Goliath Gotta Dance with David

Last month, I wrote a post on how corporates could deal with startups. In hindsight, realized, that piece never stressed the importance of why should corporations engage with the startups in the first place. What is there in it for the corporates? [Hint: No, It is not necessarily the tangible stuff like new technology or markets or customer segment!]

Teach a man how to fish

Remember the proverb,"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Properly engaged,(properly engaged is the key operating word) corporates can learn a lot from the startups! Well, to be precise, corporate executives. What is a corporate without its executives? huh?

If the middle and upper middle management folks closely interact (the euphemistic word here is mentoring) with the startups on a regular basis with open mind and an attitude with willingness to learn the corporates stand to gain a lot . It is possible to turbocharge the cultural fabric of your company in a positive way, where the senior leadership team learns to innovate and does innovate day in day out rather than just buying innovation for once or twice. 

What exactly can the startups teach you, a seasoned corporate executive who has been there and done that?

Well, the following THREE things for starters!

GET SHIT DONE (GSD)!

When you spend a good amount of time in large corporates, it is easy to get lost in the maze of process, approvals, bureaucracy, turf wars, politics and what not. As a result whenever a new initiative or thought or challenge or problem or opportunity comes your way, you start thinking of reasons why it may not work or whom do you have to convince to get this going and most importantly, how it will impact you.

You do not get excited by thinking about  all possible solutions and options or the greater good of benefits to the organization in the long term.  You really cannot blame yourselves. Just like Tenali's cat ?(Story of Tenali's Cat) got his tongue burnt, you have burnt your fingers in the past with your enthusiasm and focus to solve the problem. Just like the  Tenali's cat doesn't wants to taste the milk, you are afraid to think and going ahead to just getting it done!

Startups would teach you to get your mojo back, to get things done with a maniacal, single minded focus and enthusiasm.

GSD QUICKER AND FASTER!

Again, such is the nature of the large corporate structure, it takes ages for things to get done. Be it a change of name of a product or a decision to enter a new market or launch a new feature or product (it is just to decide a yes or no; sometimes one could have taken several births in different lifetimes in the time taken to build or enter if it is an yes)

Startups would amaze you with the speed of agility and turnaround time even for complex features, products or decisions. They would put the pace of your organization to shame and make you wonder if such a small startup can do so much in that time frame with all the resource constraints, how quick and fast should I get  things done with the resources I have! [No, let's not get into the mythical man month thing, cause here I am referring to resources in general and not just human resources. Oh and it is such an indecent thing to consider your people as mere resources at your disposal]

GSD FRUGALLY!

Note that, I did not use the word cheap but have used the word frugally. Here I am not talking about cost cutting but spending wisely only for necessary things. For example, if you have a mosquito problem, you need not save money by  staying awake at night and killing them with your own hands but buy a mosquito repellent. Just don't buy a bazooka to kill the mosquito, just because you are a big corporate executive.

As a corporate executive, it is easy to forget the expenses and cost associated with each and every activity. You just don't appreciate the value of the money. Even if you manage the P&L, you usually worry about it in terms of your unit but not the whole organization. You wonder, is the cost or revenue getting allocated to my business unit or to the other guy who is competing against you to move up in the ladder. You forget that your company is whole sum of individual unit like yours. At the end of the day it is the cost or revenue to the company. (No don't get me started on incentives, performance measurement, accountability and so on, the whole point of the post is to drive the thought process beyond all such TRIVIAL things but to be broad minded to think what is good for the company and best way to accomplish things)

You do not realize how difficult it is to earn a dollar or the amount of effort and support from lot of people in the organization to help you earn that dollar (just in case if you belong to sales!)

Startups would teach you the sweat, tears and the blood that needs to be shed to earn that darn dollar so you would value it properly.

Remember all the above three learnings can happen, only if the corporate executive is willing to unlearn! One cannot simply measure these intangible benefits cause the tangible values they bring to the table is invaluable.  

To conclude, the Goliath should go out on dates with David and dance with grace!