Driving the train doesn’t set its course. The real job is laying the tracks

J A A & Associates
2 min readAug 16, 2023

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As an organization, we have enjoyed unprecedented affection and support from our clients. By the grace of God, we have been growing leaps and bounds.

We did realize that unless we step back and ensure the foundation is robust, our beliefs are documented and lived, our tracks are laid, the work of building this organization is not complete.

As someone poignantly has noted “Driving the train doesn’t set its course. The real job is laying the track”

All the 7 of JAA’s partners decided to spend 3 days with Mr. Subba Vaidyanathan (www.beingme.com.sg) in a setting outside of office, where all distractions were cut out and tried to do the following:

1. Re-articulate our values

2. Define our credo — what is our origin story. What do we stand for.

— It is critical for all of us to live this story. What is the problem we are trying to solve

— What is the list of our attributes to live with

— What are the guardrails to live by

3. Identify our aspiration and ambition

4. Define the immediate roadblocks in our attitude to achieve that

5. Decide on breakthrough actions for each of us

6. Chart out the course to ensure each of our colleagues understand and live it through.

The outcome was a consensus driven, well articulated, re-emphasized credo statement and a re-affirmation of our vows to what we have come together for.

JAA Credo

“We are a professional services firm of globally experienced, multi-disciplinary specialists consistently delivering customer delight through partner led solutions to current and emerging business needs guided by our values, legacy & culture

Over the next few posts, I will try and keep sharing our thoughts as they firm up, specifically re-stating the key attributes to ourselves.

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