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Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YS, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous edition here). Share these 25 gems and insights from the week of April 4-10 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

See also our pick of Top Quotes of 2021 on Entrepreneurship, Investment, Digital Transformation, Storytelling, The India Opportunity, Pandemic Resilience, Failure Recovery, Design, and Art.

Leaders need to decentralise decision-making and empower managers. – Geeta Gurnani, Microsoft India

True leadership is about building a successful team and making a lasting impact. – Asha Kurup, Infosys

The process of creating the next level of leadership is about giving a chance and embracing new ideas, going beyond functional skills, and creating leaders under you. – Chinu Kala, Rubans Accessories

Leaders do not need to be experts in every field, but what you need to be good at is prioritising what problem really needs to be solved and who to work with to make it happen. – Swati Bhargava, CashKaro

If you’re just spending many days making a decision, then you’re not a fast-growing startup. – Rahul Sasi, CloudSEK

As entrepreneurs, we can’t be a specialist in everything, we do good being generalists. – Anshul Agarwal, Metaqube

There should be courses that offer solutions to initial challenges faced by startups or mentorship programs that can help make entrepreneurs independent. – Aditi Kapur, The Leather Story

One of the main things that the founders should really focus on is ensuring that the product is extremely differentiated. The second is constantly listening to consumers’ needs to create what they really want. – Malika Sadani, The Moms Co.

Let nothing stop you, also keep yourself open to always learn and ask for support. When you ask for what you need, there is nothing that really stops you. – Radha Ramaswami Basu, iMerit Technology Services

When you believe in something so strongly then it becomes very easy to sell it to other people. – Prakruti Gupta Rao, The Kaftan Company

Mentors can help you create a plan, which is in tune with your current thoughts. – Arti Gusain, Infosys Leadership Institute

Unfortunately, the term ‘sustainability’, while vital, is sometimes construed as being accessible only to the affluent. – Abhinayah Sundaramoorthy, The Yellow Dwelling

Less chemical and floral waste means cleaner rivers. – Alia Bhatt

Aquaculture is all about culturing your water, and we need to build sustainability in the entire ecosystem. – Rajamanohar ‘Raj’ Somasundaram, Aquaconnect

Every meal still makes the grain the star. – Deepa Kannan, PFNR

There is not a single player who provides a range of products like low carbs, keto, high protein and multigrain under one umbrella. – Apoorva Gururaj, Foodio fit

Our sleep is impacted by multiple factors across our lifestyle, physical health, emotional health, and external environment. And that varies with different individuals. – Surbhi Jain, Neend

Increasing the participation of women and bringing about a balanced representation of women and men in all sectors will restructure everything. It is time to create a more women-friendly environment within companies. – Pooja Bangad, SheWork

In a world where ‘work-life’ balance is a myth, the concept of being torn between your kids and work needs to be normalised – for us and for our kids. – Pooja Sriram Belur, Amma’s Work From Home Buddy

When you’re working on gender equality, it is essential to work with both men and women, as it’s equally important for men to realise the presence of a women partner or member in their lives and family. – Sara Abdullah Pilot, CEQUIN

Hire initially without bias, ensure diversity since inception. Enough studies show that women tend to hire more women. And this sets the ball rolling for diversity throughout the organisation. – Divya Gokulnath of BYJU’S

Getting to the best solutions requires diversity of skills and thought processes. An organisation that is unidimensional will never get breakthrough results. – Chandrika Kasturi, P&G

When we undertake an initiative around diversity and inclusion, we often forget to do it with the same kind of rigour that we apply to business or revenue-generating initiatives. – Rachna Bahadur, BYJU’S

You need to have a very inclusive culture so that you really listen to people and understand them. – Manikandan Thangarathnam, Uber

Professionally, not everyone can hit a ball out of the park in every over. Similarly, not everyone can keep slogging at work on a daily basis. – Ravi Jain, PayCraft Solutions

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough. – Elon Musk

A curated deal flow will eventually not only save cost and time for investors, but will also multiply the value of their investments – the sole objective of an investor. – Amit Jain, StartupBay

Art is an innate and unique expression of imagination and creativity of colours. It’s ‘me’ time. – Anupama NG

Virtual collaboration brings a broad and diverse skill set to a project. – Ira Pradhan, Freshworks

If you build the right culture, hire the right people, business results will come. – Kirthiga Reddy

Three fundamental pillars of understanding your organisation are – how it operates and grows, its value system, and culture. – Sammeer Saurabbh, HDFC Securities

Class attracts class and out-performs form. – Virendra Gupta, VerSe Innovations

YS has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).