On a January morning in 2009, thousands of employees stepped into their offices believing they were part of one of India’s most admired corporate stories. The security gates opened as they always had. Elevators hummed upward. Conference rooms filled with conversations about delivery schedules, client calls, and quarterly performance. Outside, investors watched a stock that had long been considered dependable. Inside, nothing felt fragile.

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For more than two decades, this company had grown steadily, almost confidently, alongside India’s rise in global technology services. It had scale, international listings, marquee clients, and the kind of reputation that made scrutiny feel almost unnecessary. Success had become routine. Predictability had become expected.

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What no one could see that morning was that the story had already begun to turn.

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The trouble had not started overnight. It had not been triggered by a dramatic failure or a sudden loss. It had begun much earlier, in something far less visible: a number that did not quite align, a quarter that did not quite meet expectation, a gap that seemed small enough to manage quietly. Perhaps the next period would compensate. Perhaps growth would catch up. Perhaps this was temporary.

Numbers, however, have memory. Once adjusted, they must be supported. Once supported, they must be sustained. What begins as a bridge can slowly become a structure that holds up the entire narrative. Systems reconcile because the inputs are made to reconcile. Reports look consistent because consistency has been carefully preserved.

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By the afternoon of that January day, trading was halted. By evening, boardrooms were in crisis. A letter surfaced that would force markets, regulators, and employees to confront a reality very different from the one they had trusted. What unraveled was not operations, not talent, not client relationships. It was credibility.

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The most unsettling part is this: on the morning it all came undone, it still looked like success.

How does something so large, so visible, so systematized begin to weaken from within? How do processes continue functioning while foundations quietly shift? At what point does reassurance replace verification?

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We have explored this story in depth in our latest documentary—what happened, how it unfolded, and why its lessons remain urgent for leaders, boards, and institutions today.

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If you are curious about how trust is built, and how it can erode without noise, you may want to watch it.

The full story is here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA4pSver-hs&t=3s

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Sometimes the most important failures do not announce themselves. They wait until the world is no longer looking for them.