Startup to Enterprise

This was an interesting one-liner which came up as a discussion point with a friend last noon. Both of us were sailing in the same boat of ‘enterprisation’ of a startup. Needless to say, with our hands totally dirtied in all aspects of the startup, we were of course feeling jittery about it. As always we had something in common to share when it came to an experience.

The night was filled with thoughts around how should an effort to move from a startup to an enterprise be. Where should the focus be and where should the effort go in. This is essential more from the perspective of retention of the ones who have put in their heart and soul to let the start up sustain and perform to feed the investors.

Any organization goes though the stages of survival, sustainability, scalability & glorification. In a startup it is more dynamic and the phases appear more often intersecting. But as the organizations mature, the degree of intersection does reduce! This is when the natives of the land feel that they are not contributing. They will not be so stretched; there won’t be any diversity at work & decision making powers will usually be stripped off. This will lead to boredom at work and as an eventuality, a disassociation. This usually coincides with the stage of growth for a startup and the impact will be huge - both psychologically & otherwise.

How do organizations avoid such situations?

Getting back to the old school of thoughts, there needs to a focused effort on the big picture of growth, failing which there will be turbulence in the concept of growth. An organization structure with the right mix of people (may be easier said than done - but this is essential) and an eventual role for the war heroes need to thought through. This will set a role expectation at the time of start and eventually stops them from being carried away due to the glory and wings.

Hire the people who can hire - this aspect of growth is usually missed or outsourced. If undone, the support structure needed for the growth will crumble down and eventually the growth as well. This is a usually neglected aspect of growth which will hurt the entire system in the long-run.

The top has to be visionary - the ones who have slogged their ass out at the initial stages are aggressive. They look forward to work with people who can make their life miserable. The moment a learning curve stops, there is a tendency to move on to the next challenge. Needless to say - without a stable head, the body is non-existent.

Policies need to have a thought process of improvement. Processes and policies are generally perceived to be work impairing. But the requirement of a policy should always be towards the betterment of the people involved. Else, it will backfire - especially if the transformation is from a startup to an enterprise.

The healthy you - an investor’s insight…

Healthcare industry in India is undergoing a transformation. From being a typical doctor-driven model, the entire industry is undergoing a transformation to become an institution which delivers with care. ‘Customer centricity’ is no more just a word of an internal market. It has started branching out in the need-based models as well.

There have been many hospitals which have identified & adopted the need of the hour and paying attention & extra care to the high-paying customers; but they seldom do it for the mid and lower mid strata that avail services. India being 70% at the bottom of the pyramid, word of mouth of a bad service is just a blink of the eye away. The perceived ‘inaccessibility of medical services’ is becoming a distant reality.

This being the scenario, the who focus of the industry has shifted towards delivering seamless services under one roof and hence retain the customers. From a management perspective, this means repeated business and probably an extended business at times where a relative comes over as well. But with every brand getting into being a multi-specialty unit, there is immense pressure on the people involved in the system to do it right.

Till date, the hospitals have been a basic necessity of mankind and hence there are funds allocated in the budget in the name of social welfare allocated to healthcare. The scenario has now changed with private players parking their presence in the sector. Especially in tier 1 cities, the focus on customer centricity has been really high to an extent where MIS parameters have now been defined to calculate ‘conversion’ (typically - how many actually took the procedure with the hospitals and how many went out…).

If we dig deep into it, everyone understands the fact that there is big money involved in the healthcare sector. The brands which have been existent since sometime now are seeking the help of private investors for expansion. The typical ‘Eskimo hunters’ are now creeping into the healthcare sector. This means, they need more means of giving awareness to the otherwise healthy community to indicate preventions. To put it in plain text - ‘we need more footfalls’ is the management motto.

There is a sad side to it as well… It is leading to a lot of ethical issues as the doctors are turning to be Eskimo hunters as they are given targets! Are we trying to cure ailments or create scare? Only time will answer it…

Though the interest of private investors is helping the sector to institutionalize, I feel there needs to be a broader thought of contribution from policies, ethics and professionalism which will help to drive it in the right way. Else, we may end up doing what we did back in the 1960s in the name of industrialization (cut all those bloody trees…)!

Have I done it right…?

The last 6 months, though taxing, has proved to be something which has taught me perceptions - in the Indian market at least. Handling marketing at the ground level always gives an understanding of the pulse of the population around. With this write up I make a humble effort to list down the learning of the past.

It started around half a decade back when I realized my love towards understanding what people think. It started as an interpretation of the muted actions in the next table of a coffee shop and grew as an analysis of the people I am associated with. Though ‘thinking from their shoes’ at times meant experiencing loneliness, it helped build a confidence level about understanding people.

My first professional experiment of trying to sell my photographs in a retail outlet helped me read through the mindset of a retailer. To my luck, it was a Sardar who I was dealing with - the best known breed for being astute businessmen. Though the whole venture started off by passion, running it in the commercial way takes a toll on the creative aspect of it. (Or should I say - ‘it expects you to be more creative!’?). ‘What’s in it for me?’ was a reality which I realized in the hard way.

My next venture with a professor of mine in setting up the marketing & sales function let me implement the ‘What’s in it for me’ factor. But what we really forgot was - are we educating the already aware or trying to solve their problems? The whole effort of 5-6 months, though helped to create a buzz in the known circle, couldn’t create a big impact to help the initiative turn out to be a successful venture. This was the ‘Do I really need it?’ phase of learning for me.

These initiatives helped me gain some experience around the expectations from a marketing role. This helped in my next role for technology marketing. The scope of perception was international with an expectation of maintaining the already established brand positioning. It being a new domain (neither retail nor a product), the expectations were different. It was more of a sale pitch termed as marketing. The learning from the past did make a difference here. The questions / needs got redefined now - ‘is it a life and death situation for me?’

Jump into the healthcare sector meant a lot of ground zero work. Situations demanded me to take up marketing. With the help of a good investment & technical support, was able to answer the above questions to a good extent. Having done it all, there is still a void. There is a never a wide-spread acceptance of the message sent across. A concept of mass appreciation doesn’t exist. This lets me think ‘Have I done it right…?’

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!