When Infosys named Ashiss Kumar Dash as CEO-designate in July 2026, the announcement came alongside news that the company had lost a major European client – one of several large contracts that had shifted to competitors driven by an intensifying price war and AI-driven vendor consolidation. Dash won’t formally take the helm until April 2027. But in many ways, his first 100 days have already begun.
That’s the reality most incoming leaders don’t fully reckon with. The preparation you do before you arrive – the intelligence you gather, the relationships you start building, the plan you put in place – determines whether you walk in ready to lead or ready to react.
Too many new leaders arrive underprepared. Then they get pulled immediately into the day-to-day: the urgent meetings, the existing rhythms, the inherited crises. Before long, they’re managing what’s already in motion rather than shaping what comes next. The window for deliberate, strategic orientation closes faster than anyone expects.
Know your organization before you walk in
The most valuable intelligence-gathering happens before your start date, not after it.
Speak to as many people inside and outside the organization as you can while you still have the freedom of an outsider’s perspective. Ask your predecessor what kept them up at night. Ask the board what they hoped to see change. Ask key clients – if you can reach them – what they value and where they feel underserved.
This last point matters more than most incoming leaders realize. Client signals rarely arrive loudly. A major account lost to a competitor almost never happens overnight. There are early signs – unresolved frustrations, unmet expectations, a relationship that has drifted – and a new leader who hasn’t done the external homework is the last to see them.
Consider this example, drawn from patterns we see across leadership transitions: A new CEO steps into a financial services firm. Eager to demonstrate value quickly, he focuses his first weeks on the internal agenda: restructuring the leadership team, launching a strategic review, signaling change to the board. He doesn’t get to key client conversations until week six. By week eight, the firm’s largest account has quietly begun a procurement process with a competitor. The signals had been there for months. No one had thought to brief him, and he hadn’t known to ask.
Know your team – individually
Your Chief HR Officer is one of your most valuable early resources. Use them. They carry institutional knowledge about your top team that will take you months to gather on your own.
But don’t stop there. Go into each leadership conversation prepared. Research each person — their history with the organization, their strengths, their blind spots, the relationships that matter to them. How you show up in these early conversations will leave a lasting impression. A leader who arrives informed signals that they are serious. A leader who arrives with generic questions signals that they are not.
Be genuinely curious. Ask questions. Listen more than you speak. But also begin forming your own observations. You were hired for your judgement. Use it, quietly, from the start.
Build a detailed plan – in two parts
A first 100-day plan is not a to-do list. It is a deliberate framework for how you will learn, lead, and begin to shape the organization you have just joined.
The first part of that plan should address the essential running of the business. What are the existing routines, rituals, and responsibilities that keep the organization functioning? Who are the people you need to know to keep things stable? What decisions cannot wait? A new leader who neglects the operational baseline in pursuit of the strategic agenda will quickly find that the baseline asserts itself anyway – usually at the worst possible moment.
The second part is your real agenda: the listening tour, the leadership assessments, the financial and performance deep dives, the early communication strategy, and the first signals of where you intend to take the organization. This is where you begin to make your mark – not by announcing a vision before you’ve earned the right to, but by asking the questions that demonstrate you understand the weight of what you’ve taken on.
A plan does not guarantee you will not be surprised. You will be. But a leader with a plan adapts. A leader without one reacts.
The leaders who get this right
Ashiss Kumar Dash takes over an organization facing real headwinds: slowing growth, aggressive competition, cautious clients, and the pressure of an industry being reshaped by AI. He is an insider with thirty years of context. That is an advantage. But institutional familiarity is not a substitute for deliberate preparation. Every new leader – insider or outsider – needs to enter with a plan, not just a title.
The leaders who build lasting impact in their first 100 days are not the ones who move fastest. They are the ones who arrived prepared, asked the right questions early, and earned the trust of their teams and clients before asking for anything in return.
Preparation is not a luxury. In a leadership transition, it is the job.
