Aman Gupta Of boAt Says He Doesn't Treat His Employees Like Family, Instead Compares Them To A Cricket Team

In recent times, there has been a growing conversation around employee well-being and work-life balance. 

In a podcast with Prakhar Gupta (Prakhar Ke Pravachan), Aman Gupta, the co-founder of Indian electronics brand boAt, shared why he doesn't believe in calling his employees “family.”

Instead, he says that he is more of a believer in treating his employees as a cricket team. 

DO CORPORATES LOOSELY USE THE WORD “FAMILY?”

During the conversation, Aman Gupta called out corporates for using the line “we treat our employees like family.”

According to him, it's a line that is misleading and not rooted in truth. To back his logic, he added that in a family, you just don't ask your sister (or any other member) to leave. 

“Your sister is your sister,” he said. 

Instead of the “family” narrative, the boAt co-founder chooses to treat his employees like a cricket team.

Citing the example of IPL (Indian Premier League), the entrepreneur said that even Virat Kohli had to give way to someone younger than him, despite the fact that he was at the top of the game at one time. 

“Even a Sachin gave way to Kohli…Dhoni gave way to Rohit,” the entrepreneur said. 

In a cricket match, Aman mentioned that you have to use everyone's strengths according to the situation. 

Expanding this logic into the corporate world, Aman said that a specific accountant might be the best for him and his company, given the company is at a specific scale. But when the company grows and scales even more rapidly, a “better accountant” will be needed to do the job in a more efficient manner. 

Aman also mentioned that he believes that companies who run on an only “loyalty” basis shut down very quickly compared to the ones that keep hiring better talent. 

“KEEP UPPING YOUR TALENT”

At the end of this segment that discussed why teams aren't families, Aman Gupta noted that it's not like he would straightaway fire people and hire fresh, better, and more efficient talent. 

He emphasized on the point of asking your team and helping them up their talent and skills to adhere to the growing market standards. 

But if they're unable to do so, they must give way for more efficient people.