Smart People Don’t Always Build Smart Companies.

I was recently invited to an executive symposium in Houston. You know the kind.

Everyone had a blazer that’s clearly been through a lot of airports. Name badges layered on top of other name badges. At one point, I caught myself wondering how much space was left on some people’s shirts. These symposiums sometimes feel like military service. You don’t come back with medals. You come back with lanyards.

I stood there with a coffee in one hand, listening to conversations unfold, thinking, Is this a room full of leaders… or a walking signboard? Probably both.

The conversations were sharp. Very sharp. Strategy, markets, second-order effects. People referencing books I’ve bought, started, and quietly abandoned halfway through. Everyone sounded intelligent. Nobody sounded wrong.

During a break, someone joked that the biggest risk in the room was overthinking things. There was laughter. A few knowing nods. Then we all went right back to doing exactly that.

A few weeks later, I checked in on a couple of the companies represented there. Same challenges. Same delays. Same execution gaps.

That’s when an old realization surfaced again. Smart people don’t always build smart companies.

When Being Smart Becomes a Comfortable Delay

Smart people are great at seeing complexity. Nuance. Edge cases. I say this with affection. I enjoy a good debate. Probably more than I should.

The trouble starts when everything becomes a discussion.

Simple decisions turn into thoughtful explorations. Execution waits for one more round of clarity. Meetings end with, “Let’s think about this a bit more,” which sounds responsible and usually means nothing changes next week.

I’ve been in rooms where the discussion was so sharp you felt like if you touched it, you’d cut your finger. Two weeks later, it felt like a blunt sword. Which, honestly, what use is a blunt sword? I think I saw one in a movie once.

See, nothing had changed except the slide numbers.

I’ve also watched teams debate the best way to do something while completely avoiding the actual way it needed to get done. Like arguing over the best fire extinguisher while the kitchen is already on fire.

Why Intelligence Needs Boundaries

See, the thing is, smart companies aren’t built by letting smart people operate purely on instinct. They’re built by giving intelligence something to work within.

Clear ownership.

Simple rules.

Decisions that don’t get reopened just because someone had a new thought in the shower.

Without that, intelligence doesn’t disappear. It just scatters. Everyone moves in slightly different directions, all convinced they’re right.

I’ve watched teams spend weeks designing the perfect solution and then struggle with the very ordinary work of actually delivering it.

The Myth of “They’ll Figure It Out”

There’s a quiet assumption leaders make when surrounded by smart people. They’ll figure it out.

Sometimes they do. Often, they don’t. Not because they lack ability, but because clarity was never designed.

Expectations stay implied. Standards shift depending on who’s involved. Systems exist, but mostly as suggestions. Everyone is thinking. Nobody is aligned.

I once heard someone say, “We trust people to use their judgment.” That sounds great until five people use five different versions of it.

What Smart Companies Do Differently

Smart companies aren’t the ones with the smartest conversations. They’re the ones where intelligence shows up as follow-through.

They value clarity over cleverness.

They reward consistency more than brilliance.

They build systems that reduce dependence on individual heroics.

At Ergode, progress didn’t come from hiring smarter people. It came from simplifying how decisions were made and limiting how often they were revisited. The debates got shorter. The execution got louder.

Funny how that works.

The Quiet Role of Humility

There’s one trait that quietly separates smart individuals from smart organizations. Humility.

Humility to follow a system you didn’t design.

Humility to execute something simple even when you could do something impressive.

Humility to care more about outcomes than being right.

I’ve seen teams unlock speed the moment people stopped trying to outthink the problem and started owning it together. The room gets calmer. The work gets cleaner. And nobody feels the need to prove how smart they are anymore.

A Question Worth Asking

I still value intelligence deeply. It matters. I just don’t confuse it with progress anymore.

These days, when I’m in a room full of smart people, I ask a different question. Not How sharp is this discussion? but Will anything actually change after it ends?

So here’s the question I’ll leave you with.

In your company, does intelligence help decisions happen… or does it quietly delay them while sounding very impressive?

That answer usually tells you whether you’re building a smart company, or just a very smart room.

Regards,
Rupesh