The Life of Pie...

In any business, it is very easy to get into the thick of things especially you feel like you have a set plan. Even before you had discussions with your team(s) it took a lot of soul searching for you to determine the vision and direction of your organization. Not to mention all the ground research to see if your idea was viable or not. After a few painstaking sessions, you finally had a broad idea in your head. You said, "Yes! This is the way to go!" You couldn't wait to get started. Your enthusiasm was infectious and you rallied the troops to get them on the same page. It wasn't easy to reach this point since it took numerous sessions with the team, to see how their ideas could be incorporated in your vision and to determine the course ahead.

Now that everyone is clear on the way forward, and are aware of their roles and responsibilities, there begins the daily grind. You have your KPIs to go after, be it Sales, Marketing, Delivery, Testing, Account Management, NOC Support, R&D and the list goes on. You have clients to close, client requirements to fulfill across a wide breadth of geographies and deadlines to meet. You are managing the show on a shoestring budget and have to wear multiple hats but the drive to make it big keeps you going day in and day out. Does all this sound familiar? You bet it does since this is almost EXACTLY what every start-up goes through.

It is quite easy to lose track of the bigger picture once you get into that routine. It is very important to take a step back at times to assess the current progress and also to ensure you are hitting all the sweet spots across the board. It is for this purpose I put together this pie chart highlighting some of the major points. We haven't taken into account the other internal company tasks that also have to be kept track of (believe me, it is just as important), but we will include that in a separate post. This is a simplistic view that anyone can digest.

Remember, the more you empower your team, the better performance you can expect from them. What better way than allowing them to be their own business owners so to speak, where they manage the show! These points included in the chart are pretty self-explanatory and can serve as a guideline for some of the most important tasks you need to think about and keep track of as time goes on. A lot of it may seem like common sense but at times, they do get lost along the way. Not to mention the fact that this is applicable to most businesses (if not all). The points in RED are the ones you need to pay special attention to as they have much bigger ramifications.

As you go through them, there may be other points which you feel need to be included and it would be great if you could share them so that the chart can be expanded upon! After all, sharing is caring and if more people learn, the better it is for the collective! #keeplearning