The world of startups is hugely different from when I started my business more than 30 years ago. The mindsets, models, technology and sheer range of options facing founders and team members are bigger and more bewildering.
Some entrepreneurs may start businesses to grow and become the next massive thing. Some may start businesses to sell and move on to a new passion.
When I started my business, I was enthusiastic about success and helping my compatriots, and I believed (and still fervently do) that Thais deserved better opportunities. Five years ago, I received investment funding, and the nature of my business and my role changed. By that time, around 5% of my people had been with me for 20 years or more, and I had a revealing insight.
Like every founder, I cannot do everything by myself. I had put in long hours and sleepless nights, but I realised that if I had not challenged my people, put them in situations to grow, and provided development support, things would have been vastly different.
In a new business, we are enthusiastic about tackling the problems and opportunities ahead of us. Founders are fortunate if our teams share our passion and drive. However, passion alone does not create the capability to do the often-changing job in front of us. Fail to grow our people, and we fail to grow our business.
I am not talking about expensive training or executive MBAs here. But unless you provide the resources, your business will be in trouble.
I remember that when we were starting out, the founding team and I threw our efforts into everything. We learned sales and marketing less from our book smarts and more by trial and error. As a small company, this was OK, but we did not start to grow until we applied ourselves to real learning.
I have seen my people evolve their roles incredibly. My salespeople have moved up to organisational leadership. I am proud of their achievements. I am also glad that I supported their growth because it was their growth (as well as my own) that pushed our business forward.
There are important reasons why this is more relevant than ever:
Generational expectations: For the past two or three years, I have seen this with my own eyes as I have welcomed young talent into my organisation. I have even set up programmes to deliberately recruit and use these talents differently from the rest of my organisation. Today’s generation is much more demanding about learning experiences. They prefer learning through experience and are quite happy to jump in at the deep end.
Today’s startup founders and their teams are from the same cohort, and I recognise this. But learning today requires more than studying. There must be an effective mechanism for extracting insights and lessons learned to provide growth (and share the wisdom received). If founders cannot activate this learning, this generation (as enthusiastic as they may be) will leave.
Leadership expectations: In small, early-stage companies, there is little need for formal leadership structures. Togetherness and commitment get things done. As the company grows it needs more leaders. But from my own experience, developing leaders is more important than most founders realise.
It is not just about moving more people in the same/right direction. It is not, God forbid if something happens to the founder/founding team. The long-term growth of an organisation will often require investment. One of the most important considerations for investors is the quality of the organisation’s leaders.
Again, I am not talking about jumping into expensive formal leadership training programmes. However, your identified leaders must have the right mindset to lead, and not just command/manage your people. They must be able to lead themselves. If you have identified potential leaders in your startup or organisation, remember their development is a force multiplier, and do not delay.
People stay for opportunities: The younger generation changes jobs more often than their older counterparts. In the corporate world, the joke is that the only thing worse than developing people who leave to grow your competitors is not developing them, and they stay to make your business worse.
In my organisation, those who have stayed and helped grow the business did so because of the growth opportunities available. If an entrepreneur wants to keep their people (of any generation), growth and development opportunities are essential.
I have been in the early-stage founder position. I understand the effort it takes to manage the day-to-day side of growing the business itself.
I know from experience how difficult it can be to find the resources required. But there is no escaping the fact that your business’s future does depend on growing your people. No matter how small, it is better to start today.
Arinya Talerngsri is Chief Capability Officer, Managing Director, and Founder at SEAC — Southeast Asia’s Lifelong Learning Centre. She is fascinated by the challenge of transforming education for all to create better prospects for Thais and people everywhere. Reach her email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa
