Does a ShAky top mean 'Problems'?

Well, this title made me giggle at myself… It definitely isn’t pervert and it definitely isn’t anything related to what you may be thinking about! ;)

Since the time I have decided to move on from IT, it has been a roller coaster ride and work has usually defined / controlled my time. Amidst doing it, a lot of random thoughts come by which affects decision making and which creates an environment of healthy argument. At times, it goes crazy enough to an extent that it becomes hard for me to decide on what exactly is required. Had taken my time off from work off late to introspect on what was happening and am I doing it right?

In a whole startup environment, the situation is usually very random with loads of thoughts coming into the mind of the group of people spear heading it. There will be humongous amount of situations which wouldn’t have been included in the ‘planned’ expansion. But usually one thing will be very clear - the final destination. Without that in mind, there isn’t anything which will take the growth of the organization in a healthy way and in the right direction. This article is my attempt to bring in the nuances any organization may encounter when this so called ‘destination’ is missed / miss communicated.

When the individual / group heading the organization isn’t clear of what they want as an output and which is the market segment they want to play in, it usually starts having ripple effect in all its functions / departments. For the sake of simplicity, let me take you through the core functions any organization will have - Sales & Marketing, HR, Finance and Operations.

Sales & Marketing

Marketing is usually considered as an overhead in the IT industry and usually confused to be a part of the Sales function (at least in a SMB setup). It is usually the other way round in the healthcare industry. That is why I have clubbed them both out here as the end result of it is revenue to the organization.

When the thought process isn’t clear, the investments go hay wire. The expected ROI out of the effort is usually perceived to be zilch. But what people fail to understand is the fact that the communication hasn’t gone right and hence the person executing the whole thing isn’t doing it right. Added to this, if there is a fickle minded boss sitting on the top, one is in for a jolly ride!

Now, the ripple effect for this is enormous!

• The employees don’t feel they have contributed enough as there is no recognition for the effort
• The market may start perceiving the organization as something which one may not want to be positioned as
• The competitors if smart enough will take one for a ride until they have a bloody home run!

HR

The most important thing when the organization is growing is to hire the person who can hire. Without it, the growth story cannot even crawl - forget running. But what one needs to be careful of is the fact that there has to be a structural thought process in mind. Here again, the thought process of the top management has to fizzle down - else, the situation will be screwed up and the recruiters wouldn’t know whom to source. Without the aim, the policies go hay wire and hence one runs a risk of losing the star performers which will be a big impact in a growth path - not worth the risk I suppose…

Finance

Finance as a function is the most powerful according to me for the internal functioning of the organization. Though the others are equally important, without a proper finance structure, writing a single letter in the growth story would be difficult.

One needs to have a mix of people who have the following qualities. It indeed is a killer combination!

• Know all the rules & regulations to the T - but more importantly know the loopholes in the system
• Know the processes & how can they be tweaked to make it comfortable for coworkers
• Understand the business scenario and work closely with the marketing team to understand the market trends
• Data entry - day-in & day-out

Imagine the change in confusion a finance person observing the market trends and MIS will have with a shaky top management. They won’t be able to budget for the next month, they wouldn’t know what will happen in the coming months and they will not be able to promise anything to the board / investment committee. This defines the way any organization is heading towards and this defines the future of the growth story. So, is it shaky enough??? Not yet I guess…

Operations

Managing vendors is the biggest challenge and the grouse of the entire gamut of people involved in any organization revolves around the timelines of the support functions. Though it is more of a back-office job, it is the most interesting piece of work for any management enthusiast.

When it comes to a growth pattern, no involvement from the operations team (assuming one has the right set) will have an impact on vendor relations and reduces the negotiation power. One cannot exploit economies of scale. There is no price discounts one will get and there is no relationship built in the due course.

Having dealt with a shaky top head, for the last 6 months, it definitely is a very uncomfortable situation to be in for any middle management. There is no one person who can take a proper decision. Nobody in the system is sure of any decisions taken and there is no accountability at the top for a decision taken - a perfect recipe for a degraded growth story I suppose!