"To me, it's really important to drive change through a team because one person, while the buck has to stop with somebody, the company is just too big for one person"
About this Quote
In the age of founder mythology and CEO-as-savior branding, Sanjay Kumar’s line reads like a quiet corrective: leadership isn’t a solo act, it’s an operating system. The phrasing does two jobs at once. “Drive change through a team” is the managerial ideal, the kind of sentence that signals modern governance and scalable execution. Then comes the concession: “the buck has to stop with somebody.” That’s not a retreat from accountability; it’s a deliberate nod to the realities of corporate power, regulators, boards, and media cycles that demand a single name when things go right or wrong.
The subtext is a balancing act between ego and architecture. Kumar is positioning himself as neither the omnipotent visionary nor the anonymous committee man. He’s claiming responsibility while resisting the trap of centralizing everything around one personality. In a large company, change is less about bold declarations than about aligning incentives, politics, and process across fiefdoms. Saying the company is “too big for one person” is also a subtle critique of overconcentrated decision-making: it’s how organizations get brittle, slow, and prone to blind spots.
Contextually, this is the language of mature leadership, often sharpened by crisis, hypergrowth, or restructuring. It reassures employees that change won’t be a top-down whim, and reassures stakeholders that there’s still a clear chain of command. The intent is credibility: team-led change, singular accountability, fewer hero narratives, more durable outcomes.
The subtext is a balancing act between ego and architecture. Kumar is positioning himself as neither the omnipotent visionary nor the anonymous committee man. He’s claiming responsibility while resisting the trap of centralizing everything around one personality. In a large company, change is less about bold declarations than about aligning incentives, politics, and process across fiefdoms. Saying the company is “too big for one person” is also a subtle critique of overconcentrated decision-making: it’s how organizations get brittle, slow, and prone to blind spots.
Contextually, this is the language of mature leadership, often sharpened by crisis, hypergrowth, or restructuring. It reassures employees that change won’t be a top-down whim, and reassures stakeholders that there’s still a clear chain of command. The intent is credibility: team-led change, singular accountability, fewer hero narratives, more durable outcomes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Team Building |
|---|
More Quotes by Sanjay
Add to List


