When I asked Ankit Kumar about a brand he felt passionate about, I expected a discovery. Perhaps a lesser-known business with an interesting product or an unusual customer experience. Instead, he chose Nike. What followed was a masterclass in values, performance, resilience, and the people who make a comeback possible.
Ankit is the Founder & CEO of Skye Air Mobility, a pioneer in India’s drone logistics ecosystem. With millions of successful drone deliveries, he is building autonomous delivery infrastructure across industries ranging from healthcare to e-commerce. Yet, in this conversation on Dilse Omni Talks, the lesson was not about technology. It was about building a company worth believing in.
His admiration for Nike goes beyond its shoes. He is drawn to its journey, its setbacks, its recovery, and the principles behind the business. Listening to him, I found myself thinking about a question every founder should ask: what keeps a company moving when success is no longer assured?
Table of Contents
1. Brand Loyalty Begins with Something Deeper Than a Purchase
2. Protect the Larger Goal from the Smaller Temptation
3. A Performance Culture Must Include the Founder
4. Why Ankit Gave His Leadership Team Shoe Dog
5. The Air Jordan Turning Point Was Also a Team Story
6. Performance and Loyalty Are Not Opposites
A Practical Framework: The Four Ps of an Enduring Brand
What I Am Taking Back to My Own Work
1. Brand Loyalty Begins with Something Deeper Than a Purchase
Ankit’s connection with Nike is personal. He told me that he does not wear shoes from another brand. But when I asked what drives that commitment, he did not begin with design, comfort, or a product launch. He began with the company’s story.
He admires how Nike has navigated difficult periods and found its way forward. More importantly, he identifies with the values he sees behind that journey.
That distinction matters. A customer can appreciate a product without feeling attached to the business that makes it. Ankit’s loyalty includes both. He buys the shoes, but he also draws leadership inspiration from the company.
My takeaway was simple: an enduring brand gives people something to identify with, not merely something to buy. In Ankit’s case, that identification comes from ambition, perseverance, and performance. Nike represents a way of building that resonates with his own beliefs.
2. Protect the Larger Goal from the Smaller Temptation
Ankit mentioned that Nike’s ten principles are displayed in his office. I asked him which ideas he would personally adopt. His answer centred on staying true to the values and purpose with which a company begins.
For him, the danger is not always a dramatic abandonment of the mission. It can be the attraction of a smaller, immediate benefit that pulls the business away from its larger goal.
That is a useful distinction for founders. A decision may look attractive in isolation while still taking the company in the wrong direction. The real test is not simply whether it offers a benefit. It is whether that benefit supports what the business is trying to become.
I heard three questions in Ankit’s response:
What did we set out to build? Keep the larger ambition clear.
Which principles must survive our growth? Know what should not be traded away.
Does this opportunity strengthen that ambition? Evaluate the immediate gain against the long-term direction.
These are my practical interpretation of his point, not a reproduction of Nike’s ten principles. The underlying lesson is that values matter most when an attractive alternative gives us a reason to compromise.
3. A Performance Culture Must Include the Founder
When Ankit described what he most admires about Nike’s culture, he was direct.
“Either you perform or you go out.”
Ankit Kumar
It is a strong statement, and it deserves context. His argument was about putting the company’s requirements ahead of personal attachment.
He reflected on how emotional bonds can make difficult people decisions harder. When someone has worked with us for years, letting go can feel deeply uncomfortable. There is history, familiarity, and often genuine affection.
But Ankit’s standard was not reserved for employees. He applied it to himself.
“If tomorrow I’m detrimental for the company, I’m happy to step down.”
Ankit Kumar
For me, that was the more important statement. A performance culture loses credibility if the founder sits outside it. Accountability cannot travel only down the organisation.
The lesson I took away was not to remove empathy from leadership. It was to avoid allowing attachment to become the only basis for a business decision. Respect for a person and responsibility towards a company are both real. Leadership requires confronting the tension between them.
4. Why Ankit Gave His Leadership Team Shoe Dog
Ankit’s admiration for Nike has also become part of how he engages his own leadership team.
He described Skye Air’s annual Sky Carnival and shared that, after that year’s gathering, he gave his senior leaders copies of Shoe Dog, Phil Knight’s account of Nike’s journey.
That detail stayed with me. He was not simply recommending a book he enjoyed. He was sharing a business story that reflects the qualities he values: passion, persistence, and the ambition to create something enduring.
There is a leadership lesson here. Principles can remain abstract when they are presented only as instructions. A company’s story gives those principles context. It allows people to consider what conviction looks like when the outcome is still uncertain.
Ankit spoke with admiration about building a brand whose significance extends beyond its founder. I understood his point as a challenge to all of us building businesses: are we creating something that depends entirely on our presence, or something with the strength to endure beyond us?
5. The Air Jordan Turning Point Was Also a Team Story
Our conversation then moved to Air, the film about Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan. I brought up the film, and we discussed its focus on the process of signing him. One memorable detail was its choice not to show Jordan’s face directly.
That creative decision puts attention on the people trying to make the partnership happen. It also connected with the part of Nike’s story that most interested Ankit.
He described a basketball division facing the possibility of closure, with Nike competing against stronger names in that category. In his telling, signing Jordan became a decisive turning point.
He also pointed to Nike’s eventual acquisition of Converse as a striking contrast with its earlier competitive position. His interest was in the distance the company had travelled.
But the most useful part of this discussion was not the eventual scale of the success. It was what happened before that success became obvious.
The familiar version of a turnaround celebrates the breakthrough partnership. Ankit wanted to talk about the employees who continued pushing when their division’s future looked uncertain. They could have pursued opportunities elsewhere. Instead, as he described it, they fought to keep the business alive.
The turning point matters. So does the team that remains committed long enough to make it possible.
6. Performance and Loyalty Are Not Opposites
At first, Ankit’s two strongest themes might appear to pull in different directions. He values a demanding performance culture, but he also deeply admires people who stay through difficult periods.
I do not see a contradiction. There is a difference between protecting someone regardless of contribution and valuing someone who continues contributing when circumstances become difficult.
His admiration was for people who kept working for the company’s survival. Loyalty, in that sense, was active. It meant effort, ownership, and persistence rather than simply remaining on the payroll.
Towards the end of our exchange, I reflected on how hard it is to find people who stay through the ups and downs. That is where the conversation landed for me. Growth is easier to celebrate than uncertainty is to endure. Yet the ability to endure may determine whether the next chapter ever arrives.
A Practical Framework: The Four Ps of an Enduring Brand
To make these lessons usable, I would organise them into four connected ideas. This is my synthesis of the conversation, not a formal framework presented by Ankit.
PRINCIPLES → PERFORMANCE → PERSEVERANCE → PASSION
Principles: Protect the direction. Define the larger goal and the values that should guide decisions, especially when short-term benefits compete for attention.
Performance: Make contribution matter. Build accountability across the company, including at the founder’s level. Personal attachment should not replace responsibility.
Perseverance: Keep contributing through difficulty. Recognise the people whose commitment translates into effort when the business faces uncertainty.
Passion: Build something people identify with. Ankit’s relationship with Nike shows how a company’s journey and beliefs can become part of a customer’s loyalty.
The value of this framework is in the connections. Principles without performance remain intentions. Performance without perseverance can falter when conditions worsen. And passion becomes more meaningful when there is a business story behind it that people genuinely respect.
What I Am Taking Back to My Own Work
This conversation began with a question about a favourite brand. It became a discussion about the standards we set, the compromises we resist, and the people we trust during difficult periods.
For founders and omnichannel leaders, my biggest takeaway is to look behind the visible brand. Before asking how to create stronger customer loyalty, ask what the company itself stands for. Before celebrating a comeback, ask who kept doing the work when the result was uncertain.
Nike was Ankit’s example. The challenge is ours: build with a larger goal, hold ourselves accountable, and value the people whose commitment helps that goal survive.
I am Saurabh Agrawal and we come with a new episode on Dilse omni talks every fortnight and cover different aspect of omnichannel with amazing speakers.
