How to build a winning team on a shoe-string budget - and avoid it being called an "innovation circus".

Irrespective of starting my own company, building a corporate venture or transforming an ailing corporate business: throughout my career I experienced times where budgets were cut or flat, and where there was less money than there were hands needed on deck.

Strangely, there are many things that potentially worry me, but budget cuts have never given me any sleepless nights. In the corporate world, I never really had the luxury of experiencing endless budgets anyway. And growing up in an entrepreneurial household, I learnt from my parents what it means to invest your own money: even if the times are good, you keep for the rainy days.

In addition, as we are seeing from the world of startups, venturing and corporate innovation: every heyday comes to an end, and then it is best, if your innovation endeavour is not likened to an infected appendix. Many a startup or venture team had to learn the hard way just how short an Opex runway can be when the investment climate changes. And in some ways, scarcity (or shall we say “prudent spending”) forces choice and choice forces clear priorities. This can be used to a strategic advantage, also in the area of staffing and scaling human resources. Here is how I solve this human resource challenge:

Along with the basic roadmap for my business, I build a skills matrix that reflects the immediate and future needs.

In this matrix, I try to place “related” functions with potentially complementary skills next to each other. For instance, product managers are often quite close to the markets and thus may be good business developers, or may have an aptitude for creative marketing. A good project lead often comes from within a technical discipline and probably had once been a software developer or mechanical engineer. I basically build skills groups that allow me to search for candidates based on their likely primary, secondary and tertiary talents. I then assign a priority to each one of these skills or functions: Highest priority is the function that I need today, followed by what I may need tomorrow.

With this in mind, I draft my job profile and look for likely candidates. As many corporates today are focusing on specialists and not so much on generalists, it is probably more likely that you will find suitable candidates in a more entrepreneurial environment. But one does not only have to look outside: every corporate I have ever worked for usually has such profiles within their ranks. Sometimes, these candidates seem to not fit, can be seen as difficult or are not considered team players. Of course, there are those, too. But more often than not it is simply an indication that the corporate culture is not (yet) entrepreneurial enough.

If so, seize the opportunity as these are your people: Potentially not the easiest bunch to manage, but in my experience it is exactly those profiles that will thrive in such an environment, roll up their sleeves and do everything to get your venture off the ground.

Once I make a few hires, I usually allow the new team to settle, build relationships and adjust the team culture. This creates team spirit and ownership, and gives me the time to adjust the plan to reality and learn more about each individual’s motivations. Both I can then consider in the next round of hiring, in which core team members are involved. If I have, for instance, a seasoned product manager with great skills in business development and the wish to expand his or her leadership skills, I may hire a junior product manager with analytical skills to support my portfolio expansion and business planning.

To me, the key to success for any scaling venture is to cover the critical functions, to deliver on what is needed and to forge a diverse, engaged and high-performing team. I believe my approach gives you not only that, but also wins you the sympathy of your executive board or your investors. And this may just increase the likelihood that your team survives the next phase of corporate or economic eruptions.

If you have questions, comments, think differently or need help, feel free to reach out!