7 mantras to scaling your business

Gunaseelan R, Founder – Stealth mode startup. Aug 23, 2014, Bangalore.

Different stages of a startup lifecycle 2

We will focus on these three stages today

7 mantras to scaling your business 3

1. Strategic Focus.

2. Streamline & achieve efficiency in Business Operations.

3. Evolve your Organization Structure to suit dynamic needs of the market and your business.

4. Decentralize & Empower your regions.

5. Think Big & Set Aggressive goals.

6. Identify your hidden gems, Stay connected & make them feel important.

7. Grow to be a Strategic Partner to your customers.

Strategic Focus4

You cant be everything to everyone. Focus on a fewlarge opportunities and make it BIG. Don’t spreadyourself thin. Focus is required when it comes toProducts, Markets and certain Revenue opportunities.

From time to time you will have to say ‘No’ to certainopportunities. Even if its a sizable opportunitywithin a specific market but not a scalable one youshould let it go.

Run cross-functional projects to fix key issues in customer delivery. It is these projects that will help you define/stream line your process, productize repeatable activities to make it scalable, help structure your organization right and above all help identify your hidden gems (high impact employees).

Streamline & achieve efficiency in business operations

Select best practices in Business Operations

1. Cross-functional alignment is the key to customer delivery.a. Have a war room for key projects. b. Create a email alias with all key stakeholders part of it. c. Have a clear project plan with the 3Ws (What? Who? And When?) defined. d. Communicate, Communicate & Communicate.

This helps build positivity and momentum once stake holders start seeing the results oftheir efforts.

2. Incentivize the stake holders right to scale the business. There is no point in complaining about customer churn if your sales team is incentivized on just overall revenue goals and not the quality of revenue they bring in.

3. Share best practices with the regions regularly. Cross pollination helps and opens the eyes of the regional teams to new opportunities.

4. Run Programs around key themes – Helps get the attention of all stakeholders and aligns them to the common goal. Say Project 100k to scale user traffic from 10,000 to 100,000 in 100 days.

For an Org Structure to be effective, it is important that the resources are aligned across the Org enabling the business unit owners to run their own P&L.

A horizontal flat structure woks well for start ups. Helps you stay nimble and connected with most

employees. Leaders can leverage ‘MBWA’ to connect with the employees at large. A daily 30 minute walk

across the office floors with just even a casual chat on a general topic will do a world of good in increasing the

connect with your employees and retain them.

Continue to evolve your organization structure to meet the dynamic needs of the market and business

Decentralize & Empower your regional teams

You cant do the heavy lifting from your Corporate office. As the business grows, it is important that the Corporate teams move to a support role and focus on building the required resources (frameworks, policies, process, tools, programs & training) to make it truly scalable.

Think Big! Set aggressive goals!

Surprise yourself with aggressive goals!

In the growth stage, if the market growth is crazy you should gun for a bigger target, you will be surprised by the results.

There is no fun in growing at 15% when the Industry itself is growing at 75%.

A typical hidden gem in an Operations role.

PassionateTeam Player‘Whatever it takes’ attitudeAbility to see beyond the obviousStrong Customer FocusHas a good understanding of both the Products & business side.

Leverage vertical & horizontal growth (cross functional) opportunities to retain your hidden gems. Build a career path for them.

Identify your hidden gems, Stay connected and make them feel important.

Grow to become a Strategic Partner for your key customers 11

You will be seen as a strategic partner largely when yourcontribution to the customer’s topline revenues is in double digits.

Have a Strategic Account Framework to scale your key accounts to become Strategic Partners.

Your business will grow with your Strategic Partners!

Strategic Accounts Framework12

§ N

§ O

§ P

§ Q

Seed (<$5K per day) Grow ($5k – $10K/ day) Partner (> $10K / day)

EMEA

JAPAC

NA

§ G § A

§ R

§ S

§ T

§ H

§ I

§ B

§ C

§ D

§ E

§ U

§ V

§ W

§ X

§ Y

§ J

§ K

§ F

1

234

5

6

7

8

9

1011

2524

232221

20

1918

17

161514

§ Z

§ B2726

7 mantras to scaling your business 13

1. Strategic Focus.

2. Streamline & achieve efficiency in Business Operations.

3. Evolve your Organization Structure to suit dynamic needs of the market and your business.

4. Decentralize & Empower your regions.

5. Think Big & Set Aggressive goals.

6. Identify your hidden gems, Stay connected & make them feel important.

7. Grow to be a Strategic Partner to your customers.

Thank You!

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