Dear Friends,
Deepinder Goyal, Founder, and CEO of Zomato (80 million monthly active users in 2023, operating in 24 countries and 3,200+ cities, with 90 billion site visits, 1.4 million restaurants, 8,339 employees, revenue of ₹1,948 crores in December 2022, and $2.6 billion total funding according to feedough.com), recently posted an intriguing job description for the role of Chief of Staff.
Thousands of hiring announcements are made daily, but this post gained significant attention—and for good reason! It particularly resonated with me because the approach Deepinder shared is something I personally practiced 14 years ago.
Zomato is seeking a Chief of Staff to work directly with its CEO and help shape the company's future. The role is designed for someone eager to learn, empathetic, and committed to doing the right thing. It offers unparalleled growth, akin to a fast-track MBA, but with an unconventional first year: no salary and a required ₹20 lakh donation to Feeding India. Zomato, in turn, will contribute ₹50 lakh to a charity of your choice. From the second year, a competitive salary is guaranteed. Within 24 hours of this posting, more than 10,000 applications flooded in (source: NDTV.com).
Hearing about this unique job description took me back to my own journey. In 2010, I resigned from Wipro to establish the Centre for Innovation and Incubation in educational institutions when such concepts were almost non-existent in Indian Tier 2/3 colleges (except IIT Madras), and the idea of incubation centres was virtually unknown.
I visited several colleges and universities, pitching the idea, but initially faced rejection. Back then, I wrote countless postcards (as WhatsApp didn’t exist, and emails were rarely read) to the President, Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, HRD Ministry officials, vice-chancellors, institutional heads, and principals. Many institutions appreciated the concept and invited me as a speaker, but none were ready to implement it.
However, one institution's founder gave me an opportunity to experiment. For over nine months, I voluntarily worked without a salary because, like Zomato’s unconventional approach, I wasn’t entirely sure the idea would work. Later, I joined the institution full-time with an 80% salary cut compared to my Wipro role, as there was a significant gap between industry and institutional pay structures. I continued in this role for over 14 years.
When I read Zomato’s job description, it brought back those memories. I strongly believe this kind of approach is necessary at some point in one's career.
In my current role, I am handling Entrepreneurship Education (to build entrepreneurs) and Enterprise Education (to develop intrapreneurs—employees who think and act like entrepreneurs). In Europe, enterprise education is introduced at the school level. In India, however, it is still in its nascent stages. We are now experimenting with mandating enterprise education for all students in my organization—whether they study engineering, management, architecture, medicine, sciences, or social sciences. This initiative aims to nurture responsibility, customer centricity, effective communication, risk appetite, and business acumen.
Job descriptions like Zomato’s will likely become more common in the future. Building sustainable institutions requires more than glorifying entrepreneurs when businesses succeed or vilifying them when they fail. We need organizations with many leaders who take risks and work for satisfaction—not just high salaries, stock options, or perks. Institutions cannot be built solely on employee benefits, as these are tied to company profits.
Deepinder, I wish you all the best in finding your new Chief of Staff!
Warm regards,
Ravi Saripalle
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