Last week for our Masterclass #4, we hosted Nilesh Sudrania, Founder and CEO, of Formidium, one of our portfolio companies. The session was moderated by Indrajeet Sirsikar, Partner, Woodstock Fund.
Topic -
Scaling for Growth - A Leader's PerspectiveIt was a very insightful and inspiring session. We have put down some key takeaways from the interaction below :
- Be flexible and always be on your toes to continually adapt and evolve based on the changing market requirements/ circumstances. Being mindful of the timing of your business and offerings is critical.
- Learn from the mistakes of others. Focus more on learning from stories of failures in addition to learning from success stories.
Build an âOpen-Consultative Cultureââ that enables your team members/ stakeholders to voice their opinions. Diligently consider their opinions while arriving at final decisions impacting the respective stakeholders.
- Spend significant time arriving at the âmarket size for your businessâ. Post this take a step back and create a roadmap along with milestones that are to be achieved for scaling the business.
- Similar to how the human body as a whole always grows proportionately â every company should grow proportionately in all aspects as it scales, to cater to its increasing client requirements. (Always consider some Factor of Safety in this). The maturity should also be in terms of the âmindset of the business, its leaders and its employeesâ.
- 'Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want toâ- Sir Richard Branson
- Develop a âCulture of Communicationâ- Meetings and discussions are not as bad as they are perceived to be! Spend a significant amount of time discussing and resolving all the multiple opinions. Post this, once a decision has been made, then it is supposed to be equal to execution i.e., Decision - Execution = â0â
- Never sayâ âI knowâ-- always be such that âI donât know the exact answer but this is what we should doâ. Start with a hypothesis. Do Hypothesis testing before all major decisions.
- One of the better approaches to making decisions is: Using data and math/ calculations- rather than hunches. Have a hunch - create a statement - test whether it is true or not - always be flexible in terms of decision-making if new data comes in. But sticking to ethos, and policies despite the circumstances is a must.
- âIt is lonely at the topâ- Hmm, it doesnât have to be true!
Create forums and constantly communicate with your teammates to identify ways to improve and get through difficult times.
- Leadership and its style are not âone-size-fits-allâ. It has to be tailor-made and adapted based on contextual and unique circumstances to your own businesses.
- Finally, as a leader, it is important to be cognizant that
âTo win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplaceâ- Douglas Conant
