Books - Breaking Out and Making Big: A no-nonsense book on new age start-ups and entrepreneurship by Rudrajeet Desai – Harper; New Age Leadership: An open minded approach for the new generation by Mahesh Baxi – Jaico - Featured in Business Advisor, dated November 10, 2014 http://www.magzter.com/IN/Shrinikethan/Business-Advisor/Business/

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Startup lessons
Before you become an entrepreneur, understand yourself,
says Rudrajeet Desai, in Breaking Out and Making Big: A
no-nonsense book on new age start-ups and
entrepreneurship (Harper). ―I want you to write down as
many qualities about yourself that describe you, rate each
one, giving a reason to support it, if possible. They need
not be related to your professional life, they can be
anything that makes you who you are,‖ he instructs. For,
entrepreneurship is not just about how you are at work,
it‘s about who you are as a person overall, as Desai reasons.
The next exercise that he prescribes is to put down all the qualities you
think an entrepreneur should have, rate them in importance and give a
reason justifying why they should be there. The purpose, here, is to identify
the qualities you have for being an entrepreneur from the ones you have
listed as necessary for an entrepreneur to have.
The book speaks of 25 personal qualities required of an entrepreneur.
Foremost in the list is ideation, explained as ‗a focused approach towards
evaluating various thoughts and perspectives regarding a subject,‘ ‗more a
process than just a spark that has come to your mind.‘ Every startup might
not need a new idea to start with, a business or a company can be made
with something that has been done a thousand times before, elaborates the
author. However, to solve problems, to achieve growth or to diversify partly
or fully, very strong ideation is necessary, he adds. ―The bigger the size, the
decision, the investment, the effort of the output, the deeper is the level of
ideation that will be required.‖
The most important quality that an entrepreneur needs to have is execution,
the get-things-done attitude, the author notes. ―Many of the entrepreneurs
whom I know spend more time ideating and planning what to do (not that I
think it bad!) and less time on planning how to execute it (which I do say is
bad!). An equal, if not more, focus on execution is the key to success,‖ he
observes. ―Ideation, planning, strategy and all such mind games are played
by a very few people in the company for a very small period of time in a
financial year. During the rest of the year, the entire organisation is putting
those plans and strategies into action.‖
Giving due attention to people management, Desai says that you should
first understand people before formulating rules and guidelines. ―In a
startup, it is not always possible to hire the most appropriate talent and,

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therefore, helping them grow in their jobs becomes crucial. At the same
time, a startup offers a lot of potential for growth to employees who join
early and it makes for an ideal situation if they grow to higher roles as the
company grows. The entrepreneur, in this case, has a major role to play,
ensuring their progress.‖
It may sound philosophical when the author emphasises ‗zero ego‘ as an
essential entrepreneurial quality, but the practical explanation is that ego
can destroy a person, leading one to make incorrect decisions. ―A simple
example is that when you decide something is right and your hired team
says it is wrong, if you are an egoistic person, you will not listen to them
and will do something that might be potentially damaging… Having an
inflated ego also means that, as a person who cannot publicly admit his/
her mistakes or easily say, ‗Sorry‘ to someone, you would find it very
difficult to become a successful entrepreneur.‖
Likening entrepreneurship to parenting, Desai says that it is all about
nurturing something from a simple thought to something with a full-blown
life of its own, something which, over a period of time, can continue to live,
grow and flourish, even if you are not present on that journey. ―Launching a
startup is like having a kid. It needs much more than a great idea: it
involves a lot of thinking and planning before you take on that
responsibility.‖
In a section on myths about entrepreneurship, the first myth that the
author takes on is that a startup is going to be fun. While there are fun
elements in building a product, cracking deals, being the owner, and so on,
the non-fun aspects include cutting back your lifestyle and expenses to
support your startup, having a non-existent social life with no weekends off,
living off your savings, seeing your peers get fat salaries, working long
hours, and getting rejected by customers, the author cautions.
The book concludes with advice on ‗common sense,‘ the basic level of
practical knowledge and judgment which we all need to help us live in a
reasonable and safe way, as the author describes. He frets that, as we grow
up, we don‘t give much importance to common sense, as if work always gets
done with intense and complex problem-solving. ―One factor of common
sense is realisation of any kind. Realisation is nothing but something which
you already know and which comes to the top of your mind, in a related
situation. As an entrepreneur/ CEO, I suggest you should talk about and
stress the importance of using common sense in almost everything in your
startup, right from daily operations to all big business decisions.‖
A book worth investing in, before you start up.

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Leadership situations
While adapting to external factors is important, creating a
culture to embrace feedback is equally important to keep
up with the one thing that is constant, viz., change, says
Mahesh Baxi, in New Age Leadership: An open minded
approach for the new generation (Jaico). But how do you
make feedback count for both, the giver and the receiver?
First, be objective, counsels Baxi. ―Don‘t pass on judgment
as feedback. For example, avoid feedback such as ‗your
performance is not good or you don‘t know how to win
business.‘ Instead, discuss the symptoms and observations and let the
receiver know that you are here to discuss what you feel.‖
Another tip is to use more of ‗here is what I would do,‘ giving examples of
what you would have done in that situation. This gives more confidence and
room for discussion rather than turning the feedback session into a one-way
street, the author explains. Also, give feedback when it matters, he advises.
―For example, if an individual is trying to become a better public speaker
and your observation is that he did not engage the audience well, you need
to give that feedback right after the session so that it can be improved upon
while the context is still fresh.‖
The book opens with a chapter on how the leader has to unleash the
potential in individuals, and in the process, remove artificial constraints
such as budget, time, and scope. First, create shared goals and objectives,
Baxi begins. ―While you, as a leader, can communicate the goals several
times, it won‘t bear any fruit until these are imbibed in everyone‘s DNA and
become second nature to them. Only when this is achieved will every
decision made by the team members add value toward meeting collective
goals and objectives.‖ Also important are: planning (―use your experience to
minimise the blind spot effect‖); communication (―with utmost clarity,
simplicity, and frequency‖); setting expectations (―clarify what you expect
from your team and from each individual‖); trust and confidence
(―demonstrated through your actions, not just through your words‖);
recognition (―people feeling burned out is a very common complaint, and a
leader‘s job is to prevent that from happening as much as possible‖); and
staying focused (―essential not to lose sight of your shared goals and
objectives, and to revisit them time and again‖).
Leadership for the current century will have to be ready for different
situations, irrespective of domain, geography, size, or culture, says Baxi.
The first situation he elaborates on is employee engagement, because the

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quality of every company‘s products or services is a direct result or
reflection of how it engages its employees. He gives the example of
Southwest Airlines, which makes even boring in-flight announcements
interesting by giving employees the freedom and encouragement to engage
with the customers. ―Today, employee engagement means many different
things including but not limited to formal communication, frequent informal
meetings, exchanging emails, being responsive, engaging in social media
interaction, expressing appreciation to deserving people and involving
everyone on key issues like the mission, values and charter of the
company.‖
One other situation dealt with in the book is the culture of embracing
failures, because being innovative means that the individuals or teams are
likely to fail multiple times before they become successful. ―A leader must be
clear about the tolerance levels and parameters… The leader must embrace
failure for the right people and for the right reasons. An organisation‘s
culture starts with how a leader handles failures.‖
It is common to hear leaders say that their priority is to put the right people
on the right spot. But how do you find the right people, and if you put them
on the right spot, is that good enough? Does this complete your duties as a
leader? Raising these questions, Baxi says that it is also necessary to create
a platform for these individuals to succeed.
Of value is the chapter on five idiosyncrasies that a leader should not
entertain or tolerate. The first is brown nosing, that is, someone sucking up
to you to gain a favour. ―It is quite tempting to give in to such behaviour and
it is difficult to recognise people who act in such a manner. The weird thing
is that when you favour someone, it makes you feel good because you have
been able to do something for someone.‖ Second comes ‗back channeling,‘
the practice of bypassing recognised or official chain of command in order to
create vulnerability at the level skipped. ―Many 21st century organisations
are embracing flatness instead of hierarchy, especially the ones in the field
of technology or research. However, a flat organisational structure doesn‘t
translate to undermining people and their responsibilities.‖ Third is
incompetence; today, many organisations hand over the pink slip to the
bottom 10 per cent of their list of non-performers during the appraisal
period, but a good leader shouldn‘t wait until such time, the author advises.
The other idiosyncrasies are criticising behind one‘s back, and jerks
(‗selfish, manipulative, insensitive, ignorant, cocky persons who are
inconsiderate and do stupid things‘).
Filled with numerous examples of instructional value.