{"id":15308,"date":"2021-01-28T03:36:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T03:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wfglobal.org\/?post_type=press&p=15308"},"modified":"2021-01-28T03:36:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T03:36:50","slug":"the-evolving-role-of-a-startup-founder-for-an-enduring-institution","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/press\/the-evolving-role-of-a-startup-founder-for-an-enduring-institution\/","title":{"rendered":"A fun\u00e7\u00e3o em evolu\u00e7\u00e3o de um fundador de startup para uma institui\u00e7\u00e3o duradoura"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a new venture takes shape, going from an idea to an operating organisation, the Founder must evolve as well, and their mindset, personal discipline, and leadership skills must shift gears.<\/em><\/p>\n

Por Ajay Batra<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2020 pandemic, personal upheavals, and the challenges around the availability of risk capital have only reinforced the fact that startups need to work with game-changing vision and sound business models for long-term sustenance.<\/p>\n

Startups need to put a lot of thought into what would be required beyond the \u201claunch,\u201d and work on creating viable long-term businesses. What are the key personal and leadership competencies founders need to leverage as they move from an idea to an operating venture, to an enduring institution?<\/p>\n

Early-stage startups<\/h3>\n

The early days of a founding team are important in building the entrepreneurial mindset and to create an organisational culture that can support ideation, experimentation, and action. During this nascent, and highly unpredictable stage of their venture, individual traits that provide direction and anchoring include:<\/p>\n

Creativity:<\/strong>
\nChild-like curiosity is what allows entrepreneurs to develop a creative bent of mind and the propensity to challenge the situation by not just delving into \u201cwhy?\u201d but also \u201cwhy not?\u201d Creativity for successful entrepreneurs extends beyond the depths of their personal reservoirs of imagination; they leverage the diversity of experiences in the people around them to generate breakthrough ideas.<\/p>\n

A natural result of this creativity is that startups have an equal focus on dissecting problems and arriving at solutions, which in many cases leads to sustained and wholesome impact.<\/p>\n

Changing the world<\/strong>
\nEnterprises founded on this mission bring a purity of intent and a meaningful purpose to their efforts. In the final analysis, beyond the commercial imperatives, each startup must be driven by an urge to make a substantial improvement in the ecology and the lives of people and animals on the planet.<\/p>\n

This broader worldview equips startups to develop an outside-in perspective that eventually helps in identifying trends for possible conversion into opportunities.<\/p>\n

Customer delight<\/strong>
\nSuccessful founders are those who have a clear understanding of who their customers are, what do they want, and how to meet their expectations. Nuanced customers are exceptionally capable of rational and intelligent decisions.<\/p>\n

Therefore, those startups that acknowledge this important fact and develop the capacity to listen to what the customers didn\u2019t say are likely to stay ahead of the curve with a serious competitive edge. Continuous innovation is the key to attaining customer loyalty.<\/p>\n

Nuanced customers are exceptionally capable of rational and intelligent decisions. Gone are the days when purchase decisions were solely based on #advertising and influencer #marketing.<\/p>\n

Growth-stage Startups<\/h3>\n

While the initial focus of founders is to get the new venture successfully \u201coff the ground\u201d, the growth phase requires management discipline to build a strong foundation for delivering consistent results. Key individual traits at this stage are:<\/p>\n

Organisation building:<\/strong>
\nExternally, startups face daily challenges from changing market dynamics. Internally, from talent management to product development, a million things compete for the founding team\u2019s attention. The trick to achieving meaningful results is to maintain a laser-sharp focus on the most important goals at any given time.<\/p>\n

Constant prioritisation and re-prioritisation of activities are necessary to ensure that the organisation, at-large, continues to make meaningful progress. Of course, a crucial part of maintaining focus is also knowing what, and when, to say \u201cno\u201d to.<\/p>\n

Bias for execution and learning<\/strong>
\nA startup\u2019s journey is non-linear and, for the most part, non-deterministic. Rapid action and learning at every step are essential for seamless movement towards goals. Steve Blank has rightly pointed out, \u201cNo plan survives first contact with customers.\u201d Therefore, it is the planning that takes precedence over plans, and similarly, it\u2019s the actions that overshadow analysis in the complex, chaotic world of startups.<\/p>\n

A startup must create an environment for its stakeholders to take informed action, quickly analyse its impact, learn, and keep moving ahead. Startups that encourage a \u201cFail fast. Learn faster\u201d attitude are poised for greater success. With humility, one needs to learn, pivot, and keep moving ahead.<\/p>\n

Vibrant ecosystem and a strong team<\/strong>
\nSuccessful startup founders understand the value of developing an ecosystem that is lively and thriving as it is the various stakeholders (partners, consumers, team members, and the community at large) in this ecosystem who collectively create a platform for business growth. Hence, all are significant stakeholders in each other\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Often, these startups create new industry segments that other players leverage to build new businesses. Founders also realise their important role in building a cohesive team that believes in the mission and vision with similar intensity and takes pride in their daily work life, as well as has a strong sense of belonging and unwavering focus on innovating for the future.<\/p>\n

Great startups create an empowered and trusting work culture that is based on mutual respect and confidence in each other\u2019s skill sets, and a leadership that believes in participative and decentralised decision-making.<\/p>\n

The traits of leadership required for launching startups are completely different than those required to scale successful ventures with more moving parts, greater operating autonomy, and larger team size. Founders must use this transition for greater self-reflection and become comfortable with letting go and empowering others, as their venture\u2019s identity evolves from a comfortably-chaotic startup to an effective organisation.<\/p>\n

Fonte: Sua hist\u00f3ria<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a new venture takes shape, going from an idea to an operating organisation, the Founder must evolve as well, and their mindset, personal discipline, and leadership skills must shift gears. By Ajay Batra The 2020 pandemic, personal upheavals, and the challenges around the availability of risk capital have only reinforced the fact that startups […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":14396,"template":"","tags":[7],"press-category":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15308","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-authored-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/15308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/15308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15308"},{"taxonomy":"press-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-category?post=15308"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wadhwanifoundation.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}