A recent convert to the VC Bible (Link to my two cents on the Indus Valley Annual Report 2025), Blume Ventures publications manage to grab my attention the minute their books are fresh off the press. Their recent publication, Winning Beyond Boundaries, is no exception.
The premise of the book which drew me in was the diversity in the cast of the Indian growth story showcased in this book. From the legendary founders of IT companies such as Freshworks (Girish Mathrubootham) and Persistent (Anand Deshpande) to one of the OG building blocks of the Indian MNC wave (Harsh Mariwala) to the people who are building for Indian manufacturing expertise and product excellence (Akash Gupta of GreyOrange and Mohit Kumar of UltraHuman) to veterans of business management like Aditya Ghosh (Former President – IndiGo) and Alok Sama (of Softbank fame) to unlikely heroes such as Amitabh Kant (whose brainchild was Kerala tourism and eventually Incredible India) and Mukund Rajan (Ratan Tata’s EA turned Brand Custodian) to sportspersons whose names are known by every kid – Neeraj Chopra and Mahesh Bhupathi. The common thread among all these amazing people? They found their own definition of success, achieved excellence in execution of this definition, and then dominated / are dominating their field to win impossible successes.
The reason for me picking this book over any other book that chronicles India’s growth story in terms of entrepreneurs and incredible people are multifold. I’ll enumerate them for you, and if a reason resonates with you, would humbly request you to think about reading this book.
Digestible reasons in an easy to read format: There’s a chapter for each of the individuals mentioned above, and a chapter would take approximately 5-10 minutes to read based on your reading speed. In the most common case where your attention span has been reduced to less than a minute thanks to Instagram reels, the byte-sized lessons offer an easy way to absorb information on the go, and in between back-to-back meetings.
Story-boarded lessons with apt anecdotes: The book does not drone on and on about what you must do and what you shouldn’t do. It helps you learn how to fish, demonstrated by the art of selecting relevant stories and helping you learn the theory of fishing, and encouraging, nay, motivating you to try fishing yourself without being preachy.
References to other books and memoirs: The sign of a well-researched book is the number of references it has to other books and written content which you are eager to actually go read. My TBR has been groaning with the count of books I’ve added to it while reading this book.
Wide curation of people you would otherwise not know much about: While some of the personalities covered in this book are household names, the others may or may not have an ardent set of following and believers. Blume’s attempt to shine a light on their stories is certainly fruitful from that perspective.
One main takeaway from this book is Indigo’s codified people culture, a straightforward framework that has the power to transform an organization. As explained in the book, this culture is built on 4 core tenets.
- Incredible emphasis on deep respect, promoting a workplace where every individual, regardless of their role, is valued as an equal.
- Instant recognition, believing that acknowledgment should be both swift and direct, just like constructive (or destructive) criticism.
- Contagious behavior, affirming that acceptable norms within an organization are largely shaped by the behaviors that are actively rewarded.
- Significance of meaningful rewards – incentives can be impactful even when they’re not monetary.
The conclusion? Reaching the status of a truly high-performing organization isn’t about grand, sweeping gestures or extravagant bonuses. It’s about embedding a people-centric culture into the organization’s very DNA and the subconscious of an employee.
Here are some quotes from the book which I really liked and which will stay with me and will hopefully manifest into my own life:
Every successful entrepreneur must find their own formula for success. For Harsh Mariwala, this meant first understanding what he was good at – and, more importantly, what he wasn’t. … identifying his strengths was only half the battle. What truly set Harsh apart was his ability to confront his limitations head-on.
… being contrarian isn’t enough, and being methodical isn’t sufficient. True success comes from systematically identifying and dominating markets where your contrarian approach gives you an unassailable advantage. Everything else, as Anand learned, is just noise.
When one person’s obsession becomes a family’s mission, impossible dreams don’t just become possible; they become inevitable.
All in all, I would highly recommend this book to college students, working professionals and entrepreneurs. If you’re in need for a spark, or guidance on what to do next, this book is one of the places you can start.
If you’d rather hear/see than read this book, do check out Blume Venture’s Podcast via your favourite podcast streaming platform or YouTube
Mithila Menezes 
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