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Showing posts from November, 2025

5 Surprising Truths About Corporate Life from a 40-Year CEO

Building a successful career is a universal ambition, yet the path is often obscured by a sea of generic platitudes and survivor bias. To cut through the noise, we turn to the hard-won wisdom of Shiv Shivkumar. A graduate of IIT Madras and IIM Calcutta, his 40-year corporate career saw him lead iconic companies like Nokia and PepsiCo. This article distills five of his most counter-intuitive and impactful lessons on navigating the corporate world, from your first job to the CEO's chair. 1. Your Career Isn't a Ladder, It's a Series of Different Games The skills that earn you a promotion are rarely the ones that will make you successful in your new role. Shivkumar explains that the corporate journey is a sequence of different stages, each with its own unique rulebook. What the company demands from you changes dramatically as you advance. Junior Manager: At the start of your career, the company wants only two things: "great execution" and "commitment." ...