Leaving the large corporate world and getting involved in start-ups was a great learning experience. I would encourage any corporate professional to experience the start-up mentality and to consider adopting elements of it in order to enhance culture and protect retention in their workforce.
In my experience, one of the most notable differences between large corporate institutions and start-ups is often in respect of governance and controls. Large companies tend to ‘tie themselves in knots’ where smaller, newer players can underestimate the need. Clearly, there is a happy medium to be found and my job has often been to help start-up boards introduce meaningful, value adding governance and assurance.
Being clear about your USP and customer/product proposition is fundamental to any new business and so one of the first things I ask teams is how they would describe their proposition to a potential client if they met them in a lift - the classic ‘elevator pitch’. They often find this hard to do and it can take time to help management teams clearly articulate their priorities.
There are often different views around the table with no common agreement in terms of the direction of the company, the demographic, technologies, proposition, product, competition and the risks associated with doing business. For some joining from a corporate this can be an exciting new venture, but for others, it can be quite challenging.
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