Today continues the series about managing a startup and noting what makes that special. I don't have all the answers but will share with you what others have taught me from their startup experiences.
Managing the learning cycle is special, it distinguishes the startup managing process.
Giant corporation CEOs bet their careers on managing a series of huge projects that commit spending hundreds of millions of dollars per new product launch. They manage by assigning a lot of very smart people for three years to preparing thousands of employees around the globe for the big day when the new thing is formally announced to the world. They are diversified, with several bullets in their gun.
Startups bet their lives on one product launch and commit all their cash and people on it. They manage by adjusting their idea, hope and plan via small feedback loops. They learn on-the-fly, by the hour, by the day and alter immediately, based on what they encounter. They are focused on one product and one market. They have one bullet in their gun.
Thus the startup is often described to me as being "like a building a bicycle while you are riding it." It is why large public corporation leaders feel awkward and even exposed when doing their first startup. It is a new way to do something very different. Perhaps you have learned a new sport such as snowboarding. The first day on the slopes left you with an unforgettable, different experience (and some sore muscles). I know that is how I felt. But you can learn it and thus I think most of you can learn to be comfortable and enjoy this different startup managing experience. For some of you now is not the right time in your life to try a startup. Later would work better. For the rest of you, learning the specialness of managing a startup will give you a competitive advantage.
Rigidity is your enemy. If your personality type got you to success in the giant corporation by being strong and doing the impossible, you need to think before you apply the same methods to a startup. For instance, if you try to force your startup to use the more rigid principles and methods that made you successful in the public corporation, you will run into difficulty with people problems and may wreck your startup. For instance, innovation thrives in unstructured conditions. Yes, it needs its own discipline, yet it also needs a special form of freedom. So startup VPs of Engineering set weekly goals for their teams of techies, check in daily how progress is being made and meet by the end of the week to make adjustments for what was done, encountered and discovered. They are experts in balancing, remaing at a distance while staying close to daily work, all without micro-managing people.
Marketing and business development people do the same. Their leaders are asked "What is going on out there?" and "What should we do about it?" They find out and return to tell the techies what to do next, how to alter the product to better fit what the ideal customer wants and often what to abandon. Their work span covers days and a week or so.
CEOs thus have a lot going on simultaneously and have to manage a lot of movement. This is not random motion. It is direction with an intent that is modified as learning is encountered along the trail. But it can make a CEO feel like the company is in chaos compared with a "well managed business." The latter phrase can be applied to either a startup or public corporation. But there are significant differences in what criteria are used to measure the well managed meaning of the phrase. Looping or managing small, closely coupled iterations is one of the distinguishing differences for managing a startup. When you are comfortable with that, you are well on your way to becoming a bona fide startup leader.
BOTTOM LINE: Processing results day to day and week to week is what startup managing is about. More and quicker adjustments are made for a new enterprise each week than for a public corporation. The high risk startup has more to lose by being wrong so it is ironically more careful. The one bullet in the gun must hit the target bull's eye. That is one reason why startups can feel so awkward to experienced leaders from public corporations. It is the ultimate high risk management game. When you learn to be comfortable with it that will significantly boost your startup managing skill. It will be one of the most important elements you can add to build your unfair competitive advantage. It is what top tier venture capital investors are seeking the most.
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