The Wisdom of a Senior Mentor Can Do Wonders for a Young Startup

Senior citizens retiring from the corporate world know what it’s like to run businesses and tackle challenges.

A majority of startups all over the world are founded by young men and women in their twenties and possibly in their early thirties. (Photo: iStock)

Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, through their movie The Intern released in 2015, gave a very interesting lesson to startups and entrepreneurs all over the world.

The message was very simple — experience never gets old.

A majority of startups all over the world are founded by young men and women in their twenties and possibly in their early thirties.

While the ideas are excellent and their energy levels are great, most startups start to falter within a couple of years because of poor or inadequate control systems, over aggressive scaling up, weak financial planning, insufficient focus on people management etc.

Also Read: Fundraising for Your Startup: You Don’t Want to Be the ‘Uber of X’

While the ideas are excellent and their energy levels are great, most startups start to falter within a couple of years because of poor or inadequate control systems. (Photo: iStock)

At the same time, thousands of senior managers are retiring from the corporate world at the young age of between 60-65 years after spending almost four decades in specialised and general management positions in major and smaller corporations.

Yet, at this stage of their lives they clearly have at least another decade of work in them.

This ageing and retirement of senior managers is happening in all parts of the world. These people know what it is like to run businesses and tackle the challenges of building businesses.

They have functional expertise in finance and accounts, budgeting, packaging, branding, sales, human resources, governance, legal matters and general management.

• Senior citizens will be much more stable for a startup — they will not resign and walk away in a hurry.
  
• A strong senior partner will ensure that the entrepreneur will build good governance and transparent practices in the organisation.
  
• A good senior citizen in finance will bring in much needed contacts and experience to reach out to the banking system.
  
• An experienced manager will be able to put in place a manual or a playbook that would serve the company well in the long term.
  

There is a huge opportunity to bring together the vision of the startup entrepreneur and the experience of the older manager in an unobtrusive and non-threatening manner.

Not every senior manager has the energy or the risk-taking capability to start off on their own.

The older managers, in the twilight of their careers, are also not yet ready to hang up their gloves.

They are looking to stay occupied, earn some money (which could be in the form of an equity option as well) and give back their life’s learnings.

Further, these senior citizens will be much more stable for a startup – they will not resign and walk away in a hurry because they did not like the way they may have been spoken to or because another exciting opportunity has come up.

Also Read: Flipkart Devaluation: What Does it Mean for Startups & E-commerce?

Even something as mundane as ensuring board meetings are held on time and minutes are properly recorded, is an area where startups have been known to slip up. (Photo: iStock)

In addition to watching the back of the startup entrepreneur and guiding them when the ship hits troubled waters, such individuals will also bring in strong subject matter knowledge, from the domains these senior citizens would have spent decades working in, they will also bring to the table their knowledge gained through several years of experience in some of the areas outlined below.

Good Governance Practices

All startups should normally be started with the objective of building a strong and stable business which can mature into an institution.

A strong senior partner will ensure that the entrepreneur will build good governance and transparent practices in the organisation.

Even something as mundane as ensuring board meetings are held on time and minutes are properly recorded, is an area where startups have been known to slip up.

This comment would not apply to those entrepreneurs who are looking to create a valuation and then flip the company to someone else.

Fund-Raising

While most startups are looking for funding from Angel Investors and Private Equity Investors, there is a large domain of raising funds from banks through debt and working capital financing.

A good senior citizen in finance will bring in much-needed contacts and experience to reach out to the banking system.

For the entrepreneur, it is a very lonely job and there are very few people he can trust (other than a co-founder). (Photo: iStock)

External Relations

Most businesses, irrespective of the sector they are addressing, need a strong connect with the external world.

These connections could be with bureaucrats, politicians, environmental activists or the local councillor.

A strong and experienced senior citizen will have the patience to handle these external challenges.

This could also include developing a strong public relations contact programme with the print and visual media — while another group of people would handle the social media contact base.

Legal Processes

In addition to hiring legal help during formation and fund-raising, most businesses are faced with a lot of legal challenges.

Once again, an older and more experienced manager will bring wisdom in handling such matters — which cases to pursue and which ones to drop is a critical decision to save valuable managerial time, resources and of course, money.

Playbook or Standard Operating Procedures

In the hurry to get started, very often standard operating procedures get lost in the detail. These need to put in place very early in the game so that mistakes are not repeated.

An experienced manager tasked with this will be able to put in place such a manual or a playbook that would serve the company well into the long term.

Having mentored several startup entrepreneurs, I have seen the value a person who has “been there, done that” can provide to a startup entrepreneur.

For the entrepreneur, it is a very lonely job and there are very few people he can trust (other than a co-founder).

Most young entrepreneurs need a sounding board in a non-threatening manner with someone who has no agenda with the individual or the business.

I have often said that the combination of young energetic legs with grey hair would be a win-win combination for all startups.

To draw a parallel from hockey or football, the entrepreneur is the centre forward rushing to shoot goals and win while the older manager is the goal keeper who will protect the company’s turf and ensure that self-goals are not scored!

What is important for both the parties is to mutually select the right set of individuals.

What is important is to develop mutual trust and confidence between the two individuals to build a win-win combination for the success of the business.

(Ashutosh Garg is the founder, chairman of the Guardian Pharmacies and an author. He can be reached at @gargashutosh. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)