Of Start Ups and Comfort Zones

I was a hard core FMCG guy during my em-bee-AAA days. So it was not surprising that I ended up in a FMCG role albeit with a company which was not my first choice (in hindsight this worked out to my favor). A good 2.5 years in FMCG – travelling to places i havent even seen on the map, literally living out of a suitcase (No room service or airport lounges – MIND IT!!). All that one could hope for was a room with clean sheets and cleaner toilets. I managed to sail through that phase, impressed my Marketing heads and landed up a meaty ASM role. Then did a shift (had to comply to the norm that 90% of em-be–AAA’s quit their first job within 2 years) and was doing well in my second company when I suddenly decided to change course and join a “quasi-start-up” – Inmobi. I strongly believe that was the most confused phase of my life. I still dont know if I made the right choice – cos there is still that little element in me which lights up when I see an awesome commercial/new products on the shelf or extremely well done in-store displays. Interestingly, during this “grass ought to be greener on the other side” phase of mine, I met one of my em-bee-AAA professors who put it quite bluntly – “you guys do not have patience. Why do you want to leave something you are enjoying in search of something which you THINK will be interesting? What stops you from building a career in your current role?”. But come on, I am GEN X.. its all about moving out of your comfort zone and taking CALCULATED risks. And to be fair, I had a clear picture of the kind of batch-mates working @Inmobi and I felt that given these people are here, I sure would not regret at-least on the culture fit perspective. And I could always come back to FMCG.. So why not? and how has it been?

Truth be told – 20% – elation; 60% – fun;  20% – self inflicted pain. The elation and fun bit is easier to explain – its a relatively small firm so you get to spend more time with the “actual decision makers”. So I will always cherish the evening where I spent a good 2 hours chatting with my CEO at the Coffee day in Bombay airport. The fun bit is partly cos of the inflated sense of “i am going to shape the future of mobile advertising in India” (which is actually true if one works in a concentrated manner), the sheer amount of time you spend on LinkedIn trying to reach out to people who you would have never thought of talking to if you were in a MNC and yes – bragging to friends that you have un-restricted access to facebook and cricinfo. The 20% self inflicted pain is the difficult part to put down. So what constitues the 20% self inflicted pain part? This is majorly due to 3 things:

1. EGO – I AM IMPORTANT AND YOU BETTER TREAT ME LIKE THAT

We come from well set organizations where cos you are a MBA guy you start as a middle level manager with considerable amount of people below you. There are enough and more occasions when you are made to feel important. In a start-up EGO is the first thing that you got to lose. Cos at-best you work in a 2-3 member team (mostly you are the lone ranger). You got to fend for yourself – Wait outside offices, call up land-line numbers and request for meetings (beware – the guy you are talking to has mostly not heard about your company and hence interest levels are tending to zero). Write random linkedIn requests, follow-up like crazy. The key thing to keep in mind here is – your CEO did all of this to get this company to where it is now. That according to me is the key.  And yeah, the best part – even after all of this (proactive) initiatives, if things dont work out – you have nobody else to blame – you work without a safety net! But when the Trapeze connection happens – the joy is unmatched. 

2. LACK OF ORDER – CHAOS 

Most em-bee-AAA’s are data and process driven. So what happens when there is no process or data? Its like finding the corner in a circular room. Everybody has more than what they can digest on their plate and however mind-blowing or business impacting your idea is – more often than not its going to be drowned in a sea of other priority action points. You feel as though you live in a world of in-efficiency. This is the most difficult thought to break. You know things can be bettered and you know you can better them. But somehow, you arent happy with your own efforts. The key here is to develop a clear sense of your role and be at it despite all the chaos around. The quality of your final output might actually be affected due to the surrounding chaos but its extremely critical to keep going on. Cos, the challenge in a start up is not to set right the chaos – but to work towards defining the order which will quell the chaos. And it might take more than just a few attempts. 

3. LEAP OF FAITH – How do you LEAP, when you dont have the FAITH

 Its madness – trust me! Your manager wants you to project next quarter numbers – and a huge component of your EMI on the new house/car is going to come from how much you achieve next quarter. And there is no historical data.. and you have zero visibility. You still have to give a number. Add this to how crippled we feel when we dont have data – K-ed! and its not like those B-Plan contests when you put down numbers with very little direct consequence. Here you dont even know how to go about building that number. The key here is to actually take that leap of faith and say I have to get this much – how do I go about getting it. The end goal how-ever critical it might seem (from a quarter perspective) it is very important that you build up to it through a clearly thought out plan the fruits of which might not come in this quarter, but will help you in the future. The challenge here is to stay optimistic through-out. Pragmatics are as good as pessimists in such hyper growth markets. 

All of the above might sound so trivial and a given when you move to a start up, but the change in approach and for the mind to accept this change takes a considerable amount of time. The longer you take, the more pain you feel! And for those who cant bring that change – at least we tried. 

 

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