Opinion: Beyond the 72-hour workweek

India needs to move beyond long-hour myths and China’s 996 model to build a smarter frontline productivity system

By T Muralidharan

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy’s call for a 72-hour workweek and the debate around China’s 996 work model have ignited discussions on productivity, youth expectations, and the future of work. But beneath the noise lies a deeper truth: the real issue is not hours — it is output. In a world disrupted by AI, tariff walls, global competition, and shrinking markets, Indian companies cannot depend on time-based models for productivity. The sustainable answer is a Daily Output Measurement Model built on Lead Indicator Performance (LIP) and a critical-task mastery framework.

The assumption behind 72-hour weeks or 996 is simple: More time → More effort → More outcome.

This made sense in the factory era, where output was directly correlated to hours on the assembly line. Long hours can compress learning curves in early-stage companies. Startups racing against time and capital can iterate on products faster. In the short run, more hours do produce more output, especially in execution-heavy roles. But in today’s frontline and knowledge economy, the correlation is broken.

The Reliance Story

In the early days of Reliance Infocomm in 1999, I once had a meeting scheduled with the CEO. Expecting an empty office, I instead walked into a workplace full of activity. Many Managers worked 11 am to 11 pm, six days a week, and even top leaders followed the same rhythm. This was the Reliance startup model: intensity, urgency, ownership, and speed. But such a model is not sustainable forever. It only works when long hours convert into meaningful outcomes.

The real productivity revolution will come when we stop worshipping hours and start managing daily outputs that truly create value

Frontline entrants — typically Gen Z — go through a career startup phase. They enter roles with little clarity about what drives performance, must learn everything from scratch, and deliver outcomes quickly. They need to “work hard,” but must learn “how to work hard”. Hours don’t convert into results because effort is misdirected. This is where LIP provides clarity.

China’s 996 Lesson

In 2020, a 22-year-old frontline operations employee of Pinduoduo — one of China’s largest e-commerce giants — collapsed while walking home after a brutal shift. She had been routinely clocking 80 hours a week during a sales campaign. Her death triggered massive public anger. China’s 996 (9 am to 9 pm × 6 days a week) model worked temporarily but collapsed due to burnoutsocial backlash, and lack of outcome alignment. Developers created the “996.ICU” movement on GitHub: “If you work 996, you’ll end up in the ICU.”

Chinese youth responded with: Tang Ping (“lying flat”) — opting out of the rat race, and Bai Lan (“let it rot”) — resigned withdrawal. They disengaged emotionally from a system that demanded effort without results.

AI Tariffs Competition

India now faces AI automation, tariff-driven fragmentation, shrinking margins, and tougher competition from ASEAN and emerging markets. We need to compete on productivity. Many companies — including giants — will not survive unless they lift productivity sharply and help their people unlearn and relearn at speed. Is the answer really more hours? Productivity must rise — but hours alone won’t achieve that. The real solution is a system that:

• Measures the right daily actions

• Coaches people early

• Builds mastery quickly

• Creates high output without burnout

Responding to a complex productivity challenge with a single blunt instrument — more hours — is a strategic mistake. Frontline roles do not reward time — they reward the right actions done in the right way. Salespeople can roam all day yet fail to conduct critical customer conversations; relationship managers can stay late yet avoid follow-ups; collections agents can make calls without effective recovery.

Long hours low output = frustration

A smarter alternative is emerging in frontline-intensive organisations: a Daily Output Measurement Model based on LIP and critical-task mastery. This model, already used in a few of India’s largest frontline organisations, offers higher productivity, lower attrition, and better employee health — without demanding burnout-inducing hours.

COE finding: The 10x Secret

Our Centre of Excellence (COE) on the frontline’s research revealed two truths about top performers who outperform others by 10X:

• Top performers work smarter. They spend more of their day on a few critical tasks and execute them with far higher mastery. Low performers spread themselves thin, do “jugaad execution,” and skip the hard but impactful activities.

• Top performers often work 55–60 hours a week — and never complain: Why? Because outcomes reward right effort.

Lead Indicators of Performance (LIPs), by contrast, are the daily actions that cause results — the right meetings, calls, proposals, demos, follow-ups. In a home-loan sales role, LIPs may include: the number of qualified customer meetings, effective meetings for connector activations, effective meetings for new connector appointments, and meetings for closure steps.

THE LIP MODEL

This is built on three steps:

• Identify up to 8–10 critical tasks that drive outcomes.

• Track daily output on these tasks through Lead Indicators.

• Use daily performance coaching for rapid correction. Daily data enables daily correction. Supervisors can see exactly who is struggling with which task. Feedback becomes specific and actionable. Training becomes task-based, not generic.

LIP gives frontline employees clarity, mastery, confidence, and early wins — and it reduces attrition dramatically. The real productivity revolution will come when we stop worshipping hours and start managing daily outputs on the few critical tasks in each role that truly create value. This is not just a more humane model; it is a more scientific, sustainable, and competitive one for the world we are entering.

(The author is Founder Chairman, TMI Group and Quanta People)