Company Outsider | Scooters to inverters: How Bhavish Aggarwal’s many ideas hobbled Ola’s EV edge

₹76, Ola Electric’s stock price has plunged to around ₹40 - a staggering 47% decline - and investor patience is wearing thin.So, where did Ola go wrong? The primary diagnosis is a chronic lack of focus. In the management classic Good to Great, James Collins uses a Greek parable to distinguish between two leadership types: the fox, who pursues many complex paths, and the hedgehog, who simplifies a complex world into a single organizing idea. Collins argues that greatness is achieved through a "Hedgehog Concept" which is a singular focus found at the intersection of three circles: what a company can be the best in the world at, what it is deeply passionate about, and what drives its economic engine.

By identifying this sweet spot, Hedgehog companies move beyond mere competence to achieve sustainable excellence.Aggarwal appears to be a fox in a world that rewards hedgehogs. By flitting from one grand idea to another without consolidating the previous one, Ola has failed to build a strong enough operational moat.In the high-stakes world of Indian tech, there is a seductive lure to grandstanding. Aggarwal has often positioned Ola as the national champion against global incumbents.

Yet, while Ola was busy winning the PR battles, competitors like Ather were winning the quiet war of attrition by taking the slow road, focusing on engineering, R&D, and incremental scaling. Today, Ather is the pace-setter in the premium electric two-wheeler segment, proving the value of slow and steady growth.There are lessons in this for India’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. First, synergy is not a strategy.