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| Anurag Batra |
I have all along maintained in my Columns in DARE and in my thought process that all jobs at almost all levels in the organisations of today are entrepreneurial. If you are the CEO working for the entrepreneur, promoter and the BOD you need to be entrepreneurial. It’s a pre requisite for a leadership role in any job.
I have noticed this trend in the last few years and I see it getting accentuated more so in recent times. A lot of entrepreneurs have gone back to being CEOs of larger firms in an entrepreneurial role. What made them do that? How does this large firm ensure that this new switch works for the entrepreneur and the organisation? What happens to the enterprise this entrepreneur had created and is now leaving for the bigger venture? Is it a phenomenon driven by difficulties of being an entrepreneur and/or the ambitions of size and scale?
In my business school at MDI 15 years back I had organised and attended a lecture by Udyan Dravid who said to us “Do you want to be a small fish in a big pond or do you want to be the big fish in a big pond?” In today’s context, I would say an entrepreneur going back into a big job is akin to being a “Big Fish in a Big Pond.’It’s a Win-Win, Big-Big situation.
A Big Move
I have been in recent times thinking a lot about this. In my / our media industry recently the affable and visionary Raj Nayak of Aidem (a venture he had created almost a year back) joined Raghav Bahl and Viacom promoted Colors GEC as a CEO. Colors is a big media brand and a big ship wanting to be bigger. Raj Nayak, a close friend and respected industry teacher joined Raghav Bahl and his management team led by Haresh Chawla and B Sai Kumar.
A smart Gujarati entrepreneur even quipped “the owner of the business has deserted his men and ship.” In my view, Raj Nayak joining Colors meant two entrepreneurs coming together to collaborate in a certain working relationship and it would be myopic to look at it another way.
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A larger point in the way Raj Nayak and his Aidem handled this transition should be a model way for such entrepreneurs making this switch. Raj and his senior Aidem partners ensured that over a 100 people have been resettled with jobs, and not one person has been asked to go. In fact Aidem gave an increment to all existing employees. Even though Raj moved as captain of his ship, he did it with consent from all his senior partners and stakeholders. Aidem continues, with a new leadership in place with over 100 people plus still on its payrolls and 6 brands it still continues to manage
Raj Nayak and Aidem and Colors is an Indian example I know well and I use it to illustrate and make a larger point. Just to give you an international perspective let me cite you the example of Vikram Pandit, the current CEO of Citibank. In 2005, Vikram Pandit and John Havens started Old Lane LLC, a hedge fund with 2 billion dollars. Citi bought the company in 2007 for $800 million bringing both Pandit and Havens into Citi leadership to this big new job.
I am reminded of what Steve Jobs said “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Dreaming Big
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog,” said Mark Twain. The fight for the monies, both advertising and subscription, is a big fight and the collaboration augurs well for success.
You do not have to believe me as I am an engineer, MBA and an oracle said about people like me “An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be”.
Maybe I am the engineer telling you size is important but still missing the big picture. Raj Nayak and entrepreneurs are tuned into this BIG DREAM and BIG PICTURE and that has got them to make this BIG SWITCH.
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meet Anurag Batra
Anurag Batra is real life, first-generation entrepreneur who is Much Below Average (MBA) from the prestigious Management Development Institute, MDI. Anurag is the founder and editor-in-chief of exchange4media group which includes exchange4media.com. To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line ‘Anurag Batra’. The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine’s.
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