The cost of the decision you haven’t made
Postponed choices carry a real cost that never appears in the accounts. Why good leaders wait, what waiting really costs, and how to make the invisible visible.
Most strategies don't fail in execution. They fail in the moment of decision.
Leaders rarely lack data. What they lack is a clear enough view to act with conviction before the moment passes. RavenArc exists to sharpen that view.
We publish essays, briefings and guides on the choices that shape organisations: where to compete, what to buy, how to organise, and how to put AI and analytics to work. Each piece is written to be read in one sitting and used in the next meeting.
About RavenArc →Thinking for the year ahead
The map hidden in the sales ledger
Drug companies know where their blood-pressure pills sell. Read the other way, the same ledger shows where people go untreated, and who should hold that map.
Who persuaded the parents?
India’s HPV drive passed 80 lakh girls, and nobody can say which channel did the work. Pharma measures persuasion to the rupee. Public health should borrow the method.
Three people knew about the fever
A chemist, a brand manager and a health officer each see the same outbreak coming. India’s medicine sales could warn of outbreaks weeks earlier, if someone read them for health.
Fund the fever: paying for help before the outbreak peaks
Health philanthropy plans a year ahead and points at a map. Humanitarian funders release money on a trigger. Indian CSR can learn the same trick.
Why Diageo sold RCB, and what the buyers are betting on
A ₹16,660 crore exit, read as a decision: how the seller timed it, and what the buyers have to believe.
Indian sport has the money. It still needs a front office.
In the United States, sport is run and debated as a strategy discipline. India now has the capital and the structures. What it lacks is the decision-making culture.
The IPL auction is a capital-allocation problem
A capped purse, scarce talent and a multi-year cycle. Franchises that treat auction day as a portfolio decision, not a shopping trip, build an advantage that compounds.
What investors see in an IPL franchise
The sale of Royal Challengers Bengaluru put a price of US$1.78 billion on an Indian cricket team. That value rests on a few assumptions every buyer and owner should test.
The cost of the decision you haven’t made
Postponed choices carry a real cost that never appears in the accounts.
AI is an operating-model question first
Why the winners are redesigning decision rights before they deploy models.
Five questions before approving a transformation
A short diagnostic for directors facing a multi-year change programme.
How to write a business strategy people actually use
A strategy is a small set of choices, written so that people can act on them. Here is how to make them.
Scenario planning that leaders actually use
Fewer scenarios, sharper signposts, and pre-agreed triggers for action.
How to measure marketing ROI: a guide for leadership teams
Attribution, marketing mix modelling and experiments each answer a different question. Here is when to use which.
How to build an AI strategy: a practical guide for CEOs
Start with the decisions and processes that drive value, not with the technology. A five-step approach.
Why most mergers fail to create value, and what the successful ones do differently
The deal is the easy part. Value is won or lost in the thesis, the price and the first hundred days.
Supply chain resilience without sacrificing margin
Resilience does not have to mean holding more of everything. Targeted choices protect both continuity and cost.
OKRs vs KPIs: what is the difference, and which does your organisation need?
KPIs tell you how the business is performing. OKRs tell you what you are trying to change. Most organisations need both.
What is an operating model, and when should you redesign it?
The operating model is how strategy becomes daily work. Here is what it covers and the signs that yours needs attention.
- GROWTH · RESEARCHWhere mid-market growth will come from nextAdjacencies, pricing power and the quiet advantage of focus.
- AI & OPERATING MODEL · CASE NOTEFrom pilots to profit in eighteen monthsWhat separates the few AI programmes that reach the P&L.
- GROWTH · BRIEFINGPricing: the growth lever most companies underuseWhy a small change in price often outweighs a large change in volume.
Our podcast takes one big decision apart, episode by episode.
Two hosts and a RavenArc author talk through a real decision: what was decided, why then, and what had to be true for it to work. In English and in Hindi, on Spotify.
We start from the questions that keep leaders up at night
Ideas for the decisions that define a decade.
RavenArc is an independent publication on strategy and consequential decisions. We write for chief executives, boards and the senior teams around them, and we hold every argument to one standard: would it make the decision better?
Founded and edited by Ishan Kashyap, who brings more than seven years of data science and commercial analytics to every piece. Meet the founder
One considered idea, straight to your inbox.
A short note when we publish something worth a leader’s time. No noise, and you can leave with one click.
What decision should we write about next?
Suggestions, responses and disagreements are all welcome. Write to us below and we will read every message.
Prefer email? [email protected]