At 78, Stephen Schwarzman has seen empires rise, markets collapse, and fortunes made and unmade in a single day. But when he stood before an audience in Mumbai, marking Blackstone’s 20 years in India and 40 years globally, he wasn’t talking about deals. He wasn’t talking about numbers and that’s surprising considering that he owns the world’s biggest alternative asset management firm with over $1 trillion in assets.
Besides his views on tariffs and artificial intelligence, Schwarzman ended the evening with a master class in leadership, prompted by a question from Amit Dixit, the Asia head of private equity. “Well, there are a lot of great businesspeople in the audience, and everyone has their own perspective on these things,” he said.
It was a curious departure from the usual hard-nosed dealmaking wisdom that tends to dominate conversations in high-finance circles. But as he spoke, a different picture of leadership emerged—one that wasn’t built on power plays but rather patience, clarity, and restraint.
Schwarzman, by his own admission, wasn’t always the leader he is today. He started in mergers and acquisitions, where every deal was a zero-sum game—if one side won, the other lost. It was a high-stakes world, built on extracting as much value as possible.
When he co-founded Blackstone, he assumed the same rules applied. But he was wrong.
The realisation was a humbling one. At the start, Schwarzman saw himself as a solo practitioner—a financier who moved fast, made quick decisions, and expected others to keep up. But leadership, he learned, doesn’t work that way.
“I had to learn to slow down,” he said. “People can’t keep up if you move too fast, and that makes you impatient. And you can’t build great teams if you’re intolerant.”
It was a striking admission from one of the world’s most successful business leaders: impatience kills leadership.
“Never raise your voice. Never threaten people. Never criticize anyone publicly,” he said in a sagely tone.
These were not the words of a man known for ruthless negotiations. They were the words of someone who had seen the long game, who had learned that leadership is about influence, not dominance.
“If someone makes a mistake, deal with it privately. Public embarrassment creates resentment, even if they were wrong. People never forget how you made them feel,” said Schwarzman.
The best leaders, he explained, are architects of culture.
What makes organizations scale and sustain success? Schwarzman didn’t hesitate to lay out his playbook: “At Blackstone, our mission is simple: Be the best in the world at whatever we choose to do.”
It was a mission that wasn’t vague or theoretical—it was measurable. If someone else was doing better, that meant you had fallen short.
At Blackstone, culture is built on a few core principles, said Schwarzman articulating it as five-pronged framework. 1) Excellence & Meritocracy – never compromise; 2) Equal Opportunity & Hard Work – nurture talent over tenure; 3) Openness & Cooperation – never withhold information as power; 4) No Glass Ceilings – younger colleagues are often smarter—recognize that and, 5) No Internal Politics – a company where employees feel protected performs better.
New hires at Blackstone don’t just go through a few interviews. They meet 15 to 17 people. Because every new hire changes the organisation’s chemistry. One wrong cultural fit could send ripples through the company. And no matter how smart someone is, if they disrupt the culture, they don’t belong. ” We don’t hire weird, strange people who happen to be very smart. We found that having strange people around really makes life difficult for the rest of us who are not so strange,” he said.
And once people join the team, the values aren’t just written in some corporate handbook. They are reinforced, constantly.
“If you don’t repeat this consistently, your company’s culture will fall apart. Only a few people at the top truly understand it, and if new employees don’t internalize it, the organization risks becoming just another soulless and uninspiring place, lacking passion,” explained Schwarzman.
Beyond culture, Schwarzman spoke about decision-making, another underrated art of leadership. Too often, leaders feel pressured to answer immediately to project confidence by responding on the spot. But Schwarzman doesn’t buy into that. “If someone asks you for an immediate answer and you’re unsure, just say, ‘Let me think about it and get back to you,” he told the audience.
Why? Because the best leaders aren’t just fast—they are right.
And then, there’s praise. “When people do a great job, tell them,” said Schwarzman, adding: “Whether it’s sending them a note, calling them, or seeing them in the hall and saying something, that’s another important part of your job as a leader. And it’s actually quite rewarding to remember that people appreciate that feedback.”
By the time Schwarzman finished speaking, it was clear—his version of leadership isn’t about power, it’s about longevity. And perhaps most importantly—the humility to recognise that leadership isn’t about the leader.
“That was probably a longer answer than you expected,” he told the crowd, adding, “but I hope there’s something in there that speaks to you and what you do.”
Judging by the applause that followed, it certainly did.
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The company will reorganise its operations into four key divisions—Technology Services, Business Process Services, Consulting Services, and Engineering.
While every content vertical of the streaming platform did well, regional was the surprise element.
RBI states that the bank has already engaged an external audit team to review systems and assess actual impact.
