Why Ashneer Grover didn't accept Ernst & Young offer: 'Full of dead bodies'

BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover

Ashneer Grover, BharatPe co-founder, suggested recently that a company with a “toxic culture” is the place where real work is happening. The former “Shark Tank India” judge, best known for his punchlines, cited an incident when he got a job offer from Ernst & Young to join as a partner.

Grover narrated the time when he visited the Ernst & Young office, soon after he resigned as the Chief Financial Officer at grocery delivery platform Grofers (now Blinkit) in 2017. The entrepreneur said he had a salary offer of Rs. 1 crore from Ernst & Young.

In a viral clip on social media, Ashneer Grover said at an event that the worst culture is an office space where there is complete silence. “Nothing is going to happen there. It’s a dead place,” he said in a widely shared clip posted on Instagram by video creator Pranav Sikri.

Recalling his visit to the Ernst & Young office, Grover claimed he found that there was complete silence there. “I took one round of the office, pretended that I had chest pain and left.”

“Bhai saab, itne mare hue log, bas kriya karam karni rah gaya tha, sab laashe padi thi, (They were such dead people, only the last rites were remaining.)”

Grover’s remark received a round of applause from the audience.

“Jahan pe ladaai ho rahi hai, best office hai (wherever there is fight, that’s the best office),” he said.

“Jahan pe koi bol raha hai bada toxic culture hai, bahut sahi jagah hai. Kaam to waha ho raha hai. Baaki non-toxic, bahut mil jaygene. (If someone says a place has a toxic culture, that’s a good place. Real work happens there. You’ll find plenty of other ‘non-toxic’ places.)

Grover’s comments on Shark Tank India, many of them controversial, inspired memes on social media. And along the way, he developed a huge fan base.

His memoir, titled “Doglapan”, was released last December and became an instant bestseller.