5 entrepreneurial skills that you will likely not learn in a large organization
I was with some large organizations like Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson in business management roles for a long time. During that period, I must confess that I built this false sense of entrepreneurial capability, as I was ‘running’ multi-million dollar businesses ‘on my own’. Reality is that larger the organization, smaller generally is the piece of the puzzle that you are responsible for. And hence most large companies cannot provide the real world entrepreneurial skills needed to run your own gig. I learned this the hard way when I moved from a marketing role in a large MNC to my own start-up business. Here are the top entrepreneurial skills that I did not realize that I did not have despite leading many large businesses & product launches for a long time:
- Financial Risk-Taking
In hindsight a secure monthly check is no less than a miracle. I hugely admire all those entrepreneurs who generate enough revenues to financially support employees and their families. But the regular paychecks can often make employees lose their ability to put money on the table and really make some serious decisions. At Medtronic I always had a large budget to run my marketing plans. I realized how big a deal it was only when I had to put my hard earned-savings on the table to implement the marketing plan for my start-up. The difference is stark. Every penny matters when it’s your own business, compared to when you are given a budget that you ‘must’ ideally spend in a fiscal year. In my start-up there were times when I did not know if I would have money to meet the operational expenses in the following week. There were times when I had to use my personal line of credit, with little certainty of cash inflow (and I was not being paid) to pay employees and vendors. You will never have that kind of financial risk-taking experience and muscle in a ‘secure’ large MNC role.
2. Understanding the cash flow cycle
Many Sales and marketing leaders in large MNCs claim to ‘own a P&L’. Reality is that such a responsibility rarely involves direct exposure to areas like collections, returns, credit checks, service, shipping, logistics, setting up SOPs for financial processes, invoicing, vendor management, investor management, accounting & biggest nightmare of an entrepreneur — bad-debts. Most senior leaders in large MNCs have separate departments who will do this work for them. In a start-up you have to create and own the entire process end to end. More often than not you are the CEO, CFO, CMO and CIO all at the same time.
3. Access to customers
During the course of my journey with Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson, I often met senior medical professionals and decision makers in large Healthcare institutions on a routine basis. I did not realize how privileged I was to meet them until I stopped carrying those large brand names on my business card. Once I started my own gig, more explanation was needed to justify meeting many customers. My educational qualifications and my experience with large MNCs, all of a sudden did not matter as much as it used to. It was a humble reminder of how many stakeholders opened their doors for me due to my employment with my large company (and my large budget) and not really due to the individual contribution that I thought I made to their businesses.
4. Learning on the go
My large companies always offered training programs, career progression and leadership development opportunities on a consistent basis. There was always time, money and patience available to learn new skills and employ them on projects with significant tolerance to make mistakes. In my start-up, there was no time to learn and there was little room to make mistakes. Every mistake cost us money and brought us closer to business failure. We had to learn fast and ensure that the costs of any misses were as cheap as possible. Large companies rarely offer this type of ‘build the plane while you are flying it’ type of experience.
5. Frugal business management
Business managers in large organizations often have large budgets, great travel ‘entitlements’, employee rewards and budgets to run team events and a lot more. In my start-up, I lived in a highly financially constrained environment. I often took the train instead of a flight. My hotels during business trips had to be more humble and there was no place for collecting rewards to save for future vacations. Moreover, from finding a cost effective accountant to a lawyer or a marketing agency, everything demanded close financial scrutiny.
Don’t get me wrong — I learnt a lot in the large companies that I got a privilege to serve. But at the same time I recognized that I did not have the skills to generate enough income if I were on my own without the job. I was able to take a plunge and build some strong entrepreneurial life skills after my stints with these companies. If you are a senior business manager in a large company and you think that you have all the skills to run your own business, try making a net $100 profit with any small gig. If you indeed have those skill gaps mentioned above, you will be able to fill them in the process (or best case — you will be able to prove me wrong that these gaps do exist). I will never forget the first $100 profit that I made in one of my first entrepreneurial gigs. The lessons were both humbling and life-changing.
