It was a lazy afternoon. We were having lunch together, out of the blue he asked, did we all not come from a single human being so then why are we split into castes. I asked him are you asking this because of the recent debates on #SanatanaDharma? He grinned and said 1/n
Well we have been discussing startup growth challenges for long and want to spice up the discussion. What is spicy about this topic I asked? Whole of India is discussing this, must be something to it. I asked if he wanted a proper discussion or political small talk 2/n
Let us have a proper one said he. I started with a question how was the company that you work started? He said a few people came together to execute an idea. I asked if it is the idea that started the company? Interesting perspective, said he. Never thought that way. Go on 3/n
I said in Hindu philosophy, it is the idea to manifest that creates the universe from what is essentially a timeless, spaceless beginning. Similarly the plan to execute the idea leads to birth of the company. Founder takes steps to execute the plan & gives shape to the idea 4/n
Most of the work would be done by this single person. I know founders who sat & drew the logos of the company, host a web site, develop code, meet potential customers all by themselves. Then comes a time, the founder cannot do all the jobs and builds a team. Job is distributed 5
Initially there is no clear job description to the team members. Everyone knows what the goal of the company is and the strategy to achieve it. No rules are written and there & team members are free to pick the jobs & there would be overlaps too. It is a whole happy family 6/n
As the company grows, more people join & slowly departments like Development, Sales/Marketing, Operations/HR, Administration/safety security are formed. Founding team members now build the teams . Each team now performs a role. Slowly the organization gets a structure. 7/n
With the structure comes formal definition of jobs. Opportunities to move between the teams and do other teams work become difficult. This is the earliest stage of rigidity. The teams itself now have multiple sub-functions. See how this is similar to the Varna/Caste setup. 8/n
This made him sit up. I never thought that a discussion about caste would bring the discussion back to evolution of a startup company. Well I am now interested in how this story ends said he. See, till now there are no written rules as the purpose is clear within the teams 9/n
As the company grows big, there may be people from other companies joining. The distance between the original leaders & the new joinees increase. communication becomes difficult and that is how codification of rules starts. Things like policy/procedure which everyone hates 🙂10/n
Yes said he. Policies are supposed to be the overall vision and procedures the implementation. Both of these were easy to communicate in small teams, but with teams becoming large such documents help the new joinee to quickly assimilate into the team. 11/n
Yeah it sounds nice when you say it, but to me all this looks ritualistic said he. When the implementation is not tied to vision we end up doing things mechanically. The layers within team like manager/software engineer etc and their differing priorities complicate the scene.12/n
In well functioning teams there is a mechanism to hear the feedback & correct. A rigid system that does not allow change creates more resentment. That is why policies and procedures need to be changed. The team members should know the intent of why they perform a certain action13
As the company grows bigger there are competing priorities. At certain times more features need to be built, at other times more marketing needs to be done. Depending on the priority fund allocation changes. Certain job roles are given more value. Start of differentiation 14/n
Even among the original business functions the salary of team members differ. Within the team the salary depends on performance. Oh he said, I now see this clearly. What we find in the society is what is there in my company too, and I realize, yes there is differentiation 15/n
He continued, may be because the people joined the team out of choice, they are ok with the difference in salary between departments. Yes people do argue about how they are rated and on salary. Well if they do not like something they try to switch teams or exit 16/n
Good point, I said. Would you mind if I go a bit philosophical. I asked? No problems, go ahead he said. You can consider our birth to be that of the act of joining a company. Depending on what we did at school/college/previous work our experience we get to choose role/job 17/n
Similarly in philosophy that is why they say that you are born into a family based on you choice of actions in the past. Karma? he said. Yeah you got it right I told. Did we not start with #SanatanaDharma at the start. People say that word #Sanatan is endless. 18/n
#Sanatan is endless because the life signifies the repeated cycle of birth and death as the soul undergoes experience, just like a person in his quest for purpose of his life moves from one company to other and from one position to other gathering experience all the way. 19/n
Uff, said he. I never thought that this discussion would go this long. But I have now understood that even within my company, I need to understand the purpose behind a certain action and then perform the task in the best possible way. I said Good, All the best in your life 20/n
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