Startup Sutras! :) .....

I was attending an Organisational Structures lecture this week and we discussed organisation growth models 'the different Stages of Growth Factors' to be successful. I invariably was thinking about our Startup community :) ... comparing their org structures/ approach towards road blocks … 

Before I start talking about my differentiated opinion about our startup community, lets ponder on this a little bit. What do majority of startups focus on mainly? by large, everyone focuses on product development and raising funds. How many startups work on scalability / roadmap / strategy etc?  what % are successful and sustain in the industry?  - my professor during this session said 100% will die.. … I almost fell off the chair when I heard his comment (sure, he didn’t mean that, what he meant was - most of them have no domain depth, hence do not scale and they fail). Well, he was comparing to the old school of running a company or an organisation - it made sense, his age and experience was talking. 

Lets look at growth patterns and potential challenges of a Startup - Many startups are great with the IDEATION  phase - they do it all, great product showcase/pitch, raising funds etc, company incorporated, onboard mentors, pilot platforms etc. But what happens after that is important - sustainability, test/learn/fail/ change faster, delivering quality, thinking globally (road block-1: crisis of leadership)... how many startups wait for someone to acquire them and how many work on seriously building the required DIRECTION to become big? product improvement,  accepting change, growth/expansion, building customer base, high quality customer service, keeping up their brand promise (road block-2: crisis of autonomy).  Next, how soon do startups act on team expansion/ DELEGATION? many Startup founders I have met, just hold on to their passion so close that they fail to build a great reliable team… one needs a great team to expand, grow. Unless you make your team carry your passion and delegate some of the responsibilities, how will your startup grow? identify competencies, involving experts, sharing / delegating responsibilities will help a founder focus on other key priorities that can help the startup grow (road block-3: crisis of control). As the Startup focuses on business profitability, going global, and building larger teams - it will get challenging if the company lacks in COORDINATION - especially with more differentiated processes, multiple products, divisions, departments, and positions scattered across numerous locations /staff  (road block-4: crisis of Red tape).  Now when a Startup grows large enough to be called as a company, the next focus will be on the quality of COLLABORATION in the market - global presence, differentiated products, achieving integration and collaboration that is necessary for a company to reap the benefits of global market is key (road block-5: crisis of growth).

A successful startup will get all the pieces working together in the right way at the right time and in the right place. Continuous focus on sharing knowledge and innovation will bring in the required diversity to its environment.  

Happy startup'ing! ....