DTH
Harit Nagpal’s second literary act: why binary thinking is killing your career
MUMBAI: Harit Nagpal isn’t interested in either/or. The chief executive of Tata Play—India’s largest content distribution platform—has spent four decades navigating cosmetics, cooking oils, colas, clothing, communication and content, and he’s learnt something valuable: the best decisions rarely come from choosing between the options you’re given. They come from inventing the one you weren’t.
His new book, Pivot: Between Two Options, Pick the Third, published by Westland Business, launched on Amazon on 24 November 2025 at Rs 499 (currently discounted 23 per cent to Rs 383). It’s a 164-page distillation of that philosophy, wrapped around the story of Neel, an ordinary middle-class boy whose life becomes a case study in counterintuitive decision-making.
The premise is deceptively simple. When you’re stuck between two choices—whether it’s picking an academic stream, staying in a comfortable job or leaping into uncertainty, handling workplace stress or navigating personal crises—conventional wisdom says weigh the pros and cons and choose. Nagpal says that’s precisely when you should stop, step back, and ask: “So?” That tiny, disruptive question, he argues, can crack open possibilities that binary thinking obscures.
This is Nagpal’s second book. His debut writing effort, Adapt: To thrive, not just survive, established him as a corporate leader willing to put management philosophy into readable prose. And it got him the credentials of a best selling author. Both books are now available as a bundle on Amazon for Rs 739, which positions them as a one-two punch for anyone trying to navigate career and life without succumbing to false choices.
The book doesn’t promise easy answers. What it offers instead is something rarer: the questions for deeper reflection and the space to think through responses that aren’t pre-packaged. In an age of algorithmic recommendations and decision-making outsourced to apps, that might be the most counterintuitive choice of all.
Nagpal’s four-decade career suggests he’s practised what he’s preaching. Moving from consumer goods to media and technology requires exactly the kind of lateral thinking his book champions. Whether Pivot helps readers replicate that trajectory remains to be seen. But in a world increasingly hostile to nuance, a 164-page argument for third options feels quietly radical.
