Change is not easy, it takes perseverance, patience, and a plan for action
If 2017 is a gauge, corporations are steadily starting to turn their eye towards the startup economy — both to find opportunities, but also to integrate portions of their business models.
But, as Thomas Laboulle, the CEO of GlobalRoom pointed out at Echelon Asia 2017, the process is not as easy as simply ’embracing startups’.
He laid out a plan, which e27 will outline below.
The one takeaway from Laboulle’s plan is that it does not have to apply to corporates, a lot of his advice is very useful to startups as well.
Identify change
The first step is to identify change and challenge the status quo. Now, this doesn’t mean some ‘genius employee’ breaks up a meeting with their plan for success. It must be done as a team, objectively.
The meetings should ask the following question:
Where are we, how did we get here and where are we going?
It might end up in tough decisions, and counter-intuitive results.
“If you are not ready to disrupt yourself, maybe by cannibalising some of your revenue, somebody else will do it for you,” said Laboulle.
Remove internal barriers
Transparency, transparency, transparency.
It’s essential that employees understand what is happening in the company, so that they can help find a solution.
“Secrecy is important, but if inside your own company, you are not able to trust your staff with KPIs and other trade secrets, then I think your culture is completely wrong,” he said.
Advice to accomplish this is to simplify organisational charts, hire explorers, and push out the silo effect.
Build momentum
Employees need to feel a sense of purpose — especially when the changes are significant and will be painful.
One of the more useful pieces of advice is to ‘achieve small wins’ and celebrate their victories.
For example, let’s say the company wants to launch a new mobile app, instead of plowing through until the launch, find moments (like the beta launch or inking a sponsor), so the team can feel a sense of pride and re-energise.
Do or Die
A somewhat controversial life motto is ‘perfection is the enemy of good’. Don’t we want our product to be ideal when we launch it?
No, not if it means the competition is blowing past because theirs was good enough (and they could work on the perfection part while it is ‘live’).
As one would expect from a total business plan, an important part of this ties into the “build momentum” ethos. Finding little wins here is also essential, so that after launch, the company can remain motivated.
Allow mistakes
A problem a lot of companies have is they want their employees to bring new ideas, take risks and engineer innovation — and then kill them when they make mistakes.
Mistakes are inevitable in a startup business model, and employers who crush employees over mistakes will find their company hesitant to even take the risk.
“You can make mistakes, but do them fast, and only once,” said Laboulle.
One of the ways to foster this kind of forgiveness without micro-managing the employees is to give your employees ownership over their products. Put them in charge of the forensics of errors and solving the problems.
If they feel like the project is theirs, the mistakes will be disappointing enough without a manager rubbing it in.
Get out of the office
“Doing google research and online surveys is not sufficient. Talk to customers, suppliers and so on,” said Laboulle.
The reason is because, if a company is office-bound, ‘problems’ and their ‘solutions’ become internal assumptions. Its crucial to step outside to validate decisions and avoid blindspots.
Plus, it presents an opportunity to meet new people who may present interesting business opportunities.
Ignore the noise
Laboulle said companies need to focus on the 4Ps — perform, process, present, and productivity.
It’s a way to maintain focus because there will be distractions, especially when the company is going through a radical change.
Doing this requires setting achievable and recurrent goals, staying consistent and layering habits. Setting a positive groundwork is crucial when more complicated goals become part of the present.
Importantly, learn to say ‘no’ and tune out the noise.
Perseverance
As quoted by Winston Churchill in the talk,
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with not loss of enthusiasm.”
There will be horrible days along the journey – be it bad news or self-doubt that the project will succeed (or, most likely, both).
It’s important to engender a certain toughness within the organisation so losses don’t become devastating.
Finally, when Laboulle was asked about his army experience, he said that it is important for the boss to lead by example — if they are asking their employees to work long hours or take risks, they should be expected to do the same.
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