Thursday, March 02, 2017

Life lessons from my entrepreneur days


We had a team meeting at work recently and it was an opportunity to relive my entrepreneur days – talking about it brought back a flood of memories. It also made me reflect on some of the life lessons that I have learnt along the way.

Here are some musings from my days at Kern that form my philosophy today:
On people and ways of working…..
1. Put people first – My fondest memories from Kern are the people (Ripul, Geeta, Rahul, Archie, Yatin, Nishana, Sampada and the countless others who were part of the journey along the way) and the care and commitment that we had for each other. It was a continual process of being challenged, learning and growing along the way. Learning was a constant at Kern. We ran Saturday morning sessions where every person from the team had to take turns to volunteer and share his or her findings on one latest trend. This would be followed by deep discussions on the implications for our field and how it could be applied to our work. We were innately curious and found every topic interesting.

2. Clear ownership but no role boundaries – There was clear ownership to parts of the project but we never operated within defined role boundaries. Our day would start with a 15-30 minute call where each person provided a one-minute update on his or her key deliverables and challenges for the day. This would quickly allow us to assess the biggest win for the day and identify which areas needed additional support.

3. Celebrate innovation and collaboration – There were no good/bad ideas – everyone enjoyed putting forward their ideas for others to debate on. We encouraged sharing – we had an active corporate blog and we all had personal blogs. We used Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, chat windows were always on and sessions would be continually run to share our successes and learning post a project. In addition, everyone owned their problems and found ways to troubleshoot –this would then be shared with others for further ideas/suggestions.

4. We worked flexibly and had fun – We trusted our people and working flexibly was encouraged. We also had fun as a team – we provided lunch in office, games, books and movies were always around and we had great team outings.

On life as an entrepreneur…
1. Start early – Ideally if you have a business idea, go for it in your twenties. That’s when your risk taking ability and idealism is at its highest and you haven’t seen enough of the world to start placing limits and constraints on what’s possible.

2. It’s not easy – If you are looking for a steady paycheck, regular vacations and a 9-6 job (does this even exist today!), then being an entrepreneur is not for you. However if you are looking for challenges, have an idea that you passionately believe in, value autonomy and flexibility, are willing to roll up your sleeves and do the dirty work, then being an entrepreneur is right for you. In other words, if you truly want to live, be an entrepreneur at some point in your life. J

3. Network, network, network – Aim to meet at least one new person each week – the greatest aha moments occur while bouncing off ideas and thoughts with others.

4. Listen to your clients but they are not always right – You’ll add maximum value when you are comfortable challenging your clients and encouraging them to look at things differently. We never adopted a top-down approach for our solutions. The CEO/stakeholder view was a critical input but our bigger insights came through our field research – we used to shadow our learners to gain insights into their environment and challenges. This data and insights would then form the basis of challenging your clients and not our perceptions / opinions.

5. Look for funding early – We were a bootstrapped company and finances were always tight which introduced a fair bit of stress. Plan early on how you will scale the company to the next level and the possible funding avenues.

6. It’s ok to fail – This was a hard one to digest. There’s a lot of passion and energy that goes into building a company and having to shut it down hurts. However today when I look back on what I have learnt and how I have grown through the process – I believe it’s ok to fail.

I would love to hear your thoughts on your experiences with running companies and the key moments that have stood out for you and from the Kern folks on the moments that you’ve cherished.