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Being successful in business goes hand in hand with great ideas, rapid growth and impressive numbers. But, entrepreneur consultant Srikanth Sridharan says the key lies in a much simpler thing: focus.
Sridharan has seen one common error in entrepreneurship repeatedly while working with businesses and helping them expand for the past nearly 10 years. Too many companies fail simply because they attempt to fix too many issues.
If a business gets bogged down, he says, “then it is spending all its time out putting fires and doesn’t have time to do something great. A business that steadily grows is generally a business that knows its problem, and who it helps solve the problem for. Once they get that right, they continue to refine it, win customer trust and slowly establish a solid brand.
This is particularly relevant to India’s emerging SME industry. The government estimates that MSMEs account for about 30% of India’s GDP and employ over 28 crore people. MSMEs are one of the largest contributors to the Indian economy, accounting for around 30% of the nation’s GDP and employing over 28 crore people. However, as businesses grow, they lose direction and thus fail to grow to the next level.
Sridharan’s growth isn’t just about making more sales. It begins with surrounding yourself with the proper personnel.
He feels that many founders overlook the fact that they don’t necessarily have to do everything themselves. Great leaders operate on a different level. They invest time in discovering talent and entrusting them with responsibility and developing them. This is because, he says,
“People are the biggest strength of any company.”
As your team expands, so does your business.
From the hundreds of entrepreneurs he has worked with, he has also learned that businesses that make a difference possess a few common habits. They pay attention to the customers; continue to improve their products; always learn. After they’ve achieved success, they still ask “how can we do this better?
Sridharan also questions the notion that there is a trade-off between profit and purpose in business. In practice, he says that the two tend to go hand-in-hand. He cites organizations that have increased the proportion of women in their ranks. They have experienced increased attendance, increased commitment, reduced staff turnover and increased productivity. Meanwhile, they’ve put thousands of families on a path to financial independence. Everyone benefits when businesses create opportunities for people, he says.
One of the other lessons that has stuck with him is how the founders respond to failure.
Business schools drill into you strategy and finance, but they don’t teach you what it feels like when a factory catches on fire, an important employee leaves, or an unexpected policy changes everything overnight. These are moments that entrepreneurs must endure. They discover failure is not the end, it is merely a hurdle to be overcome.
For any founder, one of the most difficult transitions to make is to leave the day-to-day grind behind. It is common for many entrepreneurs to face problems and solve them on their own. However, as a business expands they need to trust others and think of the broader picture. Sridharan says mentors and advisors can make this transition much easier if they help the founders to know when to let go.
In the future, he foresees tremendous possibilities for Indian enterprises. India is one of the largest markets with over 1.4 billion people, a youthful population and rapid digitalization. Companies that are able to achieve this by using technology in order to solve a real world problem will have a distinct advantage in the years ahead.
His number one piece of advice for first-time founders is to develop their network early. Experienced entrepreneurs can quickly save you years of trial and error. A good network can also provide a support group for founders when times get tough.
As Srikanth Sridharan moves forward, the aim is to help individual businesses succeed—and more. He wants to build a robust SME ecosystem in India, shape the leaders and help build a business that creates jobs, solves real problems and makes a difference to the society.
His message: Business is not great because they do everything. It’s who they are and how they are, doing right things consistently, that makes them great.
English (US) ·