Nuggets On
entrepreneurship
We are seeing a renaissance when it comes to entrepreneurship in this country. But it is not an easy ride. Leaders speak about how individuals should think about taking the plunge to entrepreneurship, how they could pick co-founders, their approach to scaling up their leadership muscle and more.
Starting Baazee.com
Cross-border transitions are always hard and often involve multiple variables. Avnish talks about the context in which he took the plunge from a lucrative career with Goldman Sachs to return to India with nothing concrete in hand.
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EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurial Resilience
There is a lot of literature around how entrepreneurs should demonstrate resilience when hit with failure or tough times. Avnish talks about the role of preparedness in navigating choppy waters.
Backing an entrepreneur
Apart from being an academician, Kartik is also an active entrepreneur and invests and mentors start ups. So who better to ask, how does one pick an idea to back? Kartik elaborates on three main skills he looks at before deciding to support an idea or a person.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Building an entrepreneurial culture
Organizations love to grow yet want to retain the entrepreneurial culture that nurtures innovation. What is the one thing that Kartik looks at to figure out if an organization has an entrepreneurial culture or not? Find out in this nugget. Hint: Don’t miss the anecdote about a major competitive advantage that Pixar has cultivated and fine tuned which has led to its unprecedented success in the movie business.
More from Kartik Hosanagar EP1
Hyper-development of a leader in a Start-Up
Start-ups often grow at a rate faster than the rate at which people build the leadership muscle. This leads to the risk that your job may outgrow you. Hence, it is imperative to keep growing as a person and as a leader. Ravi lays down three aspects you should focus on in order to grow with the times and your organization.
Selecting the right co-founder(s)
Nandan talks about one of the seminal choices that entrepreneurs often have to make - Selecting a Co-Founder. He provides his thoughts around what they should bear in mind in this process. He also talks about what it takes to make the relationship work over a prolonged period of time.
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EntrepreneurshipRunning a start-up inside the Govt.
Nandan talks about how the Government is fundamentally different from the Private sector in terms of how financial and human capital decisions are made. He talks about he thought about navigating those constraints to drive to the outcomes he had committed. He also talks about a couple of mistakes leaders often make in transitions.
Entrepreneurial pursuits beyond photography
We often have to reinvent ourselves along the way as we go through our career. There are variuos trigger points where our priorities change and market opportunities change. Atul shares his perspectives around how he has managed to go beyond Photography to venture into new domains. He shares a piece of feedback that one of his friends provides which paved the way to a new possibility.
Picking Founders effectively
Backing the right founders is a combination of art and science. How do you back an entrepreneur who has the conviction around his idea but is also amenable to input. At the stage of Venture Investing, a big part of value creation is often around getting this judgment right on the Founder. Karthik talks about what he looks for during investing.
Building leadership capability in entrepreneurs
Staying relevant is one of the key challenges that is facing the leaders of this generation. A few decades back, they could check into a career on graduation and check-out at retirement. Pramath talks about how leaders (entrepreneurs and otherwise) should think about scaling up their capability as they go through their journey.
Relationship between Co-founders and Company
Dheeraj talks about how the relationship between him, the co-founders and the company has evolved over a period of time. He also talks about 4As (Antifragility, Authenticity, Ambition, Attention to detail) which are at the core of how he looks at himself and others he works with.
Evolving as a leader with the company
Dheeraj talks about how he looks at the company like a combination of multiple sub-companies that are building, scaling and maintaining all concurrently. He discusses the notion of arcs of destruction and pursuing multiple arcs at various stages of maturity.
Leadership Development in a turbo-charged environment
Dheeraj talks about how he thinks about evolving as a leader and discusses the criticality of breathing and staying present even during challenging times. He describes his approach to pause and remind himself of the key elements that are core to him and his effectiveness. An interesting insight in the context of the overloaded lives that a lot of leaders are living.
Creating the conditions to create
Tarun makes the case for why it is critical for entrepreneurs in developing economies to build trust in their local economies. He contrasts the differences between a start up in Boston and its counterpart in Bangalore, Bogota or Beijing. Given the relative differences in maturity of institutions that provide support and the depth of talent in some of the associated areas, entrepreneurs starting up in emerging economies might have to deal with a lot of friction and Tarun makes the case for building trust for it to act as a lubricant in those circumstances.
Leadership in Emerging Markets
Tarun talks in detail about the mind-set with which entrepreneurs need to think about creating the conditions to create. He talks about the example of Charles Shao and how he battled the decline in trust in the milk industry in China. He discusses how Charles gave away IP (which seemed counter-intuitive in the short run) to widen the profit pools of the industry as a whole and thereby improve the outcomes of his business.
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EntrepreneurshipOrigins of SIY
Rich talks about the origins of the Search Inside Yourself programme. It started out as a quest for Googlers looking for a solution to stay agile and resilient while you are on a “rocket-ship”. He also goes on to talk about how SIY brings in wisdom from multiple domains ranging across Neuroscience, Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence to help people develop a new kind of intelligence that enables them to cope with the roller-coaster ride of a tech driven company
Taking the entrepreneurial plunge
Falguni speaks about the phase of life when she decided to become and entrepreneur after 25+ years post IIMA and after a successful run at Kotak. She also speaks about other businesses she considered (Professionalizing Nursing Homes, Creating a Market for second homes to name a couple) before proceeding with building out Nykaa.
Rewiring the leadership approach
Falguni speaks about the key shifts that she has made to her leadership style as she moved from a Senior Leadership role in an institution like Kotak to starting Nykaa from the ground. She specifically refers to the poem Ithaka that had daughter had shared with her at that point. It talks about the criticality of focusing on the journey than the destination.
Entrepreneur bringing in an experienced CEO
Michael speaks about the specific challenge when start up entrepreneurs bring in seasoned leaders as they transition from a start-up context to a scale up context. He talks about some of the elements that the entrepreneur and the incoming leader need to bear in mind.
Entrepreneurial Professionalism
Sudhir speaks about how HUL has this unique DNA which is a mix of professionalism and an entrepreneurial orientation. He speaks about how some of the early exposure to trade gives individuals an exposure to how Indian entrepreneurs think. He goes onto say that there are strong processes that reinforce professionalism and sharing of stories which drive entrepreneurship leading to this unique combination of the two.
Independent producers vs Entrepreneurs
Lynda speaks about the distinction between entrepreneurship and independent producers. She speaks about people pursuing something because they enjoy it and not because they want to grow it and scale it up. She also goes on to speak about how independent producers should think about signaling.
Setting up Eklavya
Venkat speaks about how he transitioned from Sony to running Eklavya. He refers to Prof Sunil Handa (who takes the popular course LEM – Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation) sending him a concept note leading to him and Sridhar Rajagopalan quitting their jobs and starting Eklavya. He also refers to the research and the groundwork that went into setting up Eklavya. He also speaks about some of the early challenges involved in setting up the school and in convincing people to send their kids here.
Eklavya to GiveIndia
Venkat speaks about how a trip to the US when he was Eklavya opened his minds to the involvement of the citizens in the running of some of the elements. He specifically speaks about an experience during one of the meetings with a school in Burlington where he saw segments of the citizen community come together to solve a societal problem. That was the seed of an idea that eventually led him to start GiveIndia, a movement to galvanize philanthropy in India.
Taking the entrepreneurial plunge
Ashish speaks about how he thought about entrepreneurship despite the high opportunity cost given his HBS education and employment at Goldman Sachs. He also goes on to speak about his initial challenges as an entrepreneur trying to raise a fund for investing in India despite having no significant work experience in India. He also speaks about the role of mentors and supporters in giving him the confidence to take the plunge.
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EntrepreneurshipThree rhythms of a scale up
Sanjeev speaks about the three rhythms with which organizations often need to operate – growth, efficiency and foundation. He mentions that the first comes naturally to entrepreneurs and what differentiates the great founders from the average ones is their ability to walk that three-dimensional tight rope. He also goes on to speak about the power of complementarity in the leadership team that can enable these three rhythms.
Founder CEO or Professional CEO?
Sanjeev speaks about how he thinks about Professional CEOs and Founder CEOs and speaks about why it is so hard to get the transition right. He also shares his take on what is the one thing he looks for while betting behind founders.
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EntrepreneurshipUnlocking Entrepreneurship
Ravi speaks about his work with GAME and with Udhyam Foundation along with Mekin Maheshwari and how they have gone about creating a curriculum that helps children develop an entrepreneurial mindset as they grow. He speaks about immersive experiences that drive Empathy, Tenacity and Resourcefulness in children.
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EntrepreneurshipTriggers and Dopamine Hits
Alisa speaks about how she gets every Founder to reflect on 4 things – Strengths, Development Areas, Triggers and Dopamine Hits. She goes on to expand on the notion of Triggers and Dopamine Hits and the implication of this on Leadership.
Giving away your Legos
Alisa speaks about the phenomenon where the Founder, as the company scales up, has to give away some part of the job that he or she really really enjoyed. As the company scales up the Founder often needs to get involved with the building of the company and not really the specific activity or function that really brought him or her energy. And that can be a non-trivial transition.
Imposter syndrome as a founder
Alisa speaks about how lonely it is to be a Founder and to manage multiple expectations across a range of stakeholders and when you couple that with the fact that they are often operating in areas where they don’t necessarily have deep expertise, it can be an unnerving experience.
Stress and Depression
Alisa speaks about some of the mental health challenges of Entrepreneurship. She says that stress is the child of a start up and depression is the child of stress. She says that Founders are depressed 30% more than their counterparts. She shares some suggestions on how Founders can combat this.
Economics of praise
Alisa speaks about how authentic praise is such an unused tool in Leadership. She speaks about how the team sometimes can start spinning wheels in their head about their performance and their standing if they don’t get adequate good quality feedback.
Handling Leadership transitions
Alisa speaks about how Entrepreneurs need to be thoughtful about assimilating new leaders and equip the incoming leaders with adequate context for them to succeed. She also goes on to speak about how Entrepreneurs need to re-onboard themselves as the context changes.
Co-founder dynamics
Alisa speaks about some of the elements that Founders overlook when they look for Co-Founders. She also speaks about some of the conflicts that ensue between Co-Founders as the journey carries on.
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EntrepreneurshipPlaying the long game
Tarun speaks about what keeps the entrepreneurs going over the long term. He speaks about how family businesses have a fabric and provide a safety net that ensures that businesses endure over the long run.
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EntrepreneurshipPassing the Baton
Tarun speaks about how family businesses think about the next generation coming into the family business. He speaks about how sometimes the next-gen wants to pursue a different path and how they walk the tight rope of ensuring continuity versus tuning into the passions of the next generation.
Driving self-discovery with Next-gen
Tarun speaks about how enduring families think of dealing with the question of the next generation entering the business. He speaks about how the more evolved families give the next generation an opportunity to actualize their potential and go on a process of self-discovery.
Professional CEOs in Family Businesses
Tarun speaks about how Entrepreneurs think about the Principal Agency problem when it comes to recruiting CEOs. Entrepreneurs are often playing the “infinite game” with the enterprise while the leaders they hire are often there for a stint. He speaks about the distinction between how developed markets like the US deal with it versus how Indian companies often deal with it.
Compassionate Capitalism
Tarun speaks about how Family businesses in emerging economies proactively fill in to take care of elements of Public Good that are not taken care of by the state.
Growing thoughtfully
Tarun speaks about how companies that have a self-imposed constraint (focusing on values, lower corruption or something similar) are likely to grow at a slower pace than a company that is focusing on growth in an unrestrained manner.