September 28, 2025
My current organization has a hybrid setup. That means I need to be in the office a few days a week and work from home for the rest.
On the days I am at the office, I prefer to have lunch in the office cafeteria. It is generally either chicken kebabs and roti or a chicken salad - both good, high-protein options.
Last week, I saw something interesting. There was a biryani counter on an unusual day (we generally have biryani on Wednesdays). The sign said, âCalcutta style Biryani â biryani with potatoes (alu)â.
I got excited and went for it, instead of my usual lunch. It was a complete disaster. They had just added potatoes to some form of biryani. The biryani was spicier than a typical Andhra-style biryani, and the overall taste was quite bad. I regretted taking in approximately 700 calories for nothing.
Later, while thinking about the biryani, I suddenly remembered Catenaccio, the football formation made famous by Helenio Herrera when he was at Inter. The legendary Inter team, playing that formation, went on to play three European finals back-to-back and won two.
There have been enough write-ups about the famous formation and style of play, but to give a brief summary: it became famous as a defensive formation. But it had another element to it: the quick attack. Herrera apparently gave strong instructions to his players that when they got the ball, they had to move it as quickly as possible into the opponentsâ half with as few touches as possible.
After Herrera, many tried to replicate the system but failed miserably. Herrera himself once explained why people failed to replicate it:
The problem is that most of the people who copied me copied me wrongly. They forgot to include the attacking principles that my Catenaccio included.
This is essentially what happened with the âCalcutta Biryaniâ at my office cafeteria. They were busy replicating the USP (adding potatoes) but miserably failed to replicate the other things that make Calcutta biryani what it is: soft, fluffy rice, light spices, and diverse ingredients.
This is something that I feel is more common than we realize, especially in the business world and in daily life. Organizations try to mimic othersâ success by only replicating their USP. And they miss out on the nuances that made the business what it is.
For example, the McPizza from McDonaldâs, the Zune from Microsoft, among many other cases.
When copying success, we gravitate toward the obvious differentiator: the potatoes, the defensive setup, the standout feature. But we ignore the invisible supporting structures that actually make it work. Copy the whole system, not just the part everyone notices. Call it the Catenaccio Principle.
This piece was first written for my âOrdinary Analysisâ newsletter. Read it there.