Subroto Bagchi

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The High Performance Entrepreneur

• Subroto Bagchi
• August, 2006

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(No Transcript)
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Of all entrepreneurial activity, less than 5 are
likely to be high-potential. High-potential
companies are called Gazelles. In the 90s 70 of
all US jobs were created by these companies and
in Sweden 7 in 10 of all new jobs are created
by them High Performance Entrepreneurship does
not happen accidentally. It is designed that way.
To begin with, start with the right reason..
All the wrong reasons
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We are three good friends and we want to start a
company I have this great idea for a new
gizmo I hate my company and my boss My time
is running out I want to help India
Now, do you have the right profile?
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• Profile of an Entrepreneur
• Love for money
• Self-confidence
• Sense of freedom
• Hard work goal orientation
• Flexible, opportunistic and emergent
• Egoless

How do entrepreneurs get the right idea?
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Sometimes entrepreneurs work future-backwards and
sometimes they work in a present forward
mannerthe MindTree, Café Coffee Day, Deccan
Aviation and Biocon stories.. High Performance
Entrepreneurs get excited about the big picture,
a larger vision and then the pieces begin to fall
in place
After the right idea, it is time to build the
A Team
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• Choosing the A Team
• Look for proven competence, ability to pull
  weight
• Complimentary in the parts but collectively
  exhaustive
• Ability to multi-task
• Shared Vision
• Transparent

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Choosing the A Team

• Personal integrity mutual trust
• Ability to question each other and disagree
• Resilience
• Sense of humor

The next issue DNA, Mission, Vision Values
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• DNA It is who you are
• Mission It is where you are going
• Vision A set of time-bound and measurable goals
• Values It is the shared code of conduct

Now, how will you be different?
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• Domain
• Tools
• Methodology
• Quality
• Innovation
• Branding

Next Step Writing the Business Plan
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• Take the Business Plan seriously..
• Executive Summary
• Business Context
• Company its Objectives
• Core Values
• Positioning Business Overview

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Take the Business Plan seriously..

• Sales Marketing
• Delivery Process
• People Structure
• Risk Factors
• Financials

Now you are ready to seek the investor. Choose
the right investor
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• Choose the right investor.
• Smart vs. Dumb Capital
• Color of money
• The lure of Non-interference
• Mutual expectations
• Family Friends

It is now time to think of attracting and
retaining the right talent
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• Pay attention to the first 40
• Write the job description
• Sell the job yourself
• Explain the downsides
• Run with defined objectives

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• Have a transparent Compensation and Benefit
  structure
• Invest in a Performance Management System
• Devote time to talent leadership development
• Communicate with the 959595 principle

It is time to think of building a
Process-centric organization
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• Build a Quality organization from the start
• Focus on the People, Process Technology triad
• Choose a framework but look beyond compliance
• Have a roadmap, be practitioner-led
• Listen to the voice of the customer and involve
  everyone

You are now ready to seek your Customers. But
choose Customers right
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• Angels come through providence
• Build processes to get your early wins
• Choose your customers wisely. Look for reasons
  such as
• Techno-managerial value - add
• Trust
• Sense of equality
• Commercially win-win

Manage your money wisely
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• Love money there is no other reason to get into
  business
• Be frugal do not pay yourself out of business
• Install an accounting package from the word go
• Know what to measure and measure it
• Respect the bean counters
• Get the best auditor in town

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• Keep overheads low
• Raise money before you need it
• Do not fritter away equity
• Put in place corporate governance from the start
• Report accounts to your investors on time,
  without window dressing ever

Focus on Building your Brand
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• Brand is the communication of your intrinsic
  worth
• It must be consistent with your DNA, Mission,
  Vision and Values
• Choose the name and visual identity right
• Focus on the message map, based on the companys
  positioning

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• Spend energy on the website and the intranet
• Get a PR agency
• Build affection for content
• Use the workplace as a brand ambassador

Lets us now talk about emergence, willingness to
change managing adversity
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• An enterprise is like a river. Seeing the source,
  you cannot imagine the confluence
• Be emergent bend and flow
• There is no one way of solving problems,
  sometimes it is better to simply stay ahead of
  problems

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• Long-distance runners must bear segmented pain
• In difficulty, be transparent and communicate
• Publish decisional rules to the organization

Reasons Start-Ups fail
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• Founders break-up
• Enterprise runs out of cash
• Deadly embrace of a customer or a product
• Technology/Customer/Geo over-dependence
• Founders do not let go

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• Poor governance
• Founders get carried away with their image
• Try to be too big, too soon
• Wrong choice of investor

Lessons from the Indian IT Industry
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• To be world-class, begin and end with quality
• Focus on what you know, not who you know
• Build an abundance mindset
• Pay your taxes right
• Be hierarchy-free

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• Leaders exemplify personal integrity
• Set up hairy, audacious goals
• Build deep inclusion
• Organization resources are not my resources
• Austere leadership

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• It is about ordinary people delivering
  extra-ordinary results
• Play it by the book

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• Thank You