Alumni Author: Practical Strategic Thinking – Rajesh Paleth, PGP 1997
In a world where strategic thinking often feels locked behind corporate jargon and dense textbooks, Rajesh Paleth brings clarity, wit, and wisdom through his latest book, Practical Strategic Thinking. An IIMB alumnus, educator, entrepreneur, and founder of AAMA University, Rajesh has been on a mission to make learning not just practical but deeply personal. Drawing from his experiences teaching in Cambodia, battling a critical illness, and mentoring the next generation, Rajesh blends humor with hard-earned insight to question the very foundations of modern education, leadership, and entrepreneurship.
What motivated you to write Practical Strategic Thinking, and how do you envision it serving both business school students and professionals?
The motivation came from a combination of factors. When I was teaching young b-school students in Cambodia, I realized that they were not really interested in any discussions that felt, to them, in the realm of theory. They wanted immediate applicability in their daily lives. They wanted the conceptual discussions to be relatable. One major change from the times I went to IIMB was that the majority of them were not interested in corporate jobs, and aspired to be entrepreneurs. The whole book series which starts with Practical Strategic Thinking, is geared towards theories and techniques that are relatable and immediately applicable in their entrepreneurial lives. And it’s written in a tongue-in-cheek style which should hopefully raise a few chuckles at least internally. After all, we tend to remember things which make us laugh.
With Practical Strategic Thinking as the first in your series, what other books are planned to follow, and how will they expand on the themes you’ve introduced?
My next book which I’m writing now, is called The Futurepreneurs, which is a discussion on leveraging the technologies of today, and the global changes in supply chains, tools and services available, new and unprecedented business models, and generational changes in motivations and awareness levels in order to become new generation entrepreneurs. We need to realize that businesses can be global from day one, and developments in supply chains, production processes and organizational structure make most businesses accessible to those with little or no capital. If you wanted global communication reach, you needed millions of dollars and the regulatory hurdles were insurmountable. Now, you need a good microphone, a cellphone and a stable internet connection. In parallel with all these, shall we say, enablers, a need is arising. Decreased trust in media and lack of faith in the stability of national currencies are but two of the trends visible in the world today and tomorrow’s businesses need to leverage those changes, not try to ignore them. Following that book, The Unmasking will enable youth to cut through the mass of manipulative narratives, misinformation and disinformation using a practical toolbox that all of us should implant in our brains today. There are other books planned, of course, but I haven’t managed to title them yet!
Reflecting on your professional journey, what key experiences or lessons have most significantly influenced your approach to leadership, innovation, and organizational growth?
That’s a difficult question to answer, but I always learnt from the leaders I have admired, and in today’s world, I think it’s important to go back to certain old-fashioned values and cultural traits that we may not find important any more. Values like a sense of honor, the importance of keeping one’s word, empathy and loyalty to one’s people cannot be substituted with rule books and contracts. Cultivating those traits in your professional and personal life is what gives you emotional resilience – the ability to be comfortable with the decisions you make. Somehow, we’ve changed those fundamentals in favor of expediency, short-term thinking and catchy phrases like “it’s not personal, it’s just business” or “you’re only as good as your last deal”. Many people tell me these are just reflections of human behavior. But actually, that’s only because we make them so. A lot of the so-called rules that purport to predict human behavior are just internal biases in fancy language. Instincts are valuable because they represent a hardwired set of values common to humanity, and we shouldn’t let textbooks or other people overrule them.
As the founder of AAMA University, how does this initiative reflect your vision for continuous, practical learning beyond traditional academic structures?
I believe that the current educational system as a whole, is hopelessly outdated and we’ve been sticking Band-Aids on gaping wounds for long enough. It originated in a time when the population of earth was maybe a billion people, and only a very small percentage of them were permitted to get an education. Its religious underpinnings cause it to be the slowest system to change (apart from religion itself, of course). We have the technology to revolutionize it and make it accessible to everyone who wants it. Not reform, but revolution. Let’s not fool ourselves any longer. AAMA is all about building a global community where all of us can learn from those who have something to teach. In our formative years, when we could learn with much more ease, we didn’t have the ability or the technology to build communities around the world which would teach us, either on purpose or just by being there. We competed in our own classrooms and our own institutions, and sometimes with our own countries. Now we can both cooperate and compete with the whole world without ever leaving our homes.It’s a wonderful gift that technology has given us. Why waste it?
The turtle is featured in AAMA University’s logo. What does it signify?
Turtles are culturally seen to be wise, long-lived and they embody the “slow and steady” philosophy. These qualities have been lost to our business culture for a while now, and it is time to introduce them to successive generations. Because if we look around us, a lot of what we learnt is actually causing things to fall apart around us.
What do you envision as the future of education, and how do you see your role in shaping that future?
I think the vision of AAMA University is the best answer to that question: “A world where everyone, regardless of age, sex, location, social status or financial ability can access the same quality of education to make their lives better”. This requires a whole lot of us to change our hidebound thinking. To understand that as human beings we learn from birth to death, and learning is a journey of a lifetime, not a prison sentence of 12 or 18 or how ever many years. That the depth of knowledge you gain has been, for several decades, diverging from the pieces of paper you know as credentials (as one of my favorite commentators says “there are many morons out there with PhDs”) Most of all, it’s an understanding that learning is all about building global communities, so we can learn how to think, without anyone telling us what to think. Not only do we need to increase our exposure to the world, in order to learn, in today’s day and age, almost anyone can. If that sounds idealistic, so be it, one should never lack for ideals. As for my role in this project, frankly, I do not know. To quote Captain Algren in “The Last Samurai”, “I think a man does what he can until his destiny is revealed to him”.
Having overcome a critical illness, how has this experience influenced your personal philosophy and professional endeavors?
Being stuck on a hospital bed for three months is an experience woefully short of humor. But it does give you time to think. What you think of is up to you. In my case, I fought the war (with a lot of help at my bedside), and I won. What nearly defeated me was the peace. It was a greater struggle to mentally survive the fact of my physical survival. But still, I’m here, in all important ways. It taught me to never underestimate the power of love, friendship and compassion, and if the universe pulls you back from death twice, your purpose on earth, however small, is not finished (I’m paraphrasing Richard Bach here). And now, I can say I also learnt that living requires as much, or more motivation, than surviving.
What drives your passion for teaching and mentoring, and how do you integrate this into your professional life?
I want to engage with young people, inspire them, disillusion them (yes, that too!) and see them grow in front of my eyes. It is, deep inside, my true professional self, so I do not have to “integrate” it. I do not believe in what our corporate jargon calls “work-life balance” – work is part of life. The implication in that phrase is that work is “death” is frankly, offensive. Mind, that’s not to say it isn’t often true!
What guidance would you offer to aspiring strategists and entrepreneurs who look up to your multifaceted career path?
Everyone is a strategist; you do not aspire to be a strategist. I have been a Chief Strategy Officer in my life, and frankly, if you need one of those, there’s something wrong with your organization. Everyone should think strategically. The chaos and destruction you see around you in the world today is a direct result of our leaders being unable to think strategically. Yes, that’s a political statement, but leadership is a universal quality and if you cannot think strategically, you do not deserve to be in a position of leadership. The biggest assets of an aspiring entrepreneur or leader are empathy (because you can’t solve problems if you don’t know what problems other people have), boundless curiosity (because you can’t find solutions if you don’t know where to look) and long-term thinking. Today’s world is vastly different from the world I studied business in. The technological, economic and geo-political changes that have happened since the advent of the COVID pandemic are so consequential, so mind-numbingly fast, it’s hard even to keep up, far less get ahead or anticipate these changes. Go back a mere one week and that world was much more predictable than today’s is. The world is looking for a different system, and this is going to be built, not by old codgers like me, but by young people. I had to learn all this stuff. They are born into it. You should never stop imagining things. That’s death, of a sort.
How did your time at IIMB shape your personal and professional growth? And what are your favorite memories from the days?
IIMB is where I learnt lessons I didn’t know I had learnt (those are the best sort, really). Like how to have fun while working your backside off. Like how to compete and cooperate at the same time. That there was no limit to crazy, and that crazy was just a stepping stone to genius. That learning has a lot to do with flaming arguments and intense discussions and bad language….lots of bad language. There were many others, but this covers the major lessons that stood me in good stead through the years.
Through his candid reflections, Rajesh reminds us that strategy is everyone’s business—and that real learning begins when we stop being told what to think and start learning how to think. With wit and wisdom, he leaves us with a deeper appreciation for curiosity, community, and purpose.
Explore his book Practical Strategic Thinking: For Personal And Professional here on Amazon.
