‘Fail fast, learn faster’, this mantra has become a hallmark of modern business. But for today’s HR leaders, it’s no longer enough to keep up; they’re expected to set the pace of both learning and leading. While the world of work increasingly celebrates speed, the real transformation, as Rashmi Ranjan Mahapatra, CEO and Business Head at Parry Enterprises (Murugappa Group) shared, lies in how you scale your organisation with strategic values. Mahapatra brought a refreshing, grounded, and deeply human perspective to the table at People Matters Surge HR Chennai, one that merges the wisdom of legacy with the agility of startups.

Mahapatra’s keynote, ‘From Strategy to Scalability: The HR Playbook for High-Growth Organisations,’ delved deep into business playbooks and strategic imperatives. He also reflected on leadership, purpose, and the cultural engine behind scalable organisations.

The pillars of fast growth lie within  

Mahapatra opened the conversation with a light-hearted comparison between himself and the young leaders of today. Calling them ‘Falcon’ [SpaceX] and himself as ‘NASA’, he said, “At 55, I lead an old organisation, and we still have to create the vibrancy to grow faster than a startup.”

That tone of humility, paired with insight, set the stage for his larger point that he made, “Transformation is not the priviledge of new-age companies. Even legacy organisations like the Murugappa Group, can move faster if they are willing to reinvent from within.”

Whether a company is NASA or SpaceX,  the imperative lies in how fast the business can move while staying true to who they are, from the perspective of values.

The growth of any business lies in the clarity in their own strategy and direction of scalability they want to take. Mahapatra said, “Strategy offers direction, a sense of what an organisation wants to become. Scalability, however, is about operationalising that vision with size, speed, competence, and culture.” He also added that whether an organisation is a 100-year-old enterprise or a three-year-old startup, the synchronisation of strategic clarity and scalable action is what sets the businesses apart from their contemporaries.

The competitive advantage of prioritising culture 

Strategising helps setting the tone of the vision but culture keeps it going steady and on the rise. Mahapatra referenced Peter Drucker’s famous quote, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” and highlighted the role of values and integrity in building sustainable growth.

“Unrelated and unwarranted growth can only happen when your value systems are strong,” Mahapatra asserted, while emphasising that Murugappa Group’s ability to diversify stems directly from its cultural backbone. He also highlighted the five guiding lights that have helped his group navigate transformation: Integrity, Passion, Quality, Responsibility, and Respect. “These are not just principles, they are performance drivers,” he added.

From the ‘What’ to the ‘How’

While many organisations proudly articulate ‘what’ they want to become in the next 5 years, Mahapatra argued that the real work and real transformation  lies in understanding the ‘how’. He cited Harvard Professor Ranjay Gulati and his book Deep Purpose, where he challenged the HR leaders to dig deeper into why their organisations exist and how purpose-driven thinking can help them make scalable decisions. 

The idea is to embrace and learn from your failures and recover with speed to achieve true innovation. These ideas tied to Mahapatra’s earlier themes of agility and innovation, emphasising that learning from failure is not a weakness but a cultural strength. 

Reminding businesses that scalable growth is not just about speed

Mahapatra’s spotlight session was a powerful reminder on achieving growth on scale is not just about technology or strategy but in culture values, clarity of purpose, and a commitment to behaving with integrity. As HR leaders are still grappling with the dual pressures of speed and scale, his message to all of them, “Whether you are a startup or a 100-year-old group, it’s the values and behaviours that will determine how far and how fast you can go.”