When Gaurang Pandya

was named President of UTC Building and Industrial Systems in March, his first priority

was to appoint someone to take over his old job. Pandya was ear-lier managing director of UTC’s climate control division (of Carrier fame), the company’s largest vertical, which made him the natural choice for the top post at UTC India when the earlier President, Zubin Irani, quit to join a private equity firm. Pandya needed to familiarise himself with the company’s other verticals but before that, he needed to ensure a smooth transition at Carrier. “My appointment as President had a cascading effect in terms of succession. For every person who was promoted as a re-sult, a successor had to be decided,” he says.

Once he settled the succession process at Carrier, Pandya moved on to better acquainting him-self with lead-ers in UTC’s other divi-sions, such as Otis Elevators. “I knew everybody but I’d worked with only half of them,” he says. “There’s always some ap-prehension when a new guy comes in because he brings in a new thought process. The best way to handle it is to communicate clearly. I travelled to all our factories, of-fices, project sites to talk to people directly and ensure nothing is lost in translation.”

To lead not just runNew CEOs certainly need to work quickly to establish their personal brand. Those appointed from within the organisation already have some brand equity, but those appointed from outside often need to build

it from scratch. Anand Kripalu was appointed manag-ing director & CEO of United Spirits last year, after spending seven months in the com-pany as CEO des-ignate. Since then, he has spent most of his time meeting

stakeholders and addressing issues like organisational culture, ethics, strategy. “I need to be seen and heard. People needed to feel my impact. After all, the CEO embodies the culture of the company,” he says.

Like Kripalu, Vivek Gambhir had the benefit of a short stint as strategy head at Godrej Consumer Products before he was named MD. But unlike Kripalu, who had

earlier been managing director of Cadbury, Gambhir had never been CEO.

“I quickly realised that being CEO is about leading and not running the company,” he says. “You are responsible for thousands of people and you are the guardian of the com-pany’s values.”

Indeed, most CEOs say that there is a palpable change in the way former peers relate to them once they are named for the top post, which makes the job rather lonely. Earlier the head of the enterprise vertical at Lenovo India, Rahul Agarwal was promot-ed to managing director two months ago and he felt perceptions change immediately. “I watch what I say in meetings these days,” he says. “I begin with a disclaimer that I am here as an observer and that everything I say should not be taken as directions.”

The big impactNew CEOs know that everybody — including the Board that hired them — is watching to see what they do in their initial months. But as they strive to make their impact on the organisation, new CEOs face a dilemma: how fast should they move? “The pressure is there to deliver results, but you have to keep in mind the long term,” says Gambhir. “There are no silver bullets for a CEO in the first 100 days. You have to be demanding, but also cul-turally aware so as not to upset things.”

One of Gambhir’s more visible actions in his first few months was to abolish the position of international operations head and have the CEOs of international subsidi-aries report directly to him. At UTC, one of Pandya’s early wins was to accelerate locali-sation in the Otis manufacturing facility in Bangalore, rolling out high-end elevator models that were previously imported.

R Suresh, managing director of headhunt-ing firm RGF India says it’s important for new CEOs to make a tangible difference as soon as they can: “Of course, they need to get to know people in the organisation, but it is best done on the job…while tackling a major business problem. After the long and gruelling hiring process, the board has the right to expect that from the new CEO.”

Suresh gives the example of a CEO he helped place who resolved a tax dispute that had been hanging over the company, by bringing in a new lawyer he knew to the case. He also gives the example of Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys, who is known to have started by visiting key customers, taking his senior executives with him. “His direct reports essentially learnt of his vision for the company when he explained it to custom-ers,” says Suresh.

Be that as it may, some CEOs would rather not rush it. In the last stages of his recruitment as CEO of Raymond, some Board members asked Sanjay Behl what he expected to achieve in the first 100 days. “I said ‘nothing’. My priority, I told them, was to understand the industry and the company, which meant travelling to all the production facilities, the market, the retail stores. If I was going to change anything, it would only be after I understood how things worked,” says Behl.

Meet the new CEO continued on pg2

Dossier orporateCTHEECONOMICTIMES

The number one problem first-time leaders face is failing to understand that leading requires entirely

different strengths than doing or managing. We’ve all experienced first-time managers who come in with guns blazing. They think they can be successful by doing more of what they were doing before and telling others to do the same. But telling diminishes. At best people comply with the teller’s di-rection. More experienced managers persuade and support. Great leaders go one step further to co-cre-ate a purpose-driven future with their followers.

Leading is different than managing. Where managing is about organis-ing, coordinating and telling, lead-ing is about inspiring, enabling and co-creating. Great leaders can also do and tell when needed, but they focus on inspiring and enabling oth-ers to do their absolute best together to realise a meaningful and reward-ing shared purpose.

Taking over as a leader for the first time is a critical, career-defining moment. Getting this transition right accelerates your ca-

reer trajectory. Avoiding avoidable mistakes at this juncture requires preparation, commitment, and follow-through.

Focus on the cause. People follow charismatic leaders for a time. But they devote themselves over time to the cause of a leader who inspires and enables them in the pursuit of that cause. Those leaders have the courage to accept that leadership is not about them, but rather about

working through be-haviors, relationships, attitude, values and the environment to inspire and enable others.

Everything you do and don’t do, say and don’t say, listen to and observe, communicates — 24/7, forever. This

is the heart of leadership. Inspiring and enabling others is all about rela-tionships.

This is probably the biggest shift for first-time leaders. Shifting from executing the work to delegat-ing the work is almost always one of the biggest challenges. You are changing habits, and doing a 180-de-gree change on how you perceive your role.

The fundamental prescription

is to converge and evolve. No one is going to follow you anywhere, any time, anyhow until you have earned the right to lead. This is why you have to become part of the team before you can lead it. Converging

starts before day one and continues until you pivot to evolving. The value of getting a head start cannot be overestimated. Use the time be-tween accepting and starting a job to craft your 100-day plan, prepare

for your transition and to jump-start relationships. Your 100-day plan should lay out your stakehold-ers, message, steps leading up to and through your early days.

Start with mapping and prioritis-

ing the internal and external stake-holders who may be impacted by the transition. Look up, across and down both inside and outside the organisa-tion. Up would include your boss and

his or her boss. Across will include key peers as well as key custom-ers, suppliers, external al-lies, commu-nity leaders, government officials,

regulators and the like. Down will include your direct reports as well as indirect reports tasked with work-ing with your team.

Then get clear on your message, thinking through the platform for change (why people should change), vision (what a brighter future will look like for those making the change) and call to action (how those making the change can contribute). Pull this all together into a headline message and key communication points. This will be the current best thinking that you will evolve as you learn more. But you need a place to start.

Put people first continued on pg2

How to manage relationships as a fi rst time leader No one is going to follow you anywhere, anytime, anyhow until you have earned the right to lead By George Bradt

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How do newly minted CEOs build

their personal brand? Corporate

Dossier has the secret sauce

By Dibeyendu Ganguly

JUSTin

CEO

You have to drop a few weak performers, bring in new people. But as a new-comer, you can’t be overtly critical, or you will rub peo-ple the wrong way

ANANT GOENKA

MD, CEAT

There’s always some apprehension when a new guy comes in because he brings in a new thought process. The best way to handle it is to communicate clearly

GAURANG PANDYA

PRESIDENT, UTC BUILDING AND INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS

I quickly realised that being CEO is about leading and not running the company

VIVEK GAMBHIR

MD, GODREJ CONSUMER PRODUCTSNew CEO Tool Kit

Ensure you have a good teamSet a clear direction for the companyMeet stakeholders: customers, colleagues, vendorsCommunicate your vision, your plansMake an impact on the business as soon as possible

Indeed, most CEOs say that there is a palpable change in the way former peers relate to them once they are named for the top post, which makes the job rather lonely

Shifting from executing the work to delegating the work is almost always one of the biggest challenges

Use the time between accepting and starting a job to craft your 100-day plan, prepare for your transition and to jump-start relationships

reality check

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The most important idea is to reach out to the most critical stakeholders and have conversa-tions with them before you start. Asking for their help and advice is an act of vulnerability that nev-er fails to start your relationship off on the right foot. Think about it. You’re not starting by telling them to do anything. You’re not starting by talking about your-self. You’re starting by valuing their perspec-tive – as you should. They will appreciate it.

Beyond that, lay out steps to learn as much as you can and to complete your personal and pro-fessional preparations for your new leadership role. Use day one to continue building rela-tionships and to start to live your message. If you care about consumers, spend part of the day with consumers. If you care about technical innovation, spend part of the day in the inno-vation lab. If you care about your major customers, get in front of a major customer on day one. Without ever saying what matters, people will figure it out.

Then, keep converging. Keep learning. Keep building relation-ships. If people ask you for direc-tion, tell them you’re still learn-ing. Keep doing this until the moment you pivot. The best way to pivot is to co-create a burning imperative. It doesn’t matter if you do this by drafting some-thing and then getting others’

input or by pulling your team together for an imperative work-shop. The output is the same, a shared view of your mission, vision, values and priorities. This is the “page” that everyone refers to when they say you have to get everyone on the same page.

Here’s why this is so impor-tant. Any idea you have before co-creating this burning im-

perative is an idea you came in with and that you are trying to push on to others. By doing so you’re saying you know more than they do and that you are better than them. They won’t like that. Any idea you have after co-creating the im-perative you can relate back to the work done by all, making it “our” idea and communicat-ing that you do value others. They will like that.

Then you can start to evolve the team as its rightful leader. Keep

strengthening relationships up, down and across. Keep evolving your strategic process, operat-ing process and organisational process – all with an eye on your shared purpose. That’s the cause, the key to managing relation-ships as a first-time leader. CD

The author is founder, PrimeGenesis, an executive on-

boarding group.He is co-author of five books on onboarding includ-

ing The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan.

Devdutt Pattanaik writes and lectures on relevance of mythology in management. He is the author of Business Sutra: an Indian approach to managementHe may be contacted at devdutt@devdutt.com

The Mahabharata is full of colour-ful characters and they have lots of lessons for various contexts of corporate life, not least for a new CEO. Here are six things one must

not do if one has just become a leader.

Do not be a BhismaBhisma was the grand patriarch of the Kuru clan who had the power to deter-mine the time of his death. In other words, he had no expiry date. And so he kept on living, from generation to generation, hoping to solve all problems and create a perfect world. In the end, he had to be pinned to the ground with a thousand ar-rows, immobilised so that the war could be sorted out between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He did not accept the inad-

equacy of others. He did not create a talent pool. He refused to believe the world could function without him. He convinced him-self he was indispensable. Lesson: The organisation has to function even without you and you cannot do eve-rything.

Do not be a DronaDrona was the tutor of the Kuru princes and he fought for the Kauravas against the Pandavas. While he claimed loyalty to the Kurus, his real obsession was his son, Ashwatthama. Krishna knew this and spread the rumor that Ashwatthama had been killed in battle. This broke Drona’s

heart and he lost the will to fight. Lesson: Do not have favorites. You exist for the organisation, not to nurture favourites.

Do not be a KarnaKarna was a foundling raised by chariot-eers who aspired to be an archer. He was supported by the Kauravas, who found his talent useful. He was derided by the Pandavas, who felt he should follow his family vocation and not aspire beyond his class/caste. Karna continuously suffered from what is called the status anxiety. It became an obsession. Lesson: Do not try to belong to a club where you feel unwelcome. You do not need other people’s approval to feel vali-dated. Focus on task at hand.

Do not be a YudhishtiraYudhishtira was the eldest Pandava who always spoke the truth, respected the elders and wanted to be a model for every-one. Yet, it was his addiction to gambling that had resulted in loss of Pandava for-tune and the resulting war. Lesson: Don’t try to be perfect. You are not. Nobody likes someone who is always perfect. They come across as oppressive. Life is not perfect. So admit vulnerability. And remember, shareholders love ethics, so long as it does not come in the way of their profits.

Do not be a BhimaBhima was a Pandava who swore to kill each and every Kaurava and even drink their blood in order to avenge the humiliation of his family at their hands. He went about it with a force that fright-

ened all. Yet for all his work, he was overshadowed by the more charismatic Arjuna. Most people assume Arjuna is the hero of the Mahabharata, when Bhima did the real work. Lesson: While doing your work don’t get so obsessed with achievements, that someone else takes away your glory. Make sure you are the face of your achievements.

Do not be an ArjunaArjuna was the greatest archer in the world, so focused that he could strike the eye of a flying bird without being distract-ed by the clouds above or the trees below. But when he entered the battlefield of Kuru-kshetra, he looked beyond the target and realised his enemy was his family. He

feared if he killed them, the whole social fabric would unravel. These thoughts par-alysed him, until Krishna came to his res-cue and gave him a discourse that enabled him to get back into the fighting spirit. Lesson: While caution is good, do not let analysis lead to paralysis. Sometimes you just have to go ahead and do things and take responsibility for the consequences, whatever they may be. You cannot be suc-cessful all the time, or good all the time. And it’s okay to fail. CD

new CEO survival toolkit

Bhishma had no expiry date. And so he kept on living, from generation to generation, hoping to solve all problems and create a perfect world

Do not try to be perfect. You are not. Nobody likes someone who is always perfect

Six things to keep in mind when you are

stepping into your new role as CEO

By Devdutt Pattanaik

Put people first

Error-kshetra

While doing your work don’t get so obsessed with achievements, that someone else takes away your glory

Behl moved to Raymond from Reliance Communications, an indus-try with a culture very different from textiles. After getting to know the company better, he swung into action with a series of very visible moves like restructuring the organisation, outsourcing the IT function and recruiting a slew of senior people. Most of them are in newly created posts like e-commerce head and chief marketing officer. Putting together a high grade team should be a new CEO’s highest priority says Behl, even if means getting new people to replace the old. “When it’s a large or-ganisation like Raymond, you should try and keep at least two-thirds of the existing team. The rest should be new hires.”

Scions of family-run companies face the same issues as their profes-sional counterparts, the only dif-ference being that they’re usually younger. Anant Goenka was named managing director of Ceat at the age of 30, after spending two years as deputy managing director under the mentorship of old-timer Paras Choudhury, who retired in 2012. As a member of the promoter family, Goenka knew the company culture well, but upon assuming charge, he was faced with a classic dilemma: who would be on his core team? “You never get a perfect team,” he says. “You have to drop a few weak per-formers, bring in new people. But as a newcomer, you can’t be overtly criti-cal, or you will rub people the wrong way. It was difficult for me because I attained the position because of my

family, instead of 100% merit. But once I gained confidence, I got into the difficult conversations that build-ing a good team requires.”

Even as he was building his team, Goenka announced some high impact strategic decisions at Ceat, such as the shift in focus from truck tyres to two-wheeler and SUV tyres. His succes-sion to the post of CEO marked a new beginning for Ceat and he used it to reach out to the unionised workers at the company’s plants in Mumbai and Vadodara. “Tyre making requires manual effort, but I’ve been trying to make it less laborious by investing in a few tools. Even small things like installing better ventilation makes a big difference. You have to earn the worker’s trust by making their work easier where possible.”

MNC playbookAs an increasing number of global companies start operations in India, there’s another set of new CEOs emerging: the country heads. These

CEOs don’t get to move into a ready infra-structure – they have to create or-ganisations from scratch. When Manu Jain was appointed India head of Xiaomi a year ago, he was the Chinese cell-

phone maker’s first employee in the country. He has recruited 35 people since then, many of them former entrepreneurs like himself. “When I was in China for the interviews, the promoters told me they wanted a flat, non-hierarchical organisation,” says Jain. “Headquarters hasn’t given us revenue targets or KPIs, they just want us to focus on the needs of Indian consumers, solve pains. That is a different approach because country heads are usually concerned about sales.”

Indeed, some view these CEOs as glorified sales managers, but these openings are certainly giving tal-ented CXOs a shot at upgrading their careers and gaining valuable experi-ence. When Concur, a subsidiary of SAP, recently decided to expand its sales office in Mumbai into a full-fledged operation, it recruited Ramesh Iyer as managing direc-tor, India. Iyer has since recruited 30 people and using the contacts he developed in his previous job as busi-ness president at Tata Teleservices, he has managed to bag a big order for Concur’s expense-management software from one of India’s more prominent IT companies, thereby establishing himself as a successful new CEO. “As CEO, your outlook changes completely. You get to define strategy for the company. You no longer play second fiddle, you are the fiddle,” he says. CD

dibeyendu.ganguly@timesgroup.com

As an increas-ing number of global companies start operations in India, there’s another set of new CEOs emerging: the country heads

Meet the new CEO

I need to be seen and heard. People needed to feel my impact. After all, the CEO embodies the culture of the company

ANAND KRIPALU MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, UNITED SPIRITS

You should try and keep at least two-thirds of the existing team. The rest should be new hiresSANJAY BEHL CEO, RAYMOND

When I was in China for the interviews, the promoters told me they wanted a flat, non-hierarchical organisationMANU JAINCOUNTRY HEAD, XIAOMI INDIA

As CEO, your outlook changes completely. You get to define strategy for the company. You no longer play second fiddle, you are the fiddleRAMESH IYERMANAGING DIRECTOR, CONCUR INDIA

How to manage... continued from pg1Just in CEO continued from pg1

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new CEO survival toolkit

Chairpersons of India Inc. have always played a vital role in se-lection of CEOs for their group companies. In many instances, they are the first to visualise the need for a new CEO based on

their assessment of the behaviour, perfor-mance and of course the imminent retire-ment plans of their current incumbents. The group chairmen have had a major voice in evolving the specifications for the new head, participated in the evaluation, often providing contrary views to the nomination panel entrusted with the mission to select a successor. The logic being, in India, the ma-jority ownership invariably rests with the chairman’s family and hence has the thick-est interest in protecting the performance, reputation, risks and finally the valuation of the company. Chairman will drive the pro-cess without bias, dispassionately looking for negatives and positives in the candidates and will make a righteous choice.

While the group patriarch accomplishes all these tasks, he or she, is now additionally involved in what could be termed as setting the tone or the agenda right upfront to the final candidate and in a way declaring open the life ahead for the new incumbent. A talk, which is contrary to a sales-pitch. A pitch is often made to maintain the interest level of the candidate in the fray. It is a communica-tion which directly throws the fight open – you earn your pay and perquisites provided you perform on certain lines. Here are a few examples of recent experiences.

Rules of a football gameOne of the renowned tech players recently inducted an external candidate as the pros-pect CEO in anticipation of an imminent exit of the incumbent who went on a planned hibernation. The company in question is an innovation-led player in offering solutions, products, services and annuities to global clients. The firm is growing at above the in-dustry average and is one of the widely traded scrips in the bourses. The new CEO has a task cut out on two counts, one to provide the business development a thrust and expand the com-pany’s offerings by focus-ing on verticalisation of of-ferings in each domain and the second task is to bring in fresh energies at the next level, as some of the business unit heads were slowing down. The hiring pro-cess went through a roller-coaster ride until it zeroed in on a seasoned yet hugely business development savvy leader from the competi-tion. The chairman was involved throughout the hiring process, infact was mainly driving the process along with the human resources department and another director.

The chairman threw a surprise after the offer was dished out – he wanted to meet the candidate before he set his resignation in motion in his current company, only to quote his words “to speak his heart-out

with the new incum-bent”. Chairman said, “Every move you make in terms of new business development and organisational changes should yield enhancement of rev-enue at least starting four quarters hence. You need to initiate multiple new reach out business development initiatives every quar-ter and be subjected to monitoring of revenue growth within four quarters.” He went on to say that there will be a football like scoring system of double yellow and

red cards after second and third year, in no uncertain terms. A clear and direct com-munication about no slippage in chasing additional revenue.

Making goals clear For another group, the story is slightly different. This group has grown leaps and bounds through acquisitions internation-ally. They have weathered many a commod-ity cycle over a number of decades. They are known for sharp commercial practices including taking calculated risks on raw material cover. The group’s conversion facilities are capital intensive and hence besides cost control of input raw material, capacity utilisation and sweating of assets hold the sway in enhancing profitability. With commodity prices reaching continu-ous lows, the group was under pressure to restore profits and still make key capital decisions including churning and restruc-turing finances.

In this case, the newly identified CEO of the group is an outsider to the industry, but is an exponent in the commodities play.

He also has a significant manufacturing expertise and can give a fair run for money in commercial and financial areas – a com-mendable background in general.

To him, the chairman was quite unchar-acteristic in his final meeting. When every-one was selling the job, the chairman want-ed to present a tough scenario. He said the new CEO should reduce interest burden by 30% in 6 months and reduce manufacturing costs by significant percentage so that the profits do not drop, even if commodity pric-es go down by another 20 – 30%. He made it clear that Profit Before Tax (PBT) levels have to be maintained, if not EBIDTA, no matter what happens to commodity prices.

A do or die challengeTo quote the chairman of a conservative but highly reputed manufacturer of precision products with varied domestic and interna-tional markets, “This company will produce profits whether or not the CEO goes to work.” The company’s products are traditionally be-ing bought by the user segment over decades without too much fuss about periodic price increases. There are multiple large format manufacturing plants adding stress on logis-tics and distribution. However the good part of the story is that the company is profitable. It has virtually no debt and its plant and as-sets are long depreciated.

Not surprisingly, the new CEO selected was from an industrial background but not exactly from the same product segment.

To the newly inducted CEO, here is what chairman said this time post the appoint-ment formalities were completed. He said that the share of international business should become 40% from current 20%, with overall topline growth of 15%, otherwise the new CEO hasn’t done his might. No downside threatened but straight on the glare of moral loss if under-achieved.

These examples above suggest how tough is the path being laid out for the new incum-bents and how directly it is preoccupying the Chairmen. No wonder the new CEOs are hiking their stakes in the game — as one of the CEOs quipped — “skin in the game proportional to skills in the game.” CD

The writer is MD-India, RGF Executive Search

His Master’s VoiceThe road ahead for a new CEO is not a path full of roses, especially when the Chairman is having a

closer look By R Suresh

GROUPCHAIRMEN HAVE HAD A MAJOR VOICE IN EVOLVING

THE SPECIFICATIONS FORTHE NEW HEAD

Talk about peopleThe only way to scale is through higher quality people. Most early stage companies don’t talk about peo-ple nearly enough. As CEO, talk about people all the time. In one-on-ones with your leadership team, make sure you ask about the quality and perfor-mance of their direct reports.

Establish a people barometerPaul English, cofounder of Kayak, runs an on-going, mental enthusi-asm test: When he walks down a cor-ridor of cubes, he asks himself who he is excited to see. Those that he is not excited to see need to improve or move out. Develop your awareness of people in the same way.

Don’t forget that every new hire mattersUp to a certain size, say 200 employ-ees, insist on a short meeting with any finalist candidate for a new job — any job — in the company. Your role is not to test their functional capacity to do the job; it is to test for cultural fit. Will they add or subtract from the energy? You want the best people you can afford in all roles.

Calendar for unscheduled timeAbout 30% of your office time should be unscheduled. Don’t squander this time on email. Get out of your office or cube. Walk around purposefully, and be seen in informal ways. One thing I like to do is drop in on a small group of product or engineering colleagues and ask them what they are working on — and why. Just listen. You might also grab someone for an impromptu one-on-one, or debate a partnership or strategy issue that’s been on your mind. Unscheduled time is critical to your crea-tivity and leadership.

Lastly, establish a calen-dar buddy, someone prefer-ably who is a CEO also, in an unrelated industry. Every month, write him a short email stating your key pri-orities, give him access to your cal-endar, and ask him to assess whether you really used your time well. You will be surprised.

Be contrarianJack Dorsey of Twitter and Square likens the CEO job, and leadership generally, to an editorial task: edit-ing for great ideas and people, and

editing out the bad. When everyone thinks things are great, ask your-self where you could stumble, and talk with the leadership team more

about competitive threats. Be overtly contrarian, even paranoid. When things are bad, the CEO is the single most important voice reas-suring everyone that there will be better days. Do this in a reasoned way, explain with data why you think cir-cumstances will improve, and discuss what needs to

be done.

Remember focal lengthOne reason you are CEO is that you are a doer, a person of action. Yet one of the hard-est things is to stop fixing every little problem you see.

Establish focal length. When you see a problem, first ask yourself: Should I fix this myself, delegate it, or ignore it? It will keep you from meddling, for one; and it will put pressure on your managers to do their jobs better.

Be happyIf you are temperamental, take it outside. Go for a walk. Employees

mirror the mood of the CEO more than they should, but it’s a fact. If you slouch and look glum, they think something is wrong with the busi-ness. If you are a screamer, well, nothing good comes of that. If you want to complain, do so at home.

Remove distractionManage your board and investors — don’t let them interfere unneces-sarily. Stay close enough to large expenditures and projects to kill them if it’s clear they will not create value. One of the places where CEO interference, if you will, should be tolerated is in removing distraction.

Add valueFigure out what you do best, what no one else can do as well as you — partnerships, sales, product de-velopment, fund-raising. Ask your leadership team for their assessment of your strengths. Then assign your-self to focus on those things. With everything else, fill in with the most talented people you can find. CD

The author is a five-time CEO and an XIR at the Cambridge-based

venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners

(Excerpted from Business Insider)

Among the biggest chal-lenges people face when making the transition from being a manager

to a leader is developing the right mindset. Most people think be-coming a leader is about the formal authority that comes with being a boss, but many don’t realise that it is also about managing interde-pendencies. They tend to focus on their formal role and not their role in managing the many interde-pendent relationships that exist in organisations.

Most first time leaders focus only on managing people who report to them. They look down and manage down, but fail to look out and inside, and that prevents them from being effective. To get your job done, it is imperative to also focus on people who are not under your authority but who are essential to you getting your job done. This includes your peers and your bosses. If you don’t focus on building these relation-ships, you will find that you aren’t aligned with the organisation, your team isn’t working on the right things and you aren’t getting the re-sources you need to get the job done. Leadership occurs within a context and focusing on your team is not enough. If you aren’t proactively building and managing relation-

ships with your peers, bosses and broader networks you will not be able to get the job done.

Another common misstep most managers make as they transition to being a leader is to think that what they want is control over their teams. What they actually need is commit-ment. Formal authority is a very limited source of power and in today’s world you need people to use their judgement at work. This requires them to be committed to their job and to you, and simply having control over your team doesn’t achieve this. Having control over them is not the source of power you want to rely on if you want them to use their judgement at work.

Many first time lead-ers also tend to focus on building perfect one-on-one relationships with their subordinates. They forget that this doesn’t help in turning a group into a team. Having a great one-on-one relationship isn’t the same as har-nessing the power of the collective. They fail to think about the culture they want to build and how they can use it to get the outcomes they

desire. In today’s business environ-ment it’s important to have a team that’s agile and can adapt quickly, but for that to happen, the culture must be right. Leaders must create a community of people who can col-laborate.

Another thing most leaders take a long time to get right is learning how to delegate. People often think that new leaders fail to delegate because

they like to micromanage or think they know it all because they’ve done it all before. While that’s true for some, the majority of them simply don’t know how to make judgement calls about when and to whom to delegate. They don’t know who to trust and as a result often don’t delegate enough. They forget that even if they delegate a task, the final authority on how to execute it still lies with them. Most new leaders take time to learn how to delegate and empower their team.

Finally, new leaders often think that deliver-

ing on the status quo and meeting deliverables is enough. They rarely plan for tomorrow. However, the boss expects the leader to go be-yond just maintaining the status quo – he should be paying attention to what’s happening around him and making proposals on how to be more effective. He needs to be

a change agent. Most leaders though tend to underestimate just how much they need to do. They tend to be so overwhelmed by the day-to-day responsibili-ties of the job that they fail to plan for the future, often disap-pointing their boss.

A final aspect that new lead-ers often overlook is managing themselves. You must think about how who you are impacts how you manage. CD

(As told to Priyanka Sangani)

The author is a professor at Harvard Business School and

co-author of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for

Becoming a Great Leader

Most first time leaders tend to make the

same set of mistakes By Linda A Hill

Formal author-ity is a very lim-ited source of power and in to-day’s world you need people to use their judge-ment at workLinda A Hill

Why focusing on your team is not enough

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First startup CEO 101What first time startup CEOs should and

shouldn’t do By George Bell

When things are bad, the CEO is the sin-gle most im-portant voice reassuring eve-ryone that there will be better daysGeorge Bell

GROUP PATRIARCHS ARENOW ADDITIONALLY INVOLVED IN WHATCOULDBETERMED AS SETTINGTHETONEOR THE AGENDA

R Suresh

03 Corporate Dossier August 28-September 03, 2015

Product: ETNEWMumbaiBS PubDate: 28-08-2015 Zone: CDMumbai Edition: 2 Page: CDMPG3 User: sandeepd0203 Time: 08-21-2015 20:35 Color: CMYK

out with as many diverse people as possible with whom you will be doing business. Older professionals from formal backgrounds, sometimes lack the motivation to go down to the fingernail grime of the business and mix with the ordinary.

In a conversation with an entrepreneur who started a grocery business, he revealed how he spent 2 years going to New Mumbai Grocery Mandi every day at 3.30 am to un-derstand how the business of fruits and veg-etables operated. When I asked him why the other startups who were bigger and better funded than him had failed, he said, “Sir, the

(Compiled by TV Mahalingam)

Get

tyim

ages

Edit & Desk : Dibeyendu Ganguly, Moinak Mitra, Priyanka Sangani, Dearton Thomas Hector and TV Mahalingam; Design : Shubhra Dey, Sanjeev Raj Jain, Nitin Keer

new CEO survival toolkit

:: wanderlust:: wanderlust:: exec salon:: exec salon

with wife Moneka,

daughters Tvesha

and Trishla and

mother Sushma in Kashmir

Far-out destination: Melbourne, AustraliaIndian Surprise: Pahalgam town in Anantnag district, KashmirBon Vivant Moment: During a family trip to Dubai, we rented a private yacht for half a day and travelled around Dubai Marina, Burj Al Arab, Atlantis. It had a great bar and amazing food Outdoorsy Activity: Backpacking across the Great Wall of China Emptied your pockets on: I always end up splurging on clothes, ac-cessories, toys and gifts for my two daughters. I haven’t yet dared to come back from a trip empty handedPanoramic Views: The Table Mountain in Cape Town Best Drive: San Francisco to Las Vegas Gourmet Delights: Spanish Salt Baked FishGourmet Gaffes: As a Punjabi who is married to a Gujarati, I was curi-ous about the hype around the popular Gujarati dish - Undhiya. I tried it enthusiastically, but after one morsel I knew I couldn’t force it down my throatStreet food surprises: Fish at Jai Jawaan, BandraBest bar: Robot Restaurant, TokyoGoofy traveller moment: Once I had to shuttle between US, Malaysia and India within 7 days. I had 2 days in US and then 2 days in Malaysia, then again back to US for 2 days and then India. With so much back and forth and manag-ing time zones, I completely lost track of 12 hours and reached the airport at 1 pm for a flight that had already left at 1 am Traveller Tips: To cope up with jet lag, go for a swim as soon as you reach the hotel. It works for me.

Dippak KhuranaCo-Founder & CEO, Vserv

What hairstyles suit thinning hair?Don’t worry too much if you are losing hair, because that will do you more harm! You don’t have to go ‘bald’ all the time. You can try to look smart with the following varied hairdos:Buzz cut: With this hairstyle, one can barely see your hair. And you can finish the job yourself if you have a good electric shaver at home. And if you insist to go to a salon, the barber would not have to sweat too much. Your scalp will show through, so it would be good if you keep the skin on your head smooth with some jojoba oil.High and Tight: This is extremely similar to a military crew cut. You go short on the back and sides and keep more hair on top. Using a blow dryer, to look as if you have more volume, is a good idea. By this, you can camouflage your thinning areas. Mop Top: If you have long hair (of what is left), you can keep it carefully messy. It will give an impression of fuller hair. Blow dry in the mornings. You can use a hair gel if you want the look to hold for the day.

Write to us with your grooming queries at execsalon@gmail.com

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bosses are too big to come to the market and understand why onion prices fluctuate by 2 rupees. Without that knowledge they can-not succeed.”. Professionals must be able to overcome their comfort zone of hanging out with people of their own circuit if they want to become serious entrepreneurs.

6There is no such thing as a free lunchWell there is, and that’s the secret of

starting up! Most of the recent success sto-ries in the digital startup world have been massive businesses that were set up to be given away for free to consumers before be-ing leveraged to generate revenue.

The art of ‘letting go’ and waiting and wait-ing till the time is right to make money, is a discipline that very few can inculcate – the least of whom are professionals.One dude I knew, invented online reputation manage-ment tools way before the world knew what ORM meant – except that he insisted on charging for it from day one, despite my pas-sionate pleas to let it float free for a while. He said, “From the Fortune 500 Company I come from, if you don’t charge the consumer the first time, they never pay”. Bad luck. He closed down before he even started and then had to live with the pain of watching small-inexperienced startups eat his lunch up.

7A penny saved is a penny earnedNothing better than a Marwari back-ground can teach you that! In each

business I started, beginning with contest-s2win.com way back in 1998, I kept snooping around for that one ‘sugar daddy’ who could help me promote my business for free. For contests2win it was MTV, for Mobile2win it was Sony TV and for Games2win it was Viacom USA! Most of the professionals I met along the way always thought I was a fool and recommended that I spend on “marketing and promotions” because that was the “only” way to get noticed. They al-ways asked me to “budget” for this and that. When I told them I was too broke to have a budget, they laughed!

Starting up is probably the worst punish-ment you can inflict on yourself. But no one will tell you that, because that’s not being “profes-sional.” CD

Alok Kejriwal is a digital entrepreneur and blogs at

therodinhoods.com

When legends leaveGRAPHICA

... and a new CEO tries to fi ll his Paul Bunyan sized shoes

WHEN PROS STUMBLEMaking the transition from being an employee to entrepreneur can be tricky By Alok Kejriwal

THIN

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My office manager recently

told me that the tally of my visiting cards collection has touched a count of 9000. That means, in the

span of 15 years of being a startup entre-preneur, I have met almost 600 people a year or about 3 new people a day (consider-ing holidays)!

Amongst these 9000 people, many of them are blue-blooded “professionals” who have often tried to “start up” — only to fail and go back to their comfortable ivory towers (large companies). What are the common mistakes these wannabe entrepreneurs make when they try to startup, especially when they come from formal, established organisations?

These are seven striking reasons I at-tempt to explain via popular phrases:

1Uneasy lies the head that wears the crownIt’s convenient to have a boss.

Perfect to hurl abuses, direct the blame, point fingers at and conveniently blame for all your miseries. But have you tried being your own boss?Many professionals who have worked grumpily for years fol-lowing instructions find it very difficult to ‘boss themselves’. A 46 year old silver fox told me, “Since I was 6, I was told what to do – from mother to teacher to boss. As a startup entrepreneur at 46, I cannot instruct myself and am going back to my Nazi boss.”

2Missing the woods for the treesMany entrepreneurs who come from formal backgrounds miss the woods

for trees. What do I mean? In startups, it’s the small things that make big things hap-pen (the woods are the trees; not the other way around). For instance, while launch-ing Hotmail, Sabeer Bhatia realised that there was no way the 7th free e-mail site in the world was going to succeed on its own. So he focused on that one innocuous line at the end of every e-mail sent out that said, “Get your own free e-mail at Hotmail”. That message spread like wildfire and made everyone sign up! I call it a classic case of focusing on the trivia that delivers grandness. Something big shots don’t get!

3All that glisters is not goldWe are in the midst of an unprec-edented startup boom and I have

begun coming across a lot of professionals who want to abandon their top class ca-reers and become ‘startup entrepreneurs’. When I ask them why, they refer to lofty valuations (all on paper) and fancy press stories of mergers & acquisitions. None of these guys have seen a downturn and not one will survive the crash of the 2000 dot com bust if it repeats itself. They just don’t have that survival stamina.

A startup business takes 10-20 years to become seriously successful. Angry Birds took 8 years just to get their first hit. Nothing comes easy – least of all, riches!

4A fool and his money are soon partedLast week I was speaking to the head

of marketing of a well-known MNC, who was about to squander Rs. 75 lakhs of his personal money as contribution towards a startup. When I asked him why he was put-

SAM WALTON & DAVID GLASSWhen Sam Walton stepped down as the CEO of Wal-Mart in 1988, not many thought that his laconic successor David Glass would do well. However, Glass took the retailer’s rev-enue from $16 billion in 1988 to $165 billion in 2000.

MICHAEL DELL & KEVIN ROLLINSIn 2004, Michael Dell stepped down as CEO of Dell (though he remained as Chairman) and made for Kevin Rollins, who had a brief spell at the corner room. Rollins’ stint at Dell, which was marked by growing competition from HP, an SEC investigation and one of the largest layoffs in the company’s history – came to end when he was fired in 2007. Michael Dell came back as CEO.

BILL GATES & STEVE BALLMERWhen his reign ended, Steve Ballmer got a sendoff befitting rockstars from Microsoft employees. But in reality, Ballmer, who took from Gates in 2000, left behind a mixed legacy. On one hand, Ballmer’s tenure saw Microsoft’s revenue’s surge from $25 billion to $70 billion and the company crack new businesses like data centres and entertainment devices (Xbox). At the same time, Microsoft played catch up in crucial areas like tablet computing, smartphones and music players.

LEE IACOCCA & BOB EATONWhen the legendary Lee Iacocca called it quits at Chrysler, Eaton was appointed CEO over hot favorite Bob Lutz (who was Iacocca’s favourite). Eaton, however, proved critics wrong and lead Chrysler to record profits ($3.7 billion) and revenues ($52.2 billion) in 1994. Eventually, Eaton headed Chrysler’s merger with Daimler Benz.

ting his hard earned money at stratospher-ic premium into an unknown company, he seemed bewildered to explain the logic to me. Just because professionals have saved large sums of money doesn’t mean that they invest with the same largesse into small startups. It’s a well-known fact that in 2015, you need the least money and most brains to create a valuable startup and not the other way around. Professionals don’t seem to get that logic!

5Birds of a feather flock to-getherThe art of starting up is as much

about execution as it is about meeting people, getting connected, and hanging

Regn. No. MAHENG/2002/6295 Volume 14 Issue No. 36“Published for the proprietors, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. by R. Krishnamurthyat The Times Of India Building, Dr. D.N.Road, Mumbai 400001 Tel. (022) 6635 3535, 2273 3535, Fax-(022) 2273 1144 and printed by him at The Times of India Suburban Press, Akurli Road,Western Express Highway, Kandivli (E), Mumbai 400101. Tel No: (022) 28872324, 28872930, Fax No (022) 28874230 Navi Mumbai - 400708 and Plot No 4, MIDC, Digha Village, Thane Belapur Road, Airoli Tel. (022) 27609700 and Editor:

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