SynopsisThyrocare founder Dr. A. Velumani observed that many profitable Indian companies with revenues over Rs 40 crore are stagnating due to excessive talking and insufficient documentation. He found that reliance on voice communication, rather than structured emails, leads to a lack of systems, accountability, and ultimately, hinders scaling beyond a certain point.Dr A Velumani has conducted more than 1,000 mentoring events and met over 1,000 entrepreneurs over the last couple of years. Most founders blame stagnant growth on market conditions, competition, or a weak product. Dr A Velumani thinks many profitable companies are stuck for a much simpler reason: they talk too much and document too little. In a detailed post on X, the Thyrocare founder and businessman said he spent five years after his exit mentoring entrepreneurs, only to discover the same pattern across multiple firms with revenues well above Rs 40 crore. His blunt conclusion? Great products were surviving despite poor organisational discipline, not because of strong systems.Dr A Velumani, who has a net worth of approximately Rs 5,000 crore, said he has conducted more than 1,000 mentoring events and met over 1,000 entrepreneurs over the last couple of years. While many founders approached him for guidance, he described himself not as a startup mentor but as a “ScaleUp mentor,” asking companies to “knock me if you reach 10 Cr pa.”Among the businesses he selected, many were already generating more than Rs 40 crore annually and were profitable. Yet he noticed one recurring symptom: “Stagnation.”Dr A. Velumani’s conditionsTo test whether the issue was fixable, Velumani imposed a few non-negotiable working conditions. These included “No voice. No WhatsApp. Only email,” being copied on direct-report communications, and maintaining a faster mean response time (MRT) to his emails than he maintained to theirs.You Might Also Like:He described the arrangement as “one month live-in. No marriage,” meaning a trial collaboration rather than a formal long-term commitment. The terms were verbally accepted but never signed. The results, he said, were revealing.— velumania (@velumania) The results Over 30 days, the founders sent only about 20 emails to their subordinates, and those messages lacked clarity. Velumani, by contrast, sent roughly 50 emails, copying both CEO and CFO. He said he maintained an MRT of around 30 minutes, while some founders took more than 1,000 minutes to respond despite running companies with approximately Rs 100 crore turnover and around 40% EBITDA margins.When responses did arrive, they were often limited to “Understood,” “Noted,” or “will come back.” That was the moment he wrote, when “dating said marriage will not work.” His final note to several of the companies was simply: “Marriage will not work. All the best.”You Might Also Like:Velumani’s diagnosis was not about product quality. In fact, he said many of these businesses continued to earn strong profits because their products or services were genuinely good. The deeper problem was organisational behaviour. “Entire rank and file were in voice,” he wrote, arguing that companies had become addicted to calls, voice notes, and informal communication. The consequences, in his view, were predictable: “No SOPs. No systems. No hierarchy. No accountability.” He summarised the situation with a memorable line: “Good child. Indisciplined parents.”Dr A Velumani's scaling thesisThe most controversial part of his post was his scaling thesis. Velumani argued that organisations that run “100% on voice” may reach around Rs 5 crore relatively easily but struggle to become durable Rs 100 crore businesses. By contrast, companies that rely on written communication with strong response discipline can scale to “Rs 1000 cr even if the product has limitations.” For leaders, his prescription was straightforward: “Focus and quit Voice if you're a leader for the sustained prosperity of your subordinates.”Velumani tied the lesson back to his own journey. He estimated that he must have “read or responded or sent a million mails in 25 yrs to make a billion $ company.” Without his mother, his wife and his mails, “I would have been only 1/1000th of what I am”, he wrote. He closed with a short diagnosis of his own: “My learning : Focus or suffer.”Read More News on...morelessRead More News on...moreless