The High Performance

Entrepreneur

Subroto Bagchi
August, 2006
Of all entrepreneurial activity, less than 5% are likely to be
high-potential. High-potential companies are called
Gazelles. In the 90’s 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…

“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?

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?

Sometimes entrepreneurs work future-backwards
and sometimes they work in a present forward
manner……the 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
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
 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

 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?

 Domain

 Tools

 Methodology

 Quality

 Innovation

 Branding

Next Step: Writing the Business Plan

Take the Business Plan seriously…..

 Executive Summary
 Business Context
 Company & its Objectives
 Core Values
 Positioning & Business Overview
 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
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
 Pay attention to the first 40

 Write the job description

 Sell the job yourself

 Explain the downsides

 Run with defined objectives

 Have a transparent Compensation and Benefit structure

 Invest in a Performance Management System

 Devote time to talent & leadership development

 Communicate with the 95:95:95 principle

It is time to think of building a

Process-centric organization
 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
 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

 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

 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

 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 company’s

positioning
 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
 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
 Long-distance runners must bear segmented pain

 In difficulty, be transparent and communicate

 Publish decisional rules to the organization

Reasons Start-Ups fail

 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

 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

 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
 Leaders exemplify personal integrity

 Set up hairy, audacious goals

 Build deep inclusion

 Organization resources are not my resources

 Austere leadership
 It is about ordinary people delivering extra-ordinary
results

 Play it by the book

Thank You