The books. Where the work gets written down.
Three books on culture, clarity, and the systems that hold organizations together under pressure — Flatland, CULTure at Zomato, and Systems of Grace. What each is about, who it's for, and where to read it.
Coaching reaches one room. Writing travels further.
I'm Naina Sahni — an executive coach to founders and CEOs at some of India's defining companies. Most of my work happens privately, one conversation at a time. The books are where that thinking gets set down so it can reach the people I'll never sit across from: the founder reading at midnight, the operator trying to name what's quietly breaking in their company.
None of these are advice books. They don't hand over playbooks. They sit with the harder questions underneath — how culture actually forms, why clarity won't hold under load, and what keeps a system coherent when everything is moving at once. The kind of thing that, by the time it reaches a deck, is already downstream.
What each one is, and who it's for.
Flatland
So much of leadership goes wrong because we're solving a problem on the wrong plane — flattening something dimensional into a single line, then wondering why the fix never holds. Flatland is about learning to see the dimension you've been missing: the layers under a decision, the structure under a symptom. It's a short, sharp argument for thinking in more than one direction at once.
Who it's for: founders and leaders who keep fixing the same problem and want to understand why it keeps coming back.
Read on Amazon →CULTure at Zomato
I spent over a decade inside Zomato — from content to Chief of Staff to the founder. This book, written with Deepinder Goyal and Ashish Goel, is the honest record of how culture actually got built there: not the poster version, but the real decisions, mistakes, and convictions that shaped one of India's defining companies through hyper-growth.
It's about what culture is when it's load-bearing rather than decorative — the part that holds, or doesn't, when the company is moving faster than anyone can fully control.
Who it's for: founders and operators building culture inside fast-scaling companies who want the unvarnished version, not the keynote.
Read on Amazon →Systems of Grace
Systems of Grace sits at the meeting point of two things I've spent years inside: systems thinking and contemplative practice. It's about how organizations — and the people leading them — stay coherent under pressure. Not by gripping harder, but by understanding the whole system well enough to move with it.
It draws on my work as a Master Practitioner trained at the MIT Centre for Systems Awareness, my doctoral research, and a long Vipassana practice. The throughline: grace isn't softness. It's what becomes possible when you see clearly enough to stop fighting the system you're part of.
Who it's for: leaders who sense that the next level of their work is internal — clarity, steadiness, and seeing the whole — not another framework.
Read on Amazon →All three books are available on Amazon — browse the full author page.
One question, three angles.
Read together, the books circle the same thing from different sides. Flatland is about seeing the dimension you're missing. CULTure at Zomato is what that looks like inside a real, fast-moving company. Systems of Grace is the inner work that makes the seeing possible. Culture, clarity, and the system underneath — that's the whole field I work in, on the page and in the room.
"Most founder problems aren't strategy problems — by the time it reaches the deck it's downstream."Naina Sahni
If the writing resonates and you'd rather do the work directly, that's what the coaching is for. The first session is free.
Beyond the books.
Where the same thinking shows up across the rest of the work.
About Naina Sahni
Two decades inside hyper-growth, the credentials behind the work, and what she actually does as a coach.
Media & speaking
Talks, conversations, and where to bring this thinking to a stage or a leadership team.
The blog
Over 150 essays on leadership, systems, and clarity — the writing between the books.
What a CEO coach actually does
A clear, no-fluff guide to executive coaching for founders — and when you need it.
The books, answered.
What books has Naina Sahni written?
Three: Flatland, CULTure at Zomato (co-authored with Deepinder Goyal and Ashish Goel), and Systems of Grace. All three are available on her Amazon author page.
Who co-authored CULTure at Zomato?
It's co-authored by Naina Sahni with Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato, and Ashish Goel. Naina spent over a decade inside Zomato — from content to Chief of Staff to the founder — which is the lived ground the book draws on.
What is Systems of Grace about?
It sits where systems thinking meets contemplative practice — how organizations and the people inside them stay coherent under pressure. It's built on Naina's work at the MIT Centre for Systems Awareness, her doctoral research, and a long Vipassana practice.
Where can I buy Naina Sahni's books?
All three — Flatland, CULTure at Zomato, and Systems of Grace — are available on Amazon via her author page.
Why does Naina Sahni write books?
Coaching reaches one room at a time. Writing is how the same thinking — on culture, clarity and systems — travels further than any single engagement can. The books are where the work she does with founders gets set down for anyone building under pressure.