Skip to main content
Venu 2016

Venugopal Gupta

Biography

Venu is a start-up specialist and runs a venture acceleration programme that helps early-stage start-ups build their ideas into sustainable businesses.

With more than sixteen years of experience as an entrepreneur and as a part of senior management at multinational corporations, he has keen insight into strategic initiatives and how they shape organisational goals and outcomes. As Country Manager for an emerging market real estate investment firm and Head of Corporate Development for a global industrial real estate investment leader, his roles have spanned corporate development, joint ventures and building execution teams. 

Venu holds an MBA from INSEAD and his articles on business strategy have been featured by prominent global knowledge platforms. He is the author of “The Business Parables” and curates a large collection of stories from mythology, history and folklore that bear critical business lessons.

Latest posts

Sort by

Leadership & Organisations

One Question Leaders Should Ask Themselves

Creativity and innovation are unlocked by leaders who enable others.
2 comments

Entrepreneurship

Looking for the Right Co-Founders

Character is just as important as capability. Conviction will come later.
1 comment

Entrepreneurship

What’s the Story of Your Start-up?

Great stories and great start-ups share similar principles.
4 comments

Responsibility

Safety Culture Needed to Tackle Climate Change

To get people to take climate change seriously, adopt the rituals of worker safety campaigns.
4 comments

Entrepreneurship

Innovation: Not a Straight Arrow

Great innovators don’t necessarily follow straight paths. Often a winding path can shape their defining inventions.
1 comment

Entrepreneurship

What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Authors

Authors, like entrepreneurs, agonise about making their work a big success. But “best-seller obsession” can take them down the wrong path.

Leadership & Organisations

The Danger of Being Alexander

Leaders may find it tempting to wage ambitious crusades for personal reward, but eventually their troops can turn on them. Collaboration, often missed, can be a viable and sustainable alternative.
24 comments

Strategy

Turning Competition into Collaboration

Competition is healthy but winning can come at a hefty price. Sometimes the swiftest way forward is to replace conflict with collaboration.

Leadership & Organisations

Serve in Order to Lead

Management progression should not be based on greater insulation from customers. Emerging leaders must spend time on the ground to build a true customer service culture.
3 comments

Leadership & Organisations

To Inspire Employees, Speak Their Language

Most employees are going through the motions at their jobs. To re-engage them, leaders must translate organisational objectives into meaningful aims.
28 comments

Strategy

Add Value or Someone Else Will

The lure of maximising profits at the cost of creating customer value can be devastating in the long term.
4 comments