The Startup Journey

The board meeting at the startup was underway and the CEO proudly highlighted what he considered to be the most successful initiative of the company. The initiative had been embraced by customers and partners whole-heartedly and the signs of continued growth were very visible. The head of business development, present in the meeting and responsible for that initiative was understandably delighted at the acknowledgement by the board. He subsequently made an unusually peppy presentation on his department to the pleasant surprise of all. Later on, the CEO explained about business development and its head: “He’s full of ideas all the time. We tried several of his ideas earlier and they all bombed. When he came up with this latest one, I told him that this would be the last one we’d try. I also asked him to think through the idea and take full responsibility for its implementation. The results are visible. In addition, the business development head was so thrilled with the success that he t

“I hired him as President thinking he would transform my company. He was experienced, had worked for Indian and MNCs and we got along well. He was the highest paid executive in my company at Rs 45L plus incentives. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any impact on sales or margins and I had to ask him to leave”, said the founder-CEO of the startup. “How long did he stay in your company?” I asked the founder-CEO. The COO was asked to go after 4 months. On further probing, the founder CEO explained, “I think 3-4 months is sufficient time to see results in sales. I want to see execution and quickly, not ideas and plans. He just spent time meeting customers, spent money hiring a company to train employees, wanted clearance to hire some more people and wanted to build a plan that he would then execute. Arrey bhai, what’s there to plan about when we know our customers and market and know exactly how much we can do.Instead of “doing”, he was wasting time and money in planning! Apparently, he couldn’t

IIMA is organizing a Business Plan Showcase as part of its Finance Conclave 2010. Entrepreneurs from following sectors are invited to submit their entries: Clean Tech & Renewable Energy Telecommunications and Mobile Services E-commerce & Web Portals Electronics IT/ITES Services IT Software Power Registrations for the Showcase Registrations start on the 10th November 2009. To register your team, please send a mail to leverage@iimahd.ernet.in with the following details: Name of Team Members Contact Details Category of the Business Plan Please use the following as the subject line: "Showcase 2010: Registration for ". On registration, you would receive a mail confirming your registration within 24 hours. Important Timelines Registration Begins : 10th November, 2009 Submission of Round 1 Executive Summary : 25th November, 2009 Result of Round 1: 30th November, 2009 Submission of Round 2 Business Plans : 7th December, 2009 Final Shortlist for Presen