Organizations
[ This is my 100 th blog !!! :-) ... and its been 25 months since I started blogging, thats a cool average of 4 posts per month, thanks to the World Cup coverage :p ]
There are so many stages in the life of an organization, well atleast for a software organization. I have been lucky to have worked in most of the stages and these stages can easily be categorised into 3 stages viz., start-ups, growth companies and the bloated companies. Ofcourse, this classification is only for the product companies and not the services industry.
If you happen to be part of a startup at the early stages of your career, you should consider yourself really lucky. There is definately nothing more motivating than the passion that is exhibited in a start-up. A small group of people, somewhere around 10 to 30, which would have eventually started off by a smaller group of friends or commoners, would comprise a start-up. There is usually a single product that is the core aim of all the people involved, and the majority of them are into developing it as programmers. Some of the people here would be involved in doing multiple tasks, like hiring, taking care of the financials, promoting the software, and every other nitty gritty job that the rest expect to be present when they come to work. There is very focussed effort on the single product which is their bread earner, and everybody is very passionate and motivated towards achieving that goal. You need to be very hard working and most importantly, dream about your software to be shining in glory in the coming future. The challenge here is to prove your concepts as early as possible and earn the funds. Then stand up to the expectations and deliver.
The growth companies are usually 5 to 10 times the size of the start-ups. With people ranging from 200 to 500 in number. These usually have a very good array of products which are sold very much in relation to eachother. They have dedicated divisions for each type of work, including sales, marketing, finance, HR, and ofcourse the developer work-force, with fewer managers. The hierarchy of managers is very minimal. Though the main intention is to earn more revenue, more focus is given on acquiring more market share as well. Products are improved to attract more users and the developers and managers are more technically inclined. Its usually the VPs, and the CXOs who are more worried about the company financials. There are a very less number of people who cater to the "business" aspects that govering the company. The challenge here is to make sure you start growing into the right market segments keeping into mind the future direction of the company. The products need to grow towards the needs of these segments. Understanding this and aligning the team towards these concepts is the challenge.
The bloated companies are a complete contrast to the earlier 2. These are companies that just dont have a huge array of products but rather, a whole suite of products that pertain to various market segments, called verticals. Its a completely different ball game here with the competetion getting tougher and the deals getting bigger. There is a lot of emphasis given to the business aspects of the company. Product development and growth are driven by the business [ read as revenue ] needs to a large extent. The hierarchy of managers is quite large, and is based on the business requirements. Each manager heading a particular business segment and each business segment more or less working as a "growth company" in itself. The challenges are high but of a different nature compared to the earlier 2 categories. Here the challenges are more related to consolidation, both within the organization and to the outside world, making sure that there are no competetive products from the same company !!!
Each category of organizations have their own challenges and one needs to learn to have their focus set right based on the kind of organization they work for. Though the daily work done by a given job position might be the same in all the three categories, its the means by which those visions are reached that differentiate these organizations. These are just some of my personal thoughts on the things that I have seen in the years that I have spent in this industry.
There are so many stages in the life of an organization, well atleast for a software organization. I have been lucky to have worked in most of the stages and these stages can easily be categorised into 3 stages viz., start-ups, growth companies and the bloated companies. Ofcourse, this classification is only for the product companies and not the services industry.
If you happen to be part of a startup at the early stages of your career, you should consider yourself really lucky. There is definately nothing more motivating than the passion that is exhibited in a start-up. A small group of people, somewhere around 10 to 30, which would have eventually started off by a smaller group of friends or commoners, would comprise a start-up. There is usually a single product that is the core aim of all the people involved, and the majority of them are into developing it as programmers. Some of the people here would be involved in doing multiple tasks, like hiring, taking care of the financials, promoting the software, and every other nitty gritty job that the rest expect to be present when they come to work. There is very focussed effort on the single product which is their bread earner, and everybody is very passionate and motivated towards achieving that goal. You need to be very hard working and most importantly, dream about your software to be shining in glory in the coming future. The challenge here is to prove your concepts as early as possible and earn the funds. Then stand up to the expectations and deliver.The growth companies are usually 5 to 10 times the size of the start-ups. With people ranging from 200 to 500 in number. These usually have a very good array of products which are sold very much in relation to eachother. They have dedicated divisions for each type of work, including sales, marketing, finance, HR, and ofcourse the developer work-force, with fewer managers. The hierarchy of managers is very minimal. Though the main intention is to earn more revenue, more focus is given on acquiring more market share as well. Products are improved to attract more users and the developers and managers are more technically inclined. Its usually the VPs, and the CXOs who are more worried about the company financials. There are a very less number of people who cater to the "business" aspects that govering the company. The challenge here is to make sure you start growing into the right market segments keeping into mind the future direction of the company. The products need to grow towards the needs of these segments. Understanding this and aligning the team towards these concepts is the challenge. The bloated companies are a complete contrast to the earlier 2. These are companies that just dont have a huge array of products but rather, a whole suite of products that pertain to various market segments, called verticals. Its a completely different ball game here with the competetion getting tougher and the deals getting bigger. There is a lot of emphasis given to the business aspects of the company. Product development and growth are driven by the business [ read as revenue ] needs to a large extent. The hierarchy of managers is quite large, and is based on the business requirements. Each manager heading a particular business segment and each business segment more or less working as a "growth company" in itself. The challenges are high but of a different nature compared to the earlier 2 categories. Here the challenges are more related to consolidation, both within the organization and to the outside world, making sure that there are no competetive products from the same company !!!Each category of organizations have their own challenges and one needs to learn to have their focus set right based on the kind of organization they work for. Though the daily work done by a given job position might be the same in all the three categories, its the means by which those visions are reached that differentiate these organizations. These are just some of my personal thoughts on the things that I have seen in the years that I have spent in this industry.
hmm...tht was a nice analogy with da flowers in thr...intentional or accidental? mostly intentional i think...
ReplyDeletemostly intentional i think...
ReplyDeleteYou were bang on target !!! :-) Infact, had to do a lot of digging to get it right.
nice analogy..i did not notice it :P.. i just thought that u put scenic pictures like u do in most of ur blogs..will need to keenly observe ur blogs now :)
ReplyDelete