industry insights
Thinking on business transformation, practice, and the Indian mid-market.
The thinking on this page comes from the Cerebratum principals — Radhika and Praveen — written from the inside of engagements, not from the outside looking in. No generic advice, no recycled frameworks. What gets published here is what we are actually working through with clients, what the market is getting wrong, and what we think is worth saying clearly. Posts are organised by practice area — use the categories to find what is most relevant to your situation.
You Customised the ERP Until It Stopped Being an ERP
You bought a standard system so the business could run on standard processes. Then every department asked for an exception — and got one. Three years on, you own a bespoke system nobody can upgrade, and the workarounds are back.
Your Data Is Clean. Your Definitions Aren’t.
Three departments report on 'active customers' and get three different numbers, all technically correct, because each one is quietly using its own definition. That's not a data quality problem. It's a definitions problem wearing a data quality costume.
Your Supplier’s Emissions Are Now Your Problem
Most mid-market businesses think their carbon footprint is their own concern. Once a large customer starts measuring Scope 3, your emissions are quietly part of their number — and their problem to report, whether or not you've ever measured them.
The Discount That Trained Your Customer to Wait
Every quarter-end discount that closes a hesitant deal teaches that customer something true and expensive: the list price isn't the real price, and waiting is a legitimate negotiating strategy. That lesson, once learned, doesn't unlearn easily.
The SOP That Only Works When Nothing Goes Wrong
The SOP describes exactly what happens when everything goes to plan. It says nothing about what happens when the customer's PO doesn't match, the vendor ships late, or the system's down. That silence is where the real process actually lives — undocumented, in someone's head.
The Rebrand That Fixed Nothing
A rebrand can make a business look completely different without making it work any differently. When the actual problem was never about how the business looked, a new logo just delays the reckoning by a year.
Why Your Team Doesn’t Trust the Fractional CXO in Week One
A fractional CXO walks into a team that's known each other for years and asks them to follow someone who's there two days a week. That credibility gap isn't the CXO's to close alone — most of it belongs to the founder, in week one.
The Function You Outsourced Is Still Working Alone
The function got a reporting line, a seat in the leadership review, and the word 'integrated' in its name. What it didn't get was anyone inside the business who actually talks to it day to day. That's still a silo — just one with better paperwork.
Most Transformation Programmes Don’t Build Muscle. They Stop the Bleeding.
Most founders expect transformation to build something new — a standout function where a struggling one used to be. Most of what a well-run programme actually does is close the gaps first. Growth is a separate, later job, not the same motion.