leadership in a difficult situation presents an opportunity for discovery and growth
TRANSCRIPT
Leadership in a difficult situation presents an opportunity for discovery and growth
Excerpt from article published at The Hindu – BusinessLine by Rajul Garg, Director, Sunstone Business School
Let me try to take an example of a difficult situation that I have seen through,
try to observe what we did well and not so well and then try and come up with a
framework that you can take away. One such situation is from the 2000s when
we were in the early stages of entrepreneurship at EBprovider, which later
became Induslogic and then GlobalLogic. We had had a really good year as far
as entrepreneurship went.
We had assembled a fantastic engineering team here in India, raised venture
money even as the market crashed. The space we were in at the time – B2B
integration — was red hot and everything seemed to be going for us. However,
the second half of 2001 really pulled the rug from under us. We spent too much
money in building the product for which there were no takers, we were running
out of money, venture funding had completely dried up and then 9/11
happened. We had the following tasks in front of us:
Cut the costs to a bare minimum to stretch our waning resources
Find a new strategy/new business to pursue for some cashflow
Find some bridge funding to see us through
Bolster our team with more market-facing people
As it turned out, during those months, we did all this, found a great CEO, found
bridge funding, found a new business which then grew solidly from there. Most
importantly, we survived! By January, we were a different company. Here is
what I think we did well:
We moved quickly and decisively: I was heading our team in India and
we had to reduce costs. I remember we did it swiftly within a team.
Whatever pain we had to swallow, we did it quickly.
We worked well as a team: We took the whole company into confidence and I
recall several employees took deep cuts to support the company. We also
worked well as a team between US and India where everyone did their bit.
We capitalised on new opportunities quickly: We were interviewing a
new CEO candidate and we brought him on board. There are probably many
things that we didn’t do well but my sense is that we got the important ones
right.
Keep a positive, forward-looking spirit: You cannot lead through a
difficult situation if you get into blame games and post-mortems. That is for
later. The key is to focus on “what you can do today”.
Face up to the situation and move swiftly: We all like to avoid a difficult
situation. We procrastinate. However, if you let the cavity be, it will go from
requiring a filling to requiring a root canal to an extraction! Swift and decisive
action will not only help you but all the stakeholders involved.
Work as a team: You can’t be second-guessing each other. Working with all
the stakeholders is critical. This requires intent, planning and communication.
Over-communication in these situations is often better than under-
communication.
Embrace Change: Often as you come out of a difficult situation, a new
reality and a new state of affairs ensue. This may require you to write off old
investments, and move forward with a new order.
It’s critical that as you spot this new order, you embrace it and make it
your own. You can’t think of sunk costs here, you have to think of
opportunities going forward. I think the silver lining in leading through
a difficult situation is that you discover yourself more as a leader and
grow as a result. It provides an unparalleled opportunity in that regard.