Startups and Mentors - Experience Never Gets Old

Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, through their movie, The Intern released in 2015, gave a very interesting lesson to Startups and Entrepreneurs all over the world.

The message was very simple - Experience Never Gets Old.

A majority of Startups all over the world are founded by young men and women in their twenties and possibly in their early thirties. While the ideas are excellent and their energy levels are great, most startups start to falter within a couple of years because of poor / inadequate control systems, over aggressive scaling up, weak financial planning, insufficient focus on people management etc.

At the same time, thousands of senior managers are retiring from the corporate world at the young age of between 60 – 65 years after spending almost four decades in specialized and general management positions in major and smaller corporations yet, at this stage of their lives they clearly have at least another decade of work inside them. This aging and retirement of senior managers is happening in all parts of the world. These people know what it is like to run businesses and tackle the challenges of building businesses. They have functional expertise in finance and accounts, budgeting, packaging, branding, sales, human resources, governance, legal matters and general management.

There is a huge opportunity to bring together the vision of the Startup Entrepreneur and the experience of the older manager in an unobtrusive and non-threatening manner. Not every senior manager has the energy or the risk taking capability to start off on their own. The older managers, in the twilight of their careers, are not yet ready to hang up their gloves. They are looking to stay occupied, earn some money (which could be in the form an equity option as well) and give back their life’s learnings. Further, these senior citizens will be much more stable for a startup – they will not resign and walk away in a hurry because they did not like the way they may have been spoken to or because another exciting opportunity has come up. 

In addition to watching the back of the startup entrepreneur and guiding them when the ship hits troubled waters, such individuals will also bring in strong subject matter knowledge, from the domains these senior citizens would have spent decades working in, they will also bring to the table their knowledge gained through several years of experience in some of the areas outlined below.

1.   Good Governance Practices – All Startups should normally be started with the objective of building a strong and stable business which can mature into an institution. A strong senior partner will ensure that the entrepreneur will build good governance and transparent practices in the organisation. Even something as mundane as ensuring board meetings are held on time and minutes are properly recorded is an area where startups have been known to slip up. This comment would not apply to those entrepreneurs who are looking to create a valuation and then flip the company to someone else.

2.    Fund Raising – While most startups are looking for funding from Angel Investors and Private Equity Investors, there is a large domain of raising funds from banks though debt and working capital financing. A good finance senior citizen will bring in much needed contacts and experience to reach out to the banking system.

3.    External Relations – Most businesses, irrespective of the sector they are addressing, need a strong connect with the external world. These connections could be with bureaucrats, politicians, environmental activists or the local councilor. A strong and experienced senior citizen will have the patience to handle these external challenges. This could also include developing a strong public relations contact programme with the print and visual media –while another group of people would handle the social media contact base.

4.    Legal Processes – In addition to hiring legal help during formation and fund raising, most businesses are faced with a lot of legal challenges. Once again, an older and more experienced manager will bring wisdom in handling such matters – which cases to pursue and which ones to drop is a critical decision to save valuable managerial time, resources and of course, money.

5.    Playbook / Standard Operating Procedures – In the hurry to get started, very often standard operating procedures get lost in the detail. These need to put in place very early in the game so that mistakes are not repeated. An experienced manager tasked with this will be able to put in place such a manual / playbook that would serve the company well into the long term.

Having mentored several startup entrepreneurs, I have seen the value a person who has “been there done that” can provide to a startup entrepreneur. For the entrepreneur, it is a very lonely job and there are very few people he can trust (other than a co-founder). Most young entrepreneurs need a sounding board in a non-threatening manner with someone who has no agenda with the individual or the business.

I have often said that the combination of young energetic legs with grey hair would be a win-win combination for all Startups. To draw a parallel from hockey or football, the entrepreneur is the centre forward rushing to shoot goals and win while the older manager is the goal keeper who will protect the companies turf and ensure that self-goals are not scored!

What is important for both the parties is to mutually select the right set of individuals. What is important is to develop mutual trust and confidence between the two individuals to build a win-win combination for the success of the business.

*******************

The author is the founder Chairman of Guardian Pharmacies and the author of the best-selling books, Reboot. Reinvent. Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office; An Eye for an Eye and The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur. 

Twitter: @gargashutosh

Instagram: ashutoshgarg56

Blog: ashutoshgargin.wordpress.com | ashutoshgarg56.blogspot.com

Does SAARC need Pakistan as a member?

The South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was set up on 8^th December 1985 as a regional bloc for seven countries (Afghanistan joined later) “for the promotion of economic and social progress, cultural development within the South Asia region and also for friendship and co­operation with other developing countries”. The objectives of SAARC, as defined in its charter, are as follows:

      i.         Promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and improve their quality of life;

     ii.         Accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region by providing all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and realise their full potential;

    iii.         Promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia;

   iv.         Contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s problems;

     v.         Promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields;

   vi.         Strengthen co-operation with other developing countries;

  vii.         Strengthen co-operation among themselves in international forms on matters of common interest; and

 viii.         Cooperate with international and regional organisation with similar aims and purposes.

It is worth reading each of eight points given above in the context of the current strained relations between the member nations. Have we seen all the member nations moving in one direction for any of the objectives envisaged by the founding fathers? The answer to this would be resounding no if one looks at the role played by Pakistan where it has done everything in its power to undermine several of the other member nations.

On the other hand, the ASEAN Declaration states that the aims and purposes of the Association are:

(1)   To accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint endeavors in the spirit of equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian nations, and

(2)   To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.

In 1995, the ASEAN Heads of State and Government re-affirmed that “Cooperative peace and shared prosperity shall be the fundamental goals of ASEAN.

Over the last three decades the World has changed dramatically. Political and economic groupings were a matter of convenience to come together so that, jointly, the smaller nations could get a share of voice in the World. In the process, these nations would also be able to talk about preferred trading terms with one another which has not really been successful.

The question we need to ask is whether the objectives of SAARC are still valid, given the significant change in the economic performance of its member countries coupled with the political changes in the member states. Pakistan, a large nation from the perspective of its population, has serious political differences with its two immediate neighbours Afghanistan and India.

From the very minimalistic trade data available on http://www.saarcstat.org (which itself shows how irrelevant SAARC is in the mind of its member states) Pakistan’s last data seems to have been sent in 2012 while India is updated till 2014 and Sri Lanka has sent its data for 6 months of 2016. The trade data, available clearly shows how irrelevant intra SAARC trade is to most of its member nations. Most of the SAARC nations have become enamoured with big brother China and have therefore started opening up their doors to trade, investment and the right of passage for Chinese goods (as is evidenced from the Karakoram highway).

Pakistan has always preferred to identify itself with the Middle Eastern nations while retaining a position in SAARC. Economically, it does very little and politically, it is increasingly becoming a pariah nation and is possibly pulling back the other nations. The cancellation of the 2016 SAARC summit to be held in Pakistan is another indication of the growing irrelevance of the organisation amongst its member nations.

The unfortunate fact is that the situation in Pakistan is not likely to change – it is more likely to deteriorate further till the citizens go through a catharsis and demand a paradigm change in the manner in which their political and military masters have managed their nation and provided for them.

At the same time, the countries around the Bay of Bengal and the edge of the Indian Ocean near East and South of India include Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are proving to be a major market for products from the region. Politically and economically, all SAARC nations are wooing nations from ASEAN and therefore embracing new and more vibrant members with lesser political agendas will benefit SAARC nations.

The time has now come to examine the relevance of SAARC for India and to study whether we need invite more nations into SAARC or if it is believed that we do need a platform, why we should think of new economic groupings that would increase trade and commerce.

*******************

The author is the founder Chairman of Guardian Pharmacies and the author of the best-selling books, Reboot. Reinvent. Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office; An Eye for an Eye and The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur. 

Twitter: @gargashutosh

Instagram: ashutoshgarg56

Blog: ashutoshgargin.wordpress.com | ashutoshgarg56.blogspot.com