For Amit, the evolving aspect of organizational culture as companies grow from being start-ups to corporate-level entities is a topic of great interest, owing to his association with start-ups as a managing partner at PVP and having seen several such companies start from scratch, grow, and flourish. He quoted Peter Drucker’s words ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’, emphasizing how start-ups procrastinate culture building and struggle down the line. According to Amit, even the early-stage founders should consciously and deliberately prioritize culture and nurture it from day one.  

The efforts to build a culture of innovation should start from the inception of an organization. The best way to track its robustness is to consistently document it. You can also take regular assessments by welcoming perspectives from outside to hone the culture you’re cultivating. Additionally, as a founder, you should be perfectly clear about the core values you want your organization to project. Instead of considering many, pick three or four key principles and consistently demonstrate them in your actions to foster a culture that people admire and embrace. 

Obviously, AI is undeniably one of the biggest innovations we have been seeing for a while. Many organizations, regardless of their industries, have harnessed the power of AI and have reaped benefits one way or another. In particular, Amit has observed the innovative organizations’ collective attempt at understanding and familiarizing themselves with such AI tools, say at least three of four of them, and figuring out ways to incorporate them into their routine day-to-day operations. He himself has pondered how AI can be used to enhance his investment decisions or to source promising companies. Numerous organizations have similarly explored and leveraged AI and have embraced significant improvement in their workflows and overall efficiency.  

As an investor supporting start-up entrepreneurs, Amit always considers the organizational culture of companies before making investment decisions. Given the typically small employee size of such organizations, the founder culture is mainly subjected to intense scrutiny, in which the decisions are made by evaluating the founders’ cultural values, principles, beliefs, etc., and how these manifest within the organization. He acknowledges that they also look into company profiles on platforms such as Glassdoor or LinkedIn or reach out to former employees to gather additional insights.