Mint’s Company Outsider column states that many Indian firms were blindsided by risks that were hiding in plain sight. Four patterns stood out:
Treating rule changes as “paperwork,” not capacity shocks. Airlines planned winter schedules without fully modelling the new pilot duty/rest rules—then scrambled as rosters broke and flights were cancelled, forcing pay resets and temporary relaxations. Lesson: build regulatory stress-tests into ops, not PR plans.
Single-point supply chains that everyone knew were brittle. China’s curbs on rare-earth magnets exposed EV/auto dependencies; even after 2024–25 warnings, many buyers lacked alternates or buffers. India’s late push to stand up domestic magnet capacity is a start, but firms need dual tech/vendor pathways and recycling pipelines.
ESG as slides, not systems. Companies over-indexed on claims while under-investing in product-level traceability and compliance ops—leaving them vulnerable when regulators and platforms tightened scrutiny. (The column’s broader point: governance must fund “measurement plumbing,” not just messaging.)
Succession and key-person risk underplayed. Several promoter-led firms drifted on execution because boards didn’t force hard timelines and contingency drills, the piece notes.
Playbook for 2026 (implied by the column + recent events):
Put regulatory stresses (duty-time, safety, tax, data) into quarterly scenario runs; pre-commit capacity/crew buffers and trigger thresholds.
Build second sources for critical inputs; for magnets/semis, align with India’s localisation schemes but also lock friend-shored contracts to bridge the gap.
Shift ESG from deck to data: SKU-level emissions/traceability and audit trails that survive platform or regulator checks.
Treat succession like cyber: run table-top drills, publish timelines, and tie leadership KPIs to risk anticipation, not only crisis response.
Net message: Indian companies excel at firefighting; 2026 will reward those that budget for foresight and redundancy before the spark.
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