Dear Friends and Students
Recently I read an interesting article in Harvard Business Review Press by Chris Zook, Partner, Bain & Company. The author did a deep study on how Founder Led companies are more innovative, more productive, and more profitable!
While the founder’s mentality is a key strategic asset and indicator of the health of a company, the revealing & shocking stat is only 13% of the employees (I call them Intrapreneurs) engaged in their work, emotionally attached, focused on creating value! Disengaged workers outnumber engaged workers at a rate of nearly 2-1 (Gallup’s survey). Though it is a slightly old data point(almost 7 years old), still it makes sense and I am sure of similar figures even in today’s context. 63% of the employees are not engaged. 24% are actively disengaged. This is the cause of worry!! What is it for me attitude?
Recently I mentioned this in one of my talks- Once a student asked me, “which job is more secured in this world”? My response is this. There are only 5 jobs in this world. 1. Entrepreneur 2. Intrapreneur 3. Inventor 4. Innovator 5. Employee. Out of 5 jobs, 4 jobs are permanent and 1 temporary job. Entrepreneur, Intrapreneur (works for a company, but feels like it is his/her own company though no stake in the organization and not expecting), Inventor, Innovator are permanent jobs and employee is the temporary job. The reason, employees are disengaged! They look for immediate results, failing changes their skin. Remember, Employee has to learn a new skill every 2-3 years as they lose skill often.
Why this story is critical in today’s context, because, many organizations are relying on human talent and less on natural resources. Coming back to founder-led companies, “the study found that S&P 500 companies where the founder is still CEO are more innovative, generate 31% more patents, create patents that are more valuable, and are more likely to make bold investments to renew and adapt the business model — demonstrating a willingness to take the risk to invent the future”.
Companies with a founder’s mentality like to stay longer than others maybe 4-5 times more. The reason, founder has moral authority to make the hard choices, know the business in detail, have better instincts, and having a long-term perspective on investments.
This article makes special mention of one Indian company as an example! It is proud to see M.S. Oberoi, founder of Oberoi Hotels, name in the article, how he became a role model for the next generation of leaders! At age of 94, he used to scrawl responses on customer comment cards, keeping them an inch away from his eyes.
The founder’s mentality is a Front Line Obsession! It leads to Business Insurgency! An important stat: Engaged Employees (Intrapreneurs) are 3.5 times as likely to solve problems themselves and invest personal time in innovation compared to unengaged workers (regular employees)!!
When the owner is not present or the owner’s mindset changes, the company becomes complacent, loses focus, risk-averse, and finally leads to bureaucracy. Finally, it loses its sheen! Sometimes, it exists.
Dear Students, do you want a permanent job or a temporary job? Do you want to be 1. Entrepreneur 2. Intrapreneur 3. Inventor 4. Innovator or 5. Employee? Decide Quickly and Start Your Career Planning!!
Your Well-wisher
Ravi Saripalle
Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)
Source Inspiration:
news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/171632/gallup-releases-new-insights-state-global-workplace.aspx
https://hbr.org/2016/03/founder-led-companies-outperform-the-rest-heres-why
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