That was the first narrative. Ola won’t survive because it had a deadly, external threat. 

The second narrative was that Ola had another serious problem—there was a steady stream of senior executives leaving the firm. A pattern was starting to emerge. People joined, and quickly left. 

Stories about Ola’s work culture were fairly well-known, both in media reports and in the whisper network—how it was unforgiving, how the company was rudderless, tightly controlled from the top, with rigid micromanagement. 

That was the second narrative. Ola is a difficult place to work and succeed in the long-term.

One narrative putting forward the idea that Ola wouldn’t survive because of an external threat, and the other putting forward the story that it wouldn’t because of an internal problem. In many ways, the thinking was that one fueled the other. Ola had a steady stream of exits, which prevented it from becoming stable and competitive, and this is why it would never succeed against Uber—a meaner, more assured competitor.

Cut to 2021. 

Uber is cowed down in India. It’s less ambitious, more careful and circumspect. Ola didn’t just fight Uber. It fought well, and by some counts, it even won. Ola expanded into multiple verticals — including food, FinTech others. Finally, last year, Ola created another company, Ola Electric, which is also valued at over a billion dollars.

I know what you are thinking. Ola saw the problem. It woke up. It fixed its culture, hired smart people and retained them. It created a dynamic culture of excellence and innovation, and that’s what enabled it to fight and defeat Uber. 

What if I told you that Ola’s steady stream of exits didn’t just slow down, but accelerated?

The really abridged version of Ola’s history goes something like this. 

Ola started off as a ride-hailing company, then briefly flirted with becoming a food-delivery company after acquiring Foodpanda. It even tried its hand at FinTech, by creating a wallet called Ola Money, and content creation through Ola Play. 

All of this went to another level when it found itself funded by SoftBank, one of the mightiest venture capital firms in the world. This catapulted Ola to unicorn status, and it looked like nothing could stand in its way. 

There was one problem though—SoftBank wasn’t just an investor in Ola. It was also an investor in Uber. And SoftBank didn’t see why it needed to back two horses when one would do. To ensure that they prevailed, SoftBank was determined to acquire a controlling stake in Ola. So they offered Bhavish Aggarwal a billion dollars towards an investment into his company.

In 2018, Bhavish Aggarwal did something no CEO in the world had done to SoftBank.

He said no. 

SoftBank then decided to go around him, and tried to buy a share from another investor at Ola, Tiger Global. 

As the story goes, Bhavish Aggarwal went to war. 

One year later, Bhavish Aggarwal founded Ola Electric. 

He raised $250 million for it, making it one of the fastest unicorns in India. 

The investors? 

SoftBank and Tiger Global. 

Yeah. Ola isn’t an ordinary company, and it’s safe to conclude that Bhavish Aggarwal is no ordinary CEO.

Ola Electric continued where Ola left off. First the company was focused on building an ecosystem of batteries. Then it moved to four-wheeler vehicles. And now finally, it ditched all these plans, Bhavish Aggarwal took over, and we have the current incarnation of Ola Electric. 

When people look at Ola, they see a company floundering. That’s true if you look at it as a traditional company, in a regular sector, trying to gain mastery in a single area, and then slowly proliferate across sectors. 

But what if Ola is none of those things? 

What if the only path that Ola sees towards success if not by doing one thing well and getting better at it over time, but by doing many things at once—all very quickly, and then doubling down on a few things when it believes that it has found something valuable?

Maybe this is why Ola stumbles from one thing to another, in quick succession. First it’s a ride-hailing company, then it’s also a food delivery company, then a media company, then a transportation company, then a FinTech company, a battery company, an electric vehicle manufacturer, and...also a lending company (because everyone is a lending company). 

What if Bhavish Aggarwal believes that this is the key to Ola’s success? Maybe Ola is a company that’s falling through the sky and is desperately deploying parachute after parachute really quickly before it hits the ground. 

Put yourself in Bhavish Aggarwal’s shoes. If this is your reality, then do you have the luxury of creating a consensus with those closest to you? Or the inclination to sell your vision to your team? 

Or would you just build, build, build, and just push away anyone who got in your way? Even if it’s the people closest to you—which includes people you’ve hired yourself to get the job done? 

What if all that matters is the end and not the means?

Bhavish Aggarwal is not a person who gives a lot of interviews, so it’s hard to understand what he’s really thinking. Unlike Elon Musk, a CEO who has a similar leadership style, he rarely uses Twitter. In fact, his account has about 25 tweets the whole of last year, mostly anodyne messages about product launches. 

Basically, it’s hard to tell what’s on his mind and how he works.

Maybe Bhavish Aggarwal is just making it up as he goes along. And if you are at Ola, you are welcome to go along with him for the ride.

That’s both his method, and his madness.