Founder’s Mentality
2-Mins Tue #15 - 3 Dec 2019
From the book Founder's Mentality
Why we need Founder's Mentality?
In internet age, companies grow or decline at lightning speed. “Growth creates complexity and complexity is a silent killer of Growth”. As company grows, it faces 3 internal crises
- Overload: Internal dysfunction when young companies try to scale rapidly
- Stall-out: Rapid growth resulting in organisation layers / complexity & dilution of mission
- Free fall: Company stops growing in its core business
“Founder’s Mentality” companies manage to get past these growth crises.. They behave & grow like startups, even at scale.
What is Founder’s Mentality?
Their 3 Main traits:
1) Insurgent’s Mission
- Bold Mission: Mission to wage a war against industry on behalf of underserved customers. Create a strong sense of focus & purpose for people.
- Spikiness: 1 or 2 strong capabilities that drive our differentiation in the market. A repeatable model for growth to take leadership position
- Limitless Horizon: Intelligently extend the boundaries of the core business. Focus on long term investments & business models
2) Owner’s Mindset
- Strong Cash focus: Treat expenses and investments as if it is own money. Rapidly deploy people in most critical projects
- Bias for Action: Speed is an advantage. Make quick decisions. People take personal responsibility for action.
- Aversion to Bureaucracy: No organisational layers & complex decision processes. Simplified planning & review processes.
3) Frontline Obsession
- Customer Advocacy: Being clear about the core customer segments & getting their loyalty. Their VOC represented in all meetings.
- Front-line empowerment: Treat front-line employees as heroes and do whatever is needed to support them.
- Relentless Experimentation: Innovate & experiment a lot in the field. Efficient feedback loop to learn and take corrective action