07-07-2012, 03:47 PM
The Success Mantra
Great vision followed with brilliant execution by a great team! That’s the simple, one line success mantra in business–no plurals. Strategy, processes, timing, etc. are all embedded in that simple home truth, because they form the roadmap as one moves from vision to execution. One may say “luck” plays a big role in determining success, but its uncanny how having the above mantra-ingredients will make you much, much luckier than otherwise!
One may also argue that “strong leadership” should be the key mantra but, again, it’s the three basic ingredients in the above one-liner that define what strong leadership is all about; after all, a leader is what a leader does.
The Vision: Is formulating a vision statement an overrated exercise that only large corporations can afford to undertake? A glorified PR exercise to rally the troops, while providing relief from an otherwise packed agenda? I don’t think so and I strongly believe it’s an important early milestone in an enterprise’s journey.
Let me elaborate with an analogy. Many entrepreneurs feel that a shareholders’ agreement among company promoters is not really required and may be a distraction, if not divisive, if done early in their company’s journey. Yet I know of no better framework within which a company promoter group can sit and agree with their expectations and relationships viz-a-vis their enterprise and each other.
Leaving these issues as loose ends to be “sorted out later” is ignoring a landmine that is very likely to be trod on one day. A shareholders agreement will require this group to traverse potential ego minefields like the top management structure, equity holdings, board of directors, voting rights, authority levels, employment terms, etc. and its best this gets done sooner rather than later. These are the key stakeholders and managing their personal and entrepreneurial expectations will be an early demonstration of strong leadership and will build mutual respect in the group.
The Execution: Similarly, the process of consensus building on a vision statement among the company promoter group will stand them in good stead. Typically, everyone will have his or her own one page opinion on the subject. Strong leadership and quality time will be required to filter this down to half a page and, finally, to just a couple of lines at most.
The latter part of the process—like the shareholders agreement—will take patience, flexibility and trust and it will no doubt come as a surprise to all those involved how tough it gets towards the end! The need to have a vision statement is an obvious one and requires little elaboration; if you don’t know where you are going, you will never reach there! Culling the statement down to a couple of lines will ensure that no fuzziness is allowed to creep in via the extra verbage.
However, what is highly underestimated is that, in the process of undertaking exercises like the vision statement, the shareholders agreement, etc, cohesiveness and trust get imbibed, leadership manifests itself, territories and roles get accepted; all of which are essential to the well being of the enterprise and its future employees and customers.
By the same token, these exercises may also reveal some gross incompatibilities in one or more members of the promoter group. These cannot, and must not, be glossed over; nor should they be the reason to abandon these exercises. Better that these issues are handled early and upfront, even if it means an early exit of a member.
The Team: An average leader has a myopic view of skills needed to execute on the business plans, rarely looking beyond the “hard” skills required for the tasks to be undertaken. A great leader looks beyond the immediate skill sets required. He’s looking for tomorrow’s leaders today, for his company’s future ambassadors who will take his company global, for the new dynamism that will be required when clients no longer spoonfeed you about their business needs.
The industry is constantly changing and the people in employment must have the potential to adapt to, and change with, it. A great leader also knows that there may be many persons excellent for technical tasks and roles but with limited managerial potential. These too must be accommodated within a flexible organization structure. Then there is the much maligned support staff, who are often seen as expendable and given second class citizen treatment within the company.
Yet, in today’s business world, we know of many CEOs who have Finance and HR backgrounds and many more with no prior background in the businesses they head. Today’s strong leader recognizes that such support functions and their heads no longer sit on the periphery of the core business but must be given critical roles in the production and delivery of the core products and services, if not within the top leadership itself. A strong leadership message would be “all hands on deck or else leave the ship”.
One last word on the management team, which relates to “team dynamics”. Instead of a leader “hearing out” his team’s views and then taking a decision, the better way would be to allow for the team’s group dynamism to manifest itself. This requires a leader to “listen to” his team members, allowing for a consensus building process to take place. Needless to say, he will always have the final say but that say must be seen as resulting from the consensus building exercise, rather than one imposed from the top. It needs a certain amount of self confidence, patience and focus to manage a debate-like forum where criticism may flow and things may get personal.
If managed well, this too becomes a good habit and the team will know how to prepare and conduct themselves in a positive atmosphere of inclusiveness. A good leader knows that, if members of his ‘A’ team come prepared, knowing that they will be “listened to”, then he’s very likely to get the best inputs available on the subject.
Lastly, if you have a Sachin taking guard on a well prepared pitch with the team’s well thought out gameplan firmly on his mind, can brilliant execution be far behind?!
MOHIT GOYAL is the co-founder of the Indian Angel Network, India’s largest group of angel investors. The investors are keen to invest in startups and early stage ventures that have the potential to create disproportionate value. They provide financial investment with high quality mentoring, and also leverage their vast networks. For more details, please visit www.indianangelnetwork.com.