When you take a new job, there’s always an element of starting again. But when you move from a large organisation to a start-up, this change is perhaps a little more pronounced.
As part of this series speaking to those who’ve just joined start-ups, I want to share this conversation with Basil. In the midst of coronavirus he made the change, leaving behind 15 years at his previous employer.
He talks about leaving this personal equity behind and what those who bring their experience in large organisations can offer start ups.
Where do you work?
I work for Sprinklr. It’s a US start-up that’s primary objective is to improve customer experience management and make customers happier. These days, the average business has a large front of office technology stack. So we’re building out a platform that encompasses all aspects of customer experience, be it advertising, marketing, research, customer care and customer engagement.
What’s your role at the company?
I’ve been hired to run sales operations for Asia Pacific and grow out the business in the region. Sprinklr originated in New York and has been a very US centric company, but now they’re looking at global scale and expansion. My job is to set up the infrastructure that will allow them to do that.
What were you doing before working at Sprinklr?
I spent 15 years working at Hitachi Vantara, a high-end Japanese technology infrastructure company. I joined Hitachi as a Finance Director for Australia and New Zealand. But over the 15-year period I moved from finance to sales operations in Asia Pacific. I also ran regional/global sales teams, as well global strategy. My last job was to build out the Global Revenue Operations team and strategy to continue to drive profitable growth.
Did you see moving from Hitachi to Sprinklr as a risky move?
Absolutely and there are different elements to that risk. Some of it’s financial, some of it’s personal and some of it’s company/brand. You’re betting on a company that’s betting on you at the same time.
In moving over to Sprinklr, the big risk was going to a start-up during coronavirus. I was successful at Hitachi Vantara, I made 13 President’s Clubs in 15 years at the company. Nobody had done that and it was experience and success on which I could lean and take confidence from. I knew I was in a safe role and environment at Hitachi. But like the company my own growth and brand was no longer growing at an exponential rate.
What was it like leaving that equity behind?
You have to know yourself pretty well as an individual. Sprinklr have hired me because I’ve evangelised about how I’ve behaved and what I’ve achieved at Hitachi. But I still walked through the door with 0 runs on the board. It’s a humbling nervousness.
One of my big skills is what I call WOO – winning others over. Coming in at ground zero, you’ve got nobody to leverage against. I can’t name drop the CEO, or some high level person in the company, because I don’t have any personal equity with those people.
Obviously there’s also financial equity. Nothing is guaranteed, but in a large company when it comes to performance you’ve got a good idea that you’ll get your bonus, whether or not you’ll be the top employee in your field and what’s required of you to be a good performer. You leave all that behind when you walk into a new place. There are a lot of smart people at Sprinklr and I met them straight away. The energy is fantastic and inspiring.
It’s the little things, too. I hadn’t signed an employment contract for 15 years, so I hadn’t seen a modern employment contract. I hadn’t seen a modern bonus plan and how it worked. The computations of how I’ll make money were new. It’s not all about money, but I like to know how I’m going to make money. Putting those elements together was quite challenging.
Coming from a big business, what unique skills are you able to bring to the start-up world?
The thing with start-ups, particularly some of these unicorns, they’ve got a lot of young very talented people that are waiting for an IPO event to happen. They’re kind of locked in by the promise of equity and making some money, as well as disproportional career growth and opportunity. This does not always scale properly and I think I bring the experience to help strategise and realise the potential of the company and people.
Big companies gave me the opportunity to learn a lot. But the most important thing was working with people that would give you that opportunity. I had some great managers at Hitachi and if you’ve got aptitude and you want to push your managers there’s always space to grow, I look forward to sharing this experience with my colleagues at Sprinklr.
Start-ups are very good at progressing careers, but there’s only one manager role between four or five people and sometimes these young workers don’t know how to break through. I can help them get to that next level. I’m actually looking forward to that part the most. People at Sprinklr are very open to learning.
Does the culture differ then between bigger organisations and start-ups?
In bigger organisations culture can get eroded quickly. You have a lot of culture statements written at the top that are superb. But if you go to the ground level and ask what the culture is, you’d struggle to get consistency through the company.
The way that many start-ups are working, they’re focused on setting the culture and who they attract. They hire people because they believe in the culture and want to be there, that’s the big differentiator.
When you’ve got a founder, or CEO, that honestly believes in the values that differentiates the start-up massively from a big corporate.
What questions did you ask yourself, or other people, to help you weigh up whether this was a good move for you?
I relied very heavily on my network. I also relied on my personal coach. You have to have someone who can alleviate the doubts in yourself and bring you back to what you’re good at.
I spoke to lots of people about how they perceive the organisation and what they are doing. It’s easy to go after start-ups – you can look at the Forbes 100 and go ‘I’m going to choose the top 10 that are sitting inside there.’ But it depends what you’re chasing.
Some people just want to chase an IPO for equity. I actually wanted to be part of something I believe in again. So I researched heavily, spoke to people inside the company, spoke to people on the fringes, used LinkedIn and searched on Glassdoor.
All that gave me a better picture of the different start-ups I was talking to – particularly who has the best vision and is operating in the right way.
If you would like to have a confidential discussion about strategies to find and hire the right people who are ready to make this switch, contact Phil Davis, Managing Director, Q Consulting Group at 0404 803 609 or phil.davis@qconsultinggroup.com.au