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The Japanese have a long tradition of finding the secret to a sense of purpose, happiness and balance in everyday life. And they have a word—Ikigai—to represent just that. In this episode, Divya Shekhar meets up with Francesc Miralles, who has authored the globally bestselling Ikigai series of books along with Hector Garcia. They speak about whether finding your Ikigai can make you better entrepreneur, whether business and doing good can go hand-in-hand, and making money. And in the age of startup successes, where young entrepreneurs chase dizzying valuations and want to hit it big in a short period of time, does the process of finding one’s Ikigai, and the values of purpose, patience and perseverance, have much resonance?

In this episode, Divya Shekhar discusses a brief history of the biggest corporate failures in India over the past two decades and what we can learn from them with Nandini Vijayaraghavan, who is the director and head of research at the Singapore office of the Korea Development Bank. In her latest book ‘Unfinished Business: Evolving Capitalism in the World’s Largest Democracy’, Nandini tells this story through four businesspersons: Anil Ambani (R-ADAG), Naresh Goyal (Jet Airways), VG Siddhartha (Café Coffee Day) and Vijay Mallya (Kingfisher). In the episode, she talks about why the government, investors and other stakeholders have not learnt from past mistakes, why listing day pop is a risky game, and what her research tells her about Gautam Adani. She also gives insights on the future of Jet Airways, startups that value scale over sustainability, and a lot more

Do you think you will have a better understanding of your country and what it means to be Indian if you travelled over 18,000 kilometres, on the road for more than 50 days? When fourth-generation entrepreneur Bhairavi Jani did that, she discovered new facets and truths about India that are now part of her new book Highway to Swades. In this episode, she speaks with Divya Shekhar about why the definition of entrepreneurship and “starting up” is very different in villages and non-metros, how the history of trade has shaped the way we trust and do business, and what her travels taught her about the purpose of enterprise and giving back to society.

From the Bookshelves of Forbes India is back after a short New Year break, and is happy to present the first fiction title to be discussed on the podcast. Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize 2022 for his novel ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ barely three months ago. He speaks with Divya Shekhar about using ghosts, ghouls and horror to craft a whodunit in the backdrop of the raging civil war in 1990, Sri Lanka, how people in the country use humour to convey pain and trauma, why his next book is on the “absurdities of the corporate world”, why he has barely been able to write after the Booker Prize win, and what his win means to writers and the publishing business for his country Sri Lanka.

Did you know the word computation made its first appearance only in the second Five-Year plan, and the word 'computer' was introduced only in India's third Five-Year Plan? But there were a few individuals who were first-movers, early believers in the power of technology who eventually helped shape the IT industry into the behemoth worth billions of dollars that it is today. One such early believer is Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan. In this episode, he speaks with Divya Shekhar about building India's IT industry through his personal experiences, and what the future looks like.

How do women in India navigate their everyday freedoms, both big and small? With the rate of female workforce participation in India low and stagnant at less than 25 percent—how can we bridge the gap between men and women, particularly in terms of economic opportunities and parity? Shaili Chopra's new book, Sisterhood Economy, addresses these issues and more. The former journalist, the founder of the digital platform SheThePeople, speaks with Divya Shekhar about the importance of financial freedom and putting value to unpaid care work, reimagining gender roles and creating role models that are not only aspirational but also relatable​.

In a masterclass on how to build companies and products that change the world, and how to persevere through failure, Tony Fadell speaks with Divya Shekhar about his illustrious career, which, through its twists and turns, has helped him become the man behind some of the most inventive products in the world today. The co-creator of the iPhone, who led the team that built the first iPod at Apple, Fadell's new book 'Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making' is all about how to find one's place in the world, think differently about work-life balance and solving problems, and the lessons he learnt from his mentors, including Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs and Google Co-founder Larry Page.

Jimmy Soni spent more than six years of his life documenting the origin story of PayPal and the rise to power of its founders, who, as the PayPal Mafia, are among the most influential people in Silicon Valley today. Soni's book, The Founders, chronicles how the payments platform shaped the modern consumer internet. It features rich anecdotes, backstories and interviews with all of PayPal's co-founders, including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin and Reid Hoffman. In today's episode, Soni discusses Musk's Twitter takeover and his vision for X, the everything app, Peter Thiel's emergence as a right-wing power player, and how PayPal has created a template of entrepreneurship for a generation of young startup entrepreneurs. The Founders is published by Atlantic Books and distributed by Penguin Random House India.

How safe are medicines made in India? Four cough and cold syrups made in India have allegedly caused the death of 66 children in the African nation of Gambia, which the Indian drug regulator is currently investigating. The syrups contained diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol, which can be fatal for humans who consume it. India has had a record of at least five major events of poisoning by DEG in the past. In today's episode, Dinesh Thakur and Prashant Reddy, authors of The Truth Pill (published by Simon & Schuster India), speak with Divya Shekhar about the problem with drug regulation in India, how drug regulators are more responsive to pharma companies rather than the people of India, and what adverse events due to substandard drugs mean for the $42 billion pharmaceutical industry in India, which, according to the Economic Survey 2021, is expected to reach $120-$130 million by 2030.

Aparna Piramal Raje comes from a prominent business family. She is a writer, educator, public speaker, and, in her own words, “happy, thriving and bipolar”. Her new book, Chemical Khichdi, is published by Penguin Random House India. In this episode of From the Bookshelves of Forbes India, Aparna talks about how she and her family coped with her mental health condition, finding one’s identity, the role of privilege in mental health awareness and de-stigmatisation, and why it’s important for corporate leaders to be more vulnerable, sensitive and empathetic.

'What's your story? The Essential Business Storytelling Handbook', is a collection of experiences of three co-authors Adri Buckner, Anjana Menon, Marybeth Sandell who talk about how companies should map their audience and engage with their target audience in a more interactive and relevant way. It is filled with examples of companies and whether they are doing it right or wrong, and how one should engage with customers. After all, the key is to identify your audience and craft a narrative of your brand. From finding the mission of the brand to channelising your company’s SEO, the book provides an insight into how companies should interact in today’s times

“What we learn from the music business tells us so much more about who we really are, than other media industries; music is important not only because it was first to suffer and first to recover, but because it was the first to discover who we really are,” says Will Page, formerly the chief economist at audio streaming company Spotify. In his book 'Tarzan Economics', Page takes a leaf or two from the music industry to explain how lessons from there can be used by anyone to disrupt an industry. The book is filled with case studies and talks about eight principles to pivot through disruption

Marketing guru Philip Kotler and Christian Sarkar in their new book discuss the seven wicked topics they have identified for brand activism. The book is an insightful read on how brands end up on either side of the regressive or progressive activism debate, with examples like Anita Roddick building the Body Shop. In this conversation, Kotler and Sarkar discuss moral myopia to brands, why credibility of CEOs in India is at an all-time low, to climate change

'Pandemonium' by veteran banking editor Tamal Bandyopadhyay narrates untold gripping stories from the Indian banking ecosystem. From the bad loans war room created far from the Mint street in Mumbai, to the arrests made in connection to the disbursal of such loans, he breaks down the nuances of bad loans in India, the key faces, and a collection of rare interviews of all the Reserve Bank of India governors on what they think has caused the big banking mess

Binod Chaudhary is Nepal’s sole billionaire according to Forbes World Billionaires list for 2021. In his autobiography, 'Making it Big', he writes about building his business, the impact of monarchy and politics, running 169 companies and how he plans to consolidate them now. His company CG Corp Global manufactures the widely popular Wai Wai noodles and has a controlling stake in Nabil Bank. Chaudhary now dreams of a NYSE-listed company—the first one from Nepal

Steven Levy has updated his book 'In the Plex' and now takes a look at how Google has changed over the last decade. In the middle of the decade, Larry Page decided to call the company Alphabet. Alpha meant Google and Bet means the new bets or the moonshine projects it will undertake. Levy believes this structure has made it tougher for these bets like the fibre optics business to succeed on their own and a lot of them have eventually failed. He says Google has become something the founders never wanted to be—Conventional

In the summer of 2010, Xiaomi Corporation didn't start out as a mobile handset company, choosing instead to launch as the company behind MIUI, an operating system based on Google's Android OS. In fact, Xiaomi officially launched as a mobile phone maker in August 2011. Since then, it has managed to become the largest-selling smartphone manufacturer in India, the 2nd largest smartphone market in the world. In his book on 'Xiaomi', Jayadevan P. K., a technology journalist, traces the journey of China opening up a market for smartphones with Motorola, and how it brought lessons for entrepreneurs in China, including Lei Jun, the main man behind Xiaomi.

The book’s title 'From Incremental to Exponential' is a giveaway and Vivek Wadhwa, a tech entrepreneur and a distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University joins us on today's episode. He points out there will be more disruption in this decade than in the last 50 years. Since 1935, the average membership duration in S&P 500 has fallen from 90 years to less than 20, and it will continue to fall. At the current rate of turnover, a full 75 percent of the current S&P 500 will be replaced in less than a decade. Wadhwa take us through how legacy companies cut the middleman to stay in the game, why he says AI is an excel sheet on steroids, and why Amazon’s monopoly is not a good thing for the Indian market

GE was created in 1892 and it finds its roots with Thomas Edison. But after 110 years, in 2018, GE was booted from Dow Jones. Many pointed fingers at the senior management. In this tell-all podcast, Jeffery Immelt the ex-CEO of GE talks about his time leading the conglomerate, including decisions that went wrong and some which will bear fruits later. In his book Hot Seat, Immelt talks about the various business verticals in detail, especially the breaking up of GE Capital which was one of the drivers of the conglomerate.

Startups and e-delivery models are usually the talks of the town and they have managed to harness growth during the pandemic but what about the old school enterprises? The book 'Transformation In Times of Crisis' by Nitin Rakesh, CEO of Mphasis and Professor Jerry Wind, who taught at Wharton School, delves upon how enterprises are rewiring themselves and adapting to the new normal. The book outlines eight key principles which include agility, mental models, digital transformation, tapping open talent resources among other ideas. The book prods companies to ask themselves to build their new strategy for the new normal.