Aamir Khan. Amitabh Bachchan. Yash Raj Films. ₹300 crore budget. Blockbuster ambition was written all over. But The Thugs of Hindostan tanked.
So did The Lone Ranger in Hollywood—Johnny Depp, Disney, $250M budget. In sports, PSG signed Messi, Neymar & Mbappé—three G. O. A. T. s. But no Champions League. Total cost: 400 Million euro in transfer cost, and 100 million euro in yearly wages.
Is talent really portable? That means if you manage to hire a star/ superstar, is success assured? The answer is NO. The reason is very counterintuitive.
Meta is offering $300M to poach top AI minds from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. They’re building a dream team by gutting startups and triggering overnight collapses. It may look like genius. But it may be déjà vu.
Yahoo tried this too—buying Flickr, Delicious, Astrid, Jumpcut… Dozens of promising products. Dozens of quiet shutdowns. They thought they were buying innovation. They were actually dismantling it.
Boris Groysberg’s book Chasing Stars shows talent doesn’t succeed in isolation. It succeeds in ecosystems.
The Economist wrote about it. But it is behind a paywall
Boris Groysberg’s book Chasing Stars studied talent portability
1. Star Performance Collapses When Stars Change Jobs
Star analysts who change firms suffer an immediate and lasting decline in performance. This finding challenges the fundamental assumption that top talent is portable. Groysberg studied over 1,000 star analysts at Wall Street investment banks and found that their exceptional performance didn’t transfer with them to new companies.
2. The Myth of Individual Talent
The stars of financial analysis were fallible, overpriced, and depended on their teams more than anyone realized. What appeared to be individual brilliance was actually the product of organizational support systems, relationships, and firm-specific resources that couldn’t be replicated at new companies.
3. Performance Decline Lasts for Years
Stars who switched jobs generally did poorly, often for at least several years. This wasn’t just a temporary adjustment period – the performance decline was both immediate and persistent, suggesting that star performance is far more context-dependent than organizations assume when they pay premium salaries to poach talent from competitors.
https://abhijitbhaduri. substack. com/p/the-300-million-mistake-in-hiring
I go deeper into this idea in my latest Substack where I simplify every day talent and career related challenges.
Subscribe if you’re rethinking how we build and grow talent.
Soft skills help you build your leadership pipeline
There is a growing trend of CFOs being considered for CEO roles. More frequently we see techies having to manage teams. Managing people needs soft skills. Helping your employees build interpersonal skills is an easy way to build a leadership pipeline. Here’s why https://dub. link/WWR2025-AB
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Recommendations
The Universe is Listening
It is strange how the universe works. I spoke about wanting to see more of Mickey Patel’s work. And it happened. I just connected with Mickey Patel’s daughter. Someone made the connection. We chatted for a long time about his drawing style and his work. Mickey’s best work might be his daughter. She is such a lovely person.
Amazon is hiring one MILLION robots
“the bots don’t just work independently. One robot carts stuff for loading onto trucks. Another helps sort items. Another helps package bags. ”
Can AI be a Meaningful Companion
The evolving role of AI in human relationships, the creative capabilities of generative tools, ethical guardrails in AI design, and what it takes to build scalable, meaningful AI companions in a rapidly changing world.
Top takeaways:
AI Companions Are Moving from Utility to Emotional Support : Characters like Kyra (India’s first virtual influencer) are designed to remember past conversations, express empathy, and build trust with users—offering emotional reinforcement in addition to task-based assistance.
Soft Skills Are the Real Differentiator in AI Product Design FUTR places heavy emphasis on building detailed character personas—defining everything from values and humor to preferences—to create digital entities that feel relatable and human.
High Personalization via Small Language Models Is the Next Frontier FUTR is developing lightweight, user-specific models that can adapt to individual personality archetypes, enabling deeply personal and consistent interactions over time.
Guardrails Are Mandatory for Ethical AI Adoption FUTR consciously avoids positioning its AI as therapists. When conversations show signs of distress, protocols trigger alerts or human escalation, ensuring responsible engagement.
AI Will Replace Process, Not People—Creative Insight Still Wins While AI is effective at generating drafts and executing quickly, it lacks human cultural sensitivity and insight. The most effective creators blend AI speed with human originality.
Have you heard a song recently that you recommend? Pl let me know in the comments
Two Talented Friends Created Magic: Pankh (Wings)
I have always believed that there is a great opportunity for business leaders to learn from creators. I have been listening to the new album by Shantanu Moitra and Kaushiki Chakraborty.
As Kaushiki puts it
Pankh is incredibly close to my heart — a six-part live autobiography web series. It’s my story, told through songs, memories, and the moments that shaped me. Curated in collaboration with the amazing composer, friend, and traveller Shantanu Moitra, this album is my way of opening up — unfiltered and honest. You’ve been part of my journey in one way or another, and that’s why it means so much to share this with you. And if something in it stays with you, let it travel — your voice is what helps Pankh truly take flight.
Greetings from Malaysia
I am writing this newsletter from Malaysia. Met a whole lot of my friends. The street food in Malaysia is absolutely fantastic. I met this group of cyclists on Bukit Tunku on a Sunday morning. They were burning calories and I was on my way to sample the coffee at cafe Kopenhagen (check out the collage below)
Until we meet next … stay happy. Report this newsletter – make me happy. Thanks!
