Building an Organization
Reposted from article written for our alumni magazine
I was wondering on what I should write about. The alum team approached me to write about my entrepreneurial journey straight after NITIE, however I felt it would be nice if I write something that is of interest to many. I decided to write about my learning's during the attempts in building an organization.
It’s been just about 30 months of bootstrapping experience and fewer attempts to build an organization, which is far negligible compared to magnanimity of this subject. I am just trying to pen my thoughts and understanding of what it is.
For a quick intro, I moved out of NITIE to take up fulltime job as the business that I had started while I was a student. During early 2009, recession came as an omen for me to take up the entrepreneurial journey, and I got my winter internship papers ready and moved out of campus without informing Pundir sir, our placement dean (frankly I did not have courage to tell this to him). It’s been a wonderful experience since then, growing from a 100 sft. space and 2 employees to a recent brand new 2000 sft. OFFICE and a 15 member TEAM.
Early out of college, during my stint with the Non-Profit - BHUMI (www.bhumi.in), I realized, identity of an organization came always from the people it is represented by and the culture it holds. I felt, the reason for me to business was not just making money and rendering my services, but to build an organization. I did not want to be a freelancer delivering out of my creative brain, but wanted to move ahead and bring together a great team that would bring and implement wonderful ideas.
The quest of understanding how organizations are built began. I wanted to take up this challenge on building an organization. I started reading, discussing, observing, and experiencing how people and organizations behave, and here are few quick that came as learning for me:
Defining Values & Culture
The first question for me was what kind of organization I wanted to build? What would its values / culture be? I wanted an organization that’s formed by people who are passionate, highly motivated, and do things for themselves, as of their own. Place where people rejoice their work. In simple words, the one full of ownership and responsibility.
This was a challenge! Ownership and sense of responsibility needs freedom & flexibility. I decided not to have any kind of monitoring system. Not everyone was ready to accept unbound freedom, many of them wanted to be monitored and looked into. With its abuse, projects got delayed and it affected deliveries. This was probably also the reason for why my partner decided to move out. I believed, it would take consistent and conscious effort to help the team to “handle” freedom. It’s just a matter of time, and needed another element called “motivation” that brings in the “responsibility”.
It’s still a struggle, every time a new person joins and also within me, but will soon be the culture of the organization.
Sharing a Story
For an organization / team to work together, it needs a string that binds them - a reason. Few call it a vision, and I call it a story. It’s a story that you believe in, and now embark on a journey to make others believe in your story. Every person in the team needs to have a reason to be a part of that story.
It took us about 5 failed attempts with various set of people to really get a team that believes in our product idea, before we made our first sale. And it was important for the team to believe it for it to come to life by itself.
Dealing with ambiguity
This is what is feel one of the most important challenge for both people and organizations. It is a paradox between having a clear set of instructions, expectations and deadlines versus being told everything, routine work & laxity. It’s always exciting to maintain a balance between both the aspects. I realized people left me for I was not able to maintain the balance neither was able to help them. As an organization what we are to do is build a culture that can balance! People find it easier to deal with ambiguity.
There is a lot more I wish to share, will do sometime later, and so much of learning with just 30 months, I am excited to see that the life ahead has in store of me lots of learning and experiences.
So, where are we today? We have a team of 15, fully motivated and passionate, wanting to work together and owning and building the organization. We have successfully built our first product – Vaave (an alumni engagement platform), started two more products, and by the time you read this article we would have shifted to our new office on Road No 10, Banjara Hills, an upscale location in Hyderabad. Kudus to all our team for their relentless effort.
Seeking all your wishes and blessings.
Warm Regards
Paresh Masade
Class of 2009, PGDIE
You may follow us at www.fb.com/morethanjustcreativity
I was wondering on what I should write about. The alum team approached me to write about my entrepreneurial journey straight after NITIE, however I felt it would be nice if I write something that is of interest to many. I decided to write about my learning's during the attempts in building an organization.
It’s been just about 30 months of bootstrapping experience and fewer attempts to build an organization, which is far negligible compared to magnanimity of this subject. I am just trying to pen my thoughts and understanding of what it is.
For a quick intro, I moved out of NITIE to take up fulltime job as the business that I had started while I was a student. During early 2009, recession came as an omen for me to take up the entrepreneurial journey, and I got my winter internship papers ready and moved out of campus without informing Pundir sir, our placement dean (frankly I did not have courage to tell this to him). It’s been a wonderful experience since then, growing from a 100 sft. space and 2 employees to a recent brand new 2000 sft. OFFICE and a 15 member TEAM.
Early out of college, during my stint with the Non-Profit - BHUMI (www.bhumi.in), I realized, identity of an organization came always from the people it is represented by and the culture it holds. I felt, the reason for me to business was not just making money and rendering my services, but to build an organization. I did not want to be a freelancer delivering out of my creative brain, but wanted to move ahead and bring together a great team that would bring and implement wonderful ideas.
The quest of understanding how organizations are built began. I wanted to take up this challenge on building an organization. I started reading, discussing, observing, and experiencing how people and organizations behave, and here are few quick that came as learning for me:
Defining Values & Culture
The first question for me was what kind of organization I wanted to build? What would its values / culture be? I wanted an organization that’s formed by people who are passionate, highly motivated, and do things for themselves, as of their own. Place where people rejoice their work. In simple words, the one full of ownership and responsibility.
This was a challenge! Ownership and sense of responsibility needs freedom & flexibility. I decided not to have any kind of monitoring system. Not everyone was ready to accept unbound freedom, many of them wanted to be monitored and looked into. With its abuse, projects got delayed and it affected deliveries. This was probably also the reason for why my partner decided to move out. I believed, it would take consistent and conscious effort to help the team to “handle” freedom. It’s just a matter of time, and needed another element called “motivation” that brings in the “responsibility”.
It’s still a struggle, every time a new person joins and also within me, but will soon be the culture of the organization.
Sharing a Story
For an organization / team to work together, it needs a string that binds them - a reason. Few call it a vision, and I call it a story. It’s a story that you believe in, and now embark on a journey to make others believe in your story. Every person in the team needs to have a reason to be a part of that story.
It took us about 5 failed attempts with various set of people to really get a team that believes in our product idea, before we made our first sale. And it was important for the team to believe it for it to come to life by itself.
Dealing with ambiguity
This is what is feel one of the most important challenge for both people and organizations. It is a paradox between having a clear set of instructions, expectations and deadlines versus being told everything, routine work & laxity. It’s always exciting to maintain a balance between both the aspects. I realized people left me for I was not able to maintain the balance neither was able to help them. As an organization what we are to do is build a culture that can balance! People find it easier to deal with ambiguity.
There is a lot more I wish to share, will do sometime later, and so much of learning with just 30 months, I am excited to see that the life ahead has in store of me lots of learning and experiences.
So, where are we today? We have a team of 15, fully motivated and passionate, wanting to work together and owning and building the organization. We have successfully built our first product – Vaave (an alumni engagement platform), started two more products, and by the time you read this article we would have shifted to our new office on Road No 10, Banjara Hills, an upscale location in Hyderabad. Kudus to all our team for their relentless effort.
Seeking all your wishes and blessings.
Warm Regards
Paresh Masade
Class of 2009, PGDIE
You may follow us at www.fb.com/morethanjustcreativity
Good job guys and never loose HOPE which keeps your aspirations alive always
ReplyDeleteSuperb. I am a fan! :)
ReplyDeleteParesh, it must be such a joy to move from that 100 sq feet office space to the new one. An expansion of space is an equivalent of growth and success.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine the amount of learning that you must have had through the years. The learning will surely hold you in high stead. We are all proud of you.
Wish you all the very best with your entrepreneurial journey.
Inspiring! :)
ReplyDeleteand touching too! i could relate to a lot that you wrote about. And I feel so proud to know you and your team.
loved this line "Every person in the team needs to have a reason to be a part of that story" the most..straight out of the heart.
Next location: Mind Space. yeah! ;)