Importance of having the startup energy

Organisations like human beings seem to have "energy swings" ( not calling it mood swings). It is very important for one part of the organisation to keep on focussing on the business as usual activity and another part of the enterprise to try and push to new frontiers of growth. The growth either in offering or market segment is crucial for a variety of reasons.

The most important reason is that it tries to keep the organisation hungry and pushes up the energy level few notches up. It is a fine balance that one has to strike between mature process growth and startup frenzy with in an organisation. The startup energy boost that the enterprise gets will transcend the limited group which is driving it and reach the extended enterprise and there will be positive energy resulting in excitement and big dreams.

How do you acheive it - if the core group of start up members are still there with the enterprise - the act of venturing out to new frontiers ideally should belong to subset of the initial members as they have it in their DNA to do startups and also they might have lived the success.

Stay Hungry , Stay Foolish

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”. – Whole Earth Catalogue


These two simple sentences capture the essence of all well built organizations

Staying Hungry – Each and every one of us, be it in Sales, Delivery or Support need to get hungrier and approach our role with an attitude of what can be done better. In our roles we all contribute to the maturity of the organization. When there is self respect and self confidence , we approach the role with a sense of purpose. Staying hungry is believing what we are doing is still not the best and challenging yourself to do better. If your basic competency is in Sales – you stay hungry by telling yourself that, before the financial year is done I have to put a 10+ million dollar deal on the table for the group. If your comfort zone is the million dollar deals, but your hunger should be the 10+ million dollar deal. I would advise you give up your comfort zone and go for the hunger zone.

There is a lot of excitement and challenge in it. !!!!!

Staying Foolish – The biggest risk in organizations that are growing is some people stop dreaming big. Complacency and fear of failure are two main reasons organizations don’t grow to the levels that they aspire. By allowing yourself to look foolish, you can give yourself the opportunity to dream big and avoid being complacent and not be afraid of failure.


Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish