What’s the most underrated thing SMEs should focus on when trying to scale from early traction to massive growth?
Internal coherence. Everyone’s chasing customers, capital, or the next shiny metric. But the magic? Getting your people to connect with purpose, purpose to connect with vision, and processes, humming in tune. Growth isn’t a sprint, it’s jazz; player mastering their part while listening and harmonising to the whole. Scaling isn’t about control; it’s about creating the conditions where excellence thrives, aligns, and sparks magic.
What’s your take on speed, as in would it help to grow a business?
Speed helps, until it doesn’t. Move too slow and you're irrelevant. Move too fast and you risk collapse and fatigue. The trick is knowing where to be fast, where to be deliberate, and to inspire a culture of ideation and innovation, the spirit that it’s ok to build the plane while it flies.
Ambition versus what's happening in real life can sometimes make us feel impossible. How do you prepare mentally for this?
I treat ambition like a compass, not a to-do list. A journey, not a destination or goal. Some days, you peak. Some days, you hunker down and wait out the storm. Either way, I keep moving, reflect often, support others and make peace with progress over perfection. I’ve learned that tension between vision and reality isn’t a threat, it’s a forge.
If we could rewind to your early employment or entrepreneurship days, how would you do it differently?
Honestly, nothing. Every step, mistake, win, and detour became a building block. I grew up with middle-class values that taught me resilience, humility, and integrity. Those roots shape how I lead today, with clarity, care, and a bias for what's possible.
So Sukesh, how do you want to be remembered?
As the guy who played long games in a short-term world. The guy who saw potential that others overlooked and made it rise. That person who built leaders, not just companies, who turned ambition into alignment and complexity into clarity. A catalyst for growth with soul. Who believed that “we deserve a future we can imagine”.
