I've had three forced transitions that taught me to read signals early: Corporate Job collapse (2018), my father's death (2019), and every operational crisis at Knighthood that business school didn't prepare me for.
Each time, preparation gave me options when others saw only chaos. However, at every such instance, preparation gave me options when others saw only chaos.
Why I Document
I write because decisions decay. Six months after any key decision, I couldn't recall the exact logic. The specifics faded.
Writing it down helps me freeze judgment at the moment of consequence, before hindsight smooths the edges.
Career Transitions
Corporate and startup roles
Small delays cascade (L&T, Delhi Airport T3: 1-week slip becomes someone else's 2-week halt).
Tools that don't match workflow get replaced by shadow systems (At Jio, I observed how a complex PM tool was bypassed by Excel, then had to hire someone to duplicate Excel into the system)
External capital makes your competence fungible to the narrative (At Ola, I sidelined for three months because I didn't "fit" a pivot, then suddenly "fit" again when direction changed).
Budget cuts → endless ROI meetings → HR Discussions = Death Spiral. When executives stop giving straight answers, the ship is already sinking.
Entrepreneurial Roles
- Read the real decision-maker, not the loudest voice.
- Lesson: Build Contractual Protection, not just a relationship
- Timing and Luck play greater role in our sucess than we assume
- CashFlows beats Startegy and Margings
- Operations reality breaks academic framework
- When dealing with operations dependent on managing people across locations, means decisions where the "right answer" doesn't exist.
The Two Sites
I maintain two separate spaces:
kiranbrahma.com
(this site) is where I document learning across domains, books I read, technology I'm analyzing, experiments I'm running. It's exploratory, transparent about process, sometimes incomplete.
The Operator Stack
Where operational scars become reusable systems. If you need decision frameworks for running a business under pressure, go there. If you want to see how I'm learning and building, stay here.
Education
- Engineering from NIT Hamirpur.
- MBA from ISB
I am currently based out on New Delhi, India.
Take what's useful. Ignore what isn't. If something here solved a specific problem for you, I'd like to hear about it.