NY Resolution No. 8: Pitch Past & Present

Lads and girls, particularly peeps of commerce, let’s toast to No. 8 on the much-loved HETLoR – 2025 Sincere ET Record of Resolutions – essentially the most bulletproof of all New Yr resolutions: at all times hark again to the fantastic previous whereas concurrently pitching a wonderful future. That method, the current – this quarter, and doubtless the subsequent many – is a swamp of losses, damaged provide chains, and PowerPoint decks that appear to be crumpled Publish-its within the bin.

Think about the genius of nostalgia. When your steadiness sheet resembles a normal north Indian railway station throughout the competition season, merely invoke a golden age, any golden age, the extra distant the higher. Immediately, shareholders are lulled right into a heat tub of retro reassurance of mythological proportions. Then pivot – laborious – into the long run. Announce that by 2030, your organization will colonise Mars, reinvent sambhar and monetise the idea of ‘vibes’. Buyers adore a visionary who can lose cash as we speak however assure utopia tomorrow. The current, in the meantime, is handled like a suspicious relative at a marriage: acknowledged briefly, then ignored. That is the brilliance of the decision – it is a two-pronged technique of temporal misdirection. Previous glory, future grandeur, current irrelevance. So, because the champagne corks fly, keep in mind: enterprise failure is just not a tragedy, it is a narrative alternative. Merry Christmas!