Ten Organizational Design Models to align structure and operations to busines...
Sanjay Mehta - Entrepreneurs and Risk Taking
1. Risk Taking and what it means to
Entrepreneurs
Sanjay Mehta
Jt. CEO, Social Wavelength
2. There’s risk at every stage
• Very early stage: risk of “still death”
• Early stage: risk of “infant mortality”
• Growth stage: risk of “survival”
• Later or mature stage: risk of “becoming
irrelevant”
Risk is everywhere, but only in case of
entrepreneurship, there is often survival risk!
3. Risks at the early stage of startups
• Starting up for all the wrong reasons: doomed
to failure
• Business Model challenges
• Finance issues
• Team challenges
• Sales and Marketing challenges
• Partnership Issues
4. The “what-if” to ask as you startup
• Even if you seem to have the perfect business
plan, things may not pan out; then “what-if”..
– You don’t get funded, or don’t get funded soon
enough?
– A competitor springs up from nowhere?
– Not only a competitor comes up, but he prices
much lower than your proposed price
– Your development cycle goes longer than what
you had in mind – maybe, much longer?!
5. Your personal risk, then..?
• Is there a family dependent on your income?
• Did you plan for a length of time, when you
may not earn any money for yourself?
• Are you putting your family under pressure?
• Were there EMIs needed to be serviced?
• When working professionals jump to
entrepreneurship, risks are different – are you
prepared to give up ‘the good life’??
6. Myth: entrepreneurs and risk taking
• So you think, entrepreneurs and risk taking
are synonymous??
• In fact, to the contrary; the role of the
entrepreneur is to de-risk the business
• Responsibility on behalf of various
stakeholders – investors, other shareholders,
employees, customers, families, etc.
• Sudden change in business model, new
ventures, product lines etc. need to be
thought through for the extent of risk involved
7. Summary
• Do not wish to discourage entrepreneurship!
• Yes, risk exists – but that is the entrepreneur’s
DNA
• Understand risk, understand downside
involved - don’t be pessimistic, but don’t be
blind to risk as well!
• Once those are understood and clear, work on
a good, strong business model, and FIGHT ON!
• ALL THE BEST!!