Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Anusandhan: JJK Framework for Escaping the Founder’s Trap

I was talking to a founder last week, and he was describing a familiar scene: chaos. Three months ago, his entire team was deep in an R&D sprint, chasing a “possible pilot” with a Fortune 500 company. Now, with cash running low, it’s all hands on deck for a frantic sales push. In the background, a compliance issue is brewing, unnoticed. Everyone is expected to be “multi-modal,” which is a polite way of saying they’re expected to react to the founder’s anxiety of the day.

This isn’t a sign of a bad team or a bad product. It’s a sign of a bad system. Or, more accurately, no system at all. I call this “founder whiplash,” and it stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of what a company is.

Most companies classify work into “projects,” a term so broad it’s functionally useless. This creates a pathology where priorities shift with the founder’s mood. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all been it. The core of the problem is that we conflate structural hierarchy with strategic purpose. We know who reports to whom, but we have no idea what existential function each person truly serves.

To solve this, I’ve been developing a framework that forces clarity. It’s inspired by Lal Bahadur Shastri’s famous slogan, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer), with a modern addition by our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi “Jai Anusandhan” (Hail the Researcher). This isn’t just a catchy phrase; it’s a diagnostic tool. It proposes that every role in an organization belongs to one of three immutable categories:

1. Jawan (The Soldier): Defensibility & Protection

The Jawan’s purpose is to protect the organization’s existence. This isn’t about being defensive in the market; it’s about building the moats that allow you to survive. Their responsibilities are the unglamorous, essential tasks that prevent the company from imploding.

Jawan Responsibilities

Competitive Intelligence & Positioning

Risk Management & Mitigation

Compliance & Regulatory Adherence

Legal Protection & IP Defense

Cybersecurity & Operational Security

Crisis Management & Business Continuity

Quality Assurance & Audit Readiness

When no one is explicitly a Jawan, the company is vulnerable. Protection becomes everyone’s job, which means it’s no one’s job.

2. Kisan (The Farmer): Sustenance & Growth Cycles

The Kisan’s purpose is to ensure the organization’s survival through consistent revenue and resource management. They are the ones who plant, tend, and harvest. Without them, the company starves, no matter how brilliant the product or how strong the defenses.

Kisan Responsibilities

Revenue Operations & Sales Execution

Collections & Receivables Management

Working Capital Optimization

Fundraising (Debt & Equity)

Customer Success & Retention

Procurement & Vendor Management

Financial Planning & Cash Flow Management

If you’re constantly worried about making payroll, it’s likely you have a Kisan problem. You’re not farming effectively.

3. Anusandhan (The Researcher): Long-term Evolution

The Anusandhan’s purpose is to evolve the organization for future survival. They are the ones looking at the horizon, developing new capabilities, and placing strategic bets. They are the reason the company will still be relevant in a decade.

Anusandhan Responsibilities

Research & Development

Product Innovation & Next-Gen Thinking

New Market Exploration

Strategic Bets & Experimental Initiatives

Exit Planning (IPO, M&A)

Organizational Capability Building

Long-term Technology Investments

Companies without a dedicated Anusandhan function become obsolete. They are farmers perfecting a crop while the climate changes around them.

The Uncompromising Rule: One Role, One Tag

The power of this framework lies in its rigidity: every role gets exactly one tag. Not people, but roles. This is where most companies fail. They have a “CFO” who handles both cash management (Kisan) and compliance (Jawan). This framework forces you to split that into two distinct roles: a “Chief Finance Officer” (Kisan) and a “Chief Finance Controller” (Jawan). The same person can hold both roles, but they must be treated as separate entities with their own KPIs, budgets, and time allocations.

This framework is Thanos – inevitable and uncompromising. It forces choice. When a founder wants to chase a new, shiny object, they can’t just say, “everyone pitch in.” They have three options:

1. Create the Role: Define a new Anusandhan role with a specific budget and a dedicated person.

2. Accept the Tradeoff: If you want your Head of Sales to spend 20% of their time on “AI Exploration,” you are creating a second role. You must accept that you are losing 20% of your Kisan capacity.

3. Don’t Do It: If you can’t resource it properly, you must admit it’s not a priority.

This simple rule prevents the most common founder delusion: the belief that you can do everything at once by asking people to “just help out.”

A New Way of Seeing Your Company

Imagine your company’s resource allocation. You might discover you are:

• 70% Kisan: Focused on current revenue.

• 25% Jawan: Focused on protection.

• 5% Anusandhan: Focused on the future.

This immediately tells you why your product roadmap is stalled and why you’re always in reactive mode. Or, you might find the opposite:

• 15% Kisan

• 10% Jawan

• 75% Anusandhan

This explains why sales are struggling and cash is always tight. You’re building a beautiful future you can’t afford to reach.

The “Jai” (Hail) in the slogan is deliberate. It’s not a hierarchy. It’s three equal salutations to three equally essential functions. A company cannot survive without Protection (Jawan), Sustenance (Kisan), and Evolution (Anusandhan). All three deserve respect and resources.

So, take a look at your own organization. Who are your Jawans, your Kisans, and your Anusandhans? Are you giving them the resources they need to succeed? Or are you stuck in the founder’s trap, lurching from one priority to the next, hoping for the best? The choice is yours.