Every decision, review, and execution flows through the founder. But scale, sustainability, and sanity only come when the entrepreneur shifts focus to building systems, senior leadership, culture, and reputation. Ankita Gupta’s journey as founder of Digitactix shows that leadership maturity is less about doing more and more about enabling others to lead, while anchoring the organization in values and long-term vision. Ankita shares her entrepreneurial journey - from intentionally stepping out of her comfort zone to building a values-first agency focused on ROI, transparency, and long-term reputation. She reflects on balancing health, family, and leadership; navigating entrepreneurship as a woman in India; and how experiences like Harvard Business School’s OPM and YPO reshaped her perspective on leadership, culture, and systems. The conversation emphasizes evolving leadership, ethical decision-making, self-awareness, and building institutions that outlast the founder. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation: Growth begins outside the comfort zone: Digitactix was born from Ankita’s desire to challenge herself, not from a rigid business plan.Health is foundational to leadership: “If I’m not fit, I cannot run a fit organization.” Fitness is a lifelong investment, not a short-term goal.Entrepreneurship requires support systems: Family support played a critical role in enabling her to build the business while raising children.Shift from operator to institution builder: OPM helped Ankita move from micromanaging everything to building senior leadership and systems.Transparency is a competitive advantage: Ethical practices, honesty about ROI, and refusing misaligned clients built long-term trust and reputation.Values over vanity metrics: Real success lies in ROI, ownership, and impact, not superficial growth numbers or agency rankings.Reputation compounds over time: Clients returning after trying other agencies validated the long-term value of principled execution.Culture drives sustainable success: Leadership, systems, and culture come first; growth and finance follow as consequences.Safe peer communities reduce isolation: YPO provided a judgment-free space to discuss failures, emotions, and real struggles of entrepreneurship.Wisdom is self-awareness: In an AI-driven world where skills evolve rapidly, knowing your strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots matters most.Books: Good to Great

    19 min
  4. Thinking in Decades, Not Quarters: Lessons from a Multi-Generational Owner - Antonio Liberal

    5 DAYS AGO

    Thinking in Decades, Not Quarters: Lessons from a Multi-Generational Owner - Antonio Liberal

    Send a text Third-generation entrepreneurship isn’t about inheriting a business. It’s about inheriting a promise and upgrading it for the next era. In this episode, Portuguese pharmacist and OPM 67 participant Antonio Liberal shares how his family’s retail pharmacy business founded by his grandfather in 1942, survived loss, regulation, and economic shocks, and still found ways to grow. After his parents passed away when he and his brothers were very young, they carried the legacy forward, scaling to five high-street pharmacies that serve hundreds of customers daily. Antonio explains how the hardest phase is the “small-company nightmare” where every tiny operational problem lands on the founder and why real momentum begins when you build a team that knows more than you do. He recounts Portugal’s bailout-era turbulence and margin cuts as a forcing function: disruption rewards the operators with “heart, soul, brains, and guts.” A pivotal, counterintuitive move - selling a pharmacy right before his wedding - created the financial strength to acquire during downturn conditions. As a long-horizon owner, he contrasts his approach with large multinationals that manage to short-term targets, arguing they often leave value “on the table” by stopping once they hit monthly goals. Antonio’s leadership principles center on standards above compliance, people-first culture, and values like integrity as defaults rather than slogans. He defines success as the combination of long-run P&L and the responsibility of helping employees grow through life events and careers—echoing his belief that “pressure is a privilege.” Returning to Harvard for OPM energized him, and he actively revisits his notes weekly, applying ideas like Google’s Project Oxygen and observed operational lessons. His advice to his 20-year-old self: keep going, relax a bit, and be more patient, giving people second and third chances when the mindset is right. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation: Legacy is a platform, not a script. Third-gen leadership means honoring the mission while modernizing the model.The “small business phase” is the toughest. Many small hurdles (not big ones) drain founders until teams and structure exist.A strong team should out-know the owner. If you consistently know more than your experts, your org design needs rebuilding.Regulation is the floor - your standard must be higher. Don’t aim to “pass inspections”; aim to operate well above requirements.Turbulence can be a competitive advantage. Industry resets reward resilient operators who adapt faster than peers.Counter-cyclical moves create outsized opportunity. Selling at the right time can fund acquisitions when the market turns.Think in decades, not quarters. Long-horizon ownership avoids the short-term behaviors Antonio sees in multinationals.Success is dual: metrics + people. Long-term P&L matters, and so does employee development and life trajectory.Pressure is a privilege, if it’s tied to purpose. Responsibility for customers and employees can be deeply fulfilling over time.Learning compounds only if you revisit and apply it. Antonio rereads notes weekly and translates concepts into operating rhythms.Books:  Prisoners of GeographySapiensThe Prince

    29 min
  5. Scaling Through Adjacencies, Not Distractions - Abhijit Vaish

    12 FEB

    Scaling Through Adjacencies, Not Distractions - Abhijit Vaish

    Send a text Build adjacencies before you chase scale. Enduring companies don’t grow by random diversification. They expand by moving one thoughtful step outward from their core DNA, solving the next customer pain that naturally sits beside what they already do well. Abhijit Vaish’s journey with InstaPower is a story of patient, adjacency-led growth rooted in engineering depth. From early exposure to entrepreneurship through his father, to conceiving an LED-focused business plan at Purdue when the market wasn’t ready, Abhijit learned early that timing, conviction, and restraint matter as much as ambition. InstaPower evolved from power electronics and inverters into LED lighting and large EPC infrastructure projects such as airports, bridges, monuments where lighting doesn’t just illuminate, but defines how architecture is experienced. Rather than chasing short-term wins like CFLs or fully outsourcing manufacturing, the company doubled down on in-house R&D, manufacturing, and patents to protect its core. As the business matured, Abhijit focused on financial discipline, cash management, and customer pain points, especially in B2G contexts. This lens led to adjacent expansions like battery energy storage systems (a natural evolution of inverter expertise) and cybersecurity (to protect critical infrastructure assets), each run with dedicated teams but anchored to the same customer ecosystem. Across two decades, the conversation highlights humility earned through failure, the compounding power of experience, the importance of mentors, and why building to last often matters more than building to sell. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation: Adjacency beats randomness New verticals should emerge from your core capabilities and customer pain points, not from hype.Protect the DNA of the company Keeping R&D and manufacturing in-house preserves long-term differentiation and innovation.Saying no is a strategy Avoiding CFLs and obsolete technologies was as important as betting early on LEDs.Infrastructure work is invisible, but decisive Lighting shapes how nations experience architecture, culture, and public spaces.Cash in the bank matters more than paper growth Top line and profitability matter, but liquidity is what keeps businesses alive.Failures are not detours; they are the curriculum The company’s current strength is built on lessons learned the hard way.Curiosity sustains long journeys Seeing projects come alive and noticed at the highest levels keeps teams motivated.B2G businesses win by understanding pain, not pitching products Adjacencies emerged by listening deeply to government customers’ real problems.Mentorship compresses learning curves A good mentor at the right stage can change the trajectory of an entrepreneur’s life.Build to last, even if you might sell someday Optionality comes from strength; exits are outcomes, not objectives.If there’s a single through-line here, it’s this: durable businesses are built by compounding depth, not chasing breadth. And by expanding one intelligent adjacency at a time. Books: Family Business

    19 min
  6. Sold to OpenAI: The Patience, People, and Principles Behind the Exit - Tomasz Kulakowski

    12 FEB

    Sold to OpenAI: The Patience, People, and Principles Behind the Exit - Tomasz Kulakowski

    Send a text He sold his company to OpenAI last month and the story behind it is a masterclass in patient entrepreneurship, long-term bets, and knowing when to start. Tomasz Kulakowski didn’t start his entrepreneurial journey fresh out of college. He started after losing a job, being told he was “overqualified,” and asking himself a simple but dangerous question: If I’m overqualified to join, maybe I’m qualified to build. That decision, made in his early 30s, led to multiple companies, several exits, and most recently, the sale of his AI infrastructure company to OpenAI. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation: 1) The hardest part of entrepreneurship is deciding to begin. Once you decide, most obstacles become solvable problems instead of excuses. 2) Job loss can be a gift. Being forced out of comfort creates the space to build something truly yours. 3) Start where you have unfair understanding. Tomasz anchored his ventures in advanced software, algorithms, and AI - domains he deeply understood. 4) Co-founders matter more than ideas. He credits early momentum to finding the right partners quickly and building with people smarter than himself. 5) Bet early on the future, not when it’s obvious. In 2014, long before AI was mainstream, his team began investing in machine learning talent and infrastructure. 6) Winning reveals opportunity. After winning a global Kaggle/NOAA competition, they realized something critical was missing: proper tooling for data scientists to collaborate, version models, and scale work. 7) Infrastructure beats hype. They built what became a “GitHub for data scientists” quietly powerful, deeply technical, and strategically valuable. OpenAI agreed. 8) Exits are fragile until the money hits the bank. Until closing, everything is risk. Due diligence is long, sensitive, and often reveals things founders themselves overlook. 9) For your first exit, optimize for closing, not ego. A slightly lower valuation is better than no deal. Your first exit buys freedom, credibility, and future leverage. 10) Wisdom = listening + sharing success. A wise leader listens more than talks, surrounds themselves with smarter people, and shares credit with the team. His advice to younger founders? Start earlier. Be brave. If you’re unsure—start anyway. Entrepreneurship, as Tomasz shows, isn’t about perfect timing. It’s about committing early, compounding skill, and building with humility until opportunity finds you. Books: Leaders Eat Last

    26 min
  7. The Emperor Has No Clothes: Harvard OPM and Indian VCs with Vinay Pasricha

    11 FEB

    The Emperor Has No Clothes: Harvard OPM and Indian VCs with Vinay Pasricha

    Send a text Vinay Pasricha shares his unfiltered and potentially controversial observations from 25 years as a serial entrepreneur in India. He ran an education training company that scaled to 200,000 students across 40 cities before winding it down. Five years ago, he pivoted to AI, building talent acquisition automation that reduced recruitment time from 6 weeks to 24 hours and costs from ₹2 lakhs to ₹3,000, a 100x improvement. His platform now has 1.5 million candidates and can find any profile in India within 24 hours. Vinay candidly discusses what he's witnessed in the Indian startup ecosystem, his Harvard OPM experience, and the realities of building technology businesses in India. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:AI's Transformative Scale: Unlike traditional software offering 10-20% productivity gains, AI delivers 100x improvements, fundamentally changing competitive dynamics rather than incremental optimization.Trust Frontline Judgment: The person on the ground knows their local situation better than headquarters. Empowering local leaders and resisting the urge to override decisions is critical for multi-geography operations.Absolute Honesty Pays: Every instance of bending the truth comes back to bite you, often years later. Being completely straight and upfront saves tremendous time and trouble in the long run.Self-Funding Reality in India: Real technology businesses struggle to get funded in India. VCs fund proven models (food delivery, e-commerce) but not genuine innovation. Plan to self-fund for 3 years minimum.Drop the Hero Complex: Stop proving you're the smartest person in the room. Success isn't about your ego or intelligence. It's about empowering others to execute better and letting them own the credit.Geographic Nuance Matters: India operates like different countries. What works in Delhi differs from Mumbai, Chennai, or Kolkata. Emphasizing with local contexts is essential.Question Prestigious Education: Vinay candidly shared that his Harvard OPM experience added minimal value. Many participants were "buying stamps" rather than seeking genuine learning. Don't assume brand names equal substance.Indian VC Backs "Samosa Shops": Funding flows to scaling proven consumer businesses (chai stalls, delivery services), not authentic technology innovation. India produces traders masquerading as tech companies, not breakthrough technology.Three-Year Runway Requirement: Only start a real technology business if you have family money to sustain three years independently. Otherwise, high-paying jobs offer better economics without blood, sweat, and tears.Early Adoption Advantage: Vinay partnered with OpenAI and Microsoft years before ChatGPT went public, giving him a massive head start. Being an early adopter of transformative technology creates insurmountable competitive advantages.Books:  The FountainheadThinking, Fast and Slow

    35 min
  8. Nothing Is Impossible When Discipline Is a Lifestyle: Ironman Lessons - Mohamed Mahlab

    7 FEB

    Nothing Is Impossible When Discipline Is a Lifestyle: Ironman Lessons - Mohamed Mahlab

    Send a text Elite endurance fitness demands structure, early mornings, repetition, and the ability to keep going when your brain wants to stop. Mohamed Mahlab uses that same “choose the hard thing” mindset to challenge himself as a leader: he sets public commitments, builds disciplined routines, and carries responsibility for thousands of livelihoods.  Starting sport at 38 - overweight, out of breath, finishing last, he rebuilt confidence through daily training, then progressed step-by-step from short triathlons to 24 Ironman finishes. The deeper lesson wasn’t the medal; it was proof that “impossible” can be trained into “done,” and that solo preparation creates self-belief you can’t outsource. In business, he grew Rowad Modern Engineering from a tiny, borrowed-furniture setup into a top construction player in Egypt operating across ~10 countries. He credits relentless work, differentiation and ethics as the compounding edge. He’s cautious about scaling too fast because culture, capability, and reputation take time.  Crisis periods (2011 revolution, COVID) became accelerators: he expanded cross-border, kept sites running to protect labor incomes, and used the disruption to improve systems and digitalization. His leadership philosophy: be a finisher, enable others to succeed, and treat success as a responsibility, not a trophy. Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation: 1.     Raise the bar gradually: sprint → Olympic → half → full; progress beats bravado. 2.     Public commitment fuels grit: accountability to family/team can outlast motivation. 3.     Be a finisher: train “2 hours and 1 minute,” not “2 hours minus 1.” 4.     Discipline is trained early—and refined forever: identify weaknesses and work them. 5.     Responsibility creates stamina: thousands of employees’ families change the meaning of “tired.” 6.     Differentiate through basics: safety gear, schedules, professionalism—especially when the market doesn’t. 7.     Ethics as strategy: the “right way” may be slower, but it protects longevity. 8.     Don’t scale faster than capability: culture, know-how, and ecosystem trust take time. 9.     Hard times can be opportunities: revolution and COVID pushed expansion and operational upgrades. 10.  Learn continuously, apply immediately: cases (Toyota, Friendly Fire, execution boot camps) became real operating changes. Books: From Good to GreatCharles de Gaulle

    39 min
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About

A podcast where global leaders from the Harvard Business School Owner/President Management (OPM) community join in a personal capacity and share the real decisions, failures, and mental models behind building enduring companies. This podcast is independent and not affiliated with Harvard Business School.

Information

  • Creator
    Sohin Shah
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Beyond the Case
  • Show Website
    Beyond the Case