In 10th edition of The Leaders’ Cafe – LinkedIn Live Start-Up To Scale-Up, we had the newest shark from the popular television series Shark Tank India – Amit Jain, Founder and CEO, CarDekho Group as our guest speaker in conversation with Sandra Colhando, Co-Founder, TransforMe Learning & Leadership Solutions to discuss the lessons for building the next generation of leaders
Summary
Some of the key ideas discussed during the LinkedIn Live included:
- Creating a culture of eagles: To create a culture of eagles, Amit Jain emphasised the importance of focusing on team achievement instead of individual achievement. He also stressed the importance of treating employees like founders, empowering them to make decisions, and identifying individuals who share the company’s cultural values. He also mentioned that commercial constructs, such as equity for founders, are important for creating an eagle-like structure.
- Coaching and scaling up: Sandra asked Amit about the challenge of bridging the gap between speed execution and coaching when scaling up quickly. Amit explained that as the company grows, more empowered voices are needed to contribute to decision-making. Founders need to learn to listen to others and let go of control as the company scales. Coaching can be helpful in developing skills to manage a larger company. To empower the team, the founder needs to educate them on core principles of decision-making and provide context to ensure everyone is well-equipped. Ownership of decision-making is crucial, and leaders need to guide their team to make the right decisions while letting them take ownership.
- Managing generational diversity: Sandra asked Amit about how to manage generational diversity in a company and how to skill leaders to be great people leaders in this environment. Amit explained that having age diversity in a company is important, but it’s crucial that the culture treats all employees as peers, regardless of their age. He emphasized the importance of exposing young employees to leadership opportunities early on and listening to them. Amit also mentioned that treating employees well is important, as they will in turn treat customers well. Finally, Amit stressed the importance of coaching or letting go of toxic leaders, as cultural ethos are more important than individuals in an organization.
- Leadership development program: Amit Jain shared details about Cardekho Group’s leadership development program, which runs throughout the year and identifies the next generation of leaders. The program includes manager coaching in a one-on-one and one-on-many format, and seasoned coaches teach managers how to succeed with their people, how to get all their team members to perform, and how to get teams to work collaboratively. The program also includes feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement.
One is that, a mindset shift.I think what we need to focus on is that as long as Human Connect is there, productivity can be much better, even without those people coming to office. 70% is what a person picks up on the job. How are you curating those roles? How are you creating those curating those processes? From a larger HR perspective, I think that’s also something which all of us are focusing on. The other piece is that – the digital mindset. The digital tools available right now are actually helping us to reach out to the customer in the most effective fashion.
Full Transcript
Sandra Colhando –
Legends like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who have an eagle like vision, with the ability to both see the reality as is, as well as make accurate predictions about the future. Their vision is big and focused to produce big results. So how do you find and create those eagles in an organisation?
Amit Jain –
To create a culture of eagles, one must first focus on themselves and find happiness in seeing others bloom. This requires a shift from a mindset of individual achievement to a mindset of team achievement. Good leaders must also be good human beings who empower and mentor their teams. At Girnar, the company culture is based on treating employees like founders and empowering them to make decisions. Eagles must have a vision for the future and the ability to execute in the present. Commercial constructs, such as equity for founders, are also important for creating an eagle-like structure. Company culture is crucial, and founders must identify individuals who share their cultural values. I also believe hiring laterally may not always work as well in finding and nurturing eagles within the company.
To create a culture of eagles, one must first focus on themselves and find happiness in seeing others bloom. Good leaders must also be good human beings who empower and mentor their teams.
Sandra Colhando –
One quality that can be challenging for Eagles is being great coaches. Leaders like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, while they are brilliant, may not have had the patience and time for coaching, which is a slow process. This can be difficult when scaling up quickly. Bridging the gap between speed execution and coaching requires developing the necessary skill set and having patience. Coaching involves listening, stepping back, and allowing space for growth, which may not align with the fast-paced nature of scaling up. How to bridge that gap?
Amit Jain –
As a founder of a company in its early stages, it’s important to have control over decision-making and choose the right people to drive the company forward. Too much democracy can hinder agility and prevent product-market fit. As the business grows, the team expands and more empowered voices are needed to contribute to decision-making. Founders need to learn to listen to others and let go of control as the company scales. Coaching can be helpful in developing skills to manage a larger company. To empower the team, the founder needs to educate them on core principles of decision-making and provide context to ensure everyone is well-equipped. Ownership of decision-making is crucial, and leaders need to guide their team to make the right decisions while letting them take ownership. Asking the right questions can lead to better decision-making than simply providing solutions. This approach helps to create more accountable and responsible teams. As the company evolves, the founder’s leadership style needs to change accordingly
As a founder of a company in its early stages, it’s important to have control over decision-making and choose the right people to drive the company forward. Too much democracy can hinder agility and prevent product-market fit. As the business grows, the team expands and more empowered voices are needed to contribute to decision-making.
Sandra Colhando –
Now you have an organisation of extremely diverse leaders, and not just background, there’s also age and experience, how do you manage this generational diversity? And how do you skill them to be great people leaders in this environment? Is there a systematic approach?
Amit Jain –
But I think there are two aspects. One is coaching that I’ll discuss later. Having age diversity in a company is important, but it’s crucial that the culture treats all employees as peers, regardless of their age. Exposing young employees to leadership opportunities early on is also essential. For instance, at Girnar, the CEO would invite 30-40 next-generation leaders to board meetings, and each of them would present something. This created a peer learning environment and empowered young employees. As a leader, it’s important to listen to young employees and learn from them. The phenomenon of shifting eras happens frequently, especially in terms of technology, and a leader needs to keep up with it by learning from the younger generation. Treating employees well is important, as they will in turn treat customers well. Having toxic leaders can be detrimental to the company’s long-term strategy and culture, and it’s crucial to coach them or let them go. Ultimately, cultural ethos are more important than individuals in an organisation.
ON GENERATIONAL DIVERSITY
I think there are two aspects to this. One is coaching. Having age diversity in a company is important, but it’s crucial that the culture treats all employees as peers, regardless of their age. Exposing young employees to leadership opportunities early on is also essential.
Sandra Colhando –
My question is when you get rock stars and they give you the numbers you want, but they’re toxic, they’re not developing the people. You said, either coach them or you know, let them go as well. And it’s critical.
Amit Jain –
At Cardekho Group, we implement structural interventions to build leaders through our leadership development program, which runs throughout the year. This program identifies the next generation of leaders and includes manager coaching in a one-on-one and one-on-many format. Our seasoned coaches teach managers how to succeed with their people, how to get all their team members to their level, and how to move to the next layer. Our coaching also focuses on important skills such as how to provide feedback effectively, which is often lacking in India. Many organizations struggle with managers who are excellent performers but are not equipped to manage teams. Our structured intervention aims to address this issue and ensure that our managers are effective leaders.
Sandra Colhando –
As leaders, burnout and lack of inspiration can affect anyone, not just founders, CEOs or senior leaders. I have personally gone through phases of feeling uninspired and burnt out, and I know it can be tough to come out of it alone. Do you have any tips or insights to share for those struggling with this right now?
Amit Jain –
Well, I have been through many failure phases in my entrepreneurial journey, but I have never really felt burnt out. The reason is that I have always been surrounded by very loving people with great intentions and no biases towards me. My brother Anurag is my co-founder and whenever I feel down, we spend an hour every night chatting about things. He is the one who lifts my spirits up by reminding me to have gratitude towards life and to focus on the inputs rather than the outcomes.
When I really feel down, I make sure to meet my family and close friends more often. As a founder, I believe it’s important to have somebody who you can confide in and talk to about your challenges and emotional journey. I always try to have a mentor who has run a much larger company than me to give me objective advice and talk about how they handled similar situations.
Lastly, I believe it’s important to enjoy your work every day. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, you’re not really living. If you keep dragging yourself into it every day, you will eventually burn out. I realize that sometimes it’s better to pivot to something new rather than trying to pursue something that may not be working. Perseverance goes a long way, and you can keep changing your ideas until you find something that works.
In fact, I have experienced this firsthand when I was running an e-commerce site from 2009-2010. We were selling mobile phones, but too many competitors entered the market, and we were not able to get extra funding. We had a knack for getting free traffic, but the infrastructure of delivery was not very good, and we started making huge losses. So we pivoted and started a pricing aggregation site, which became profitable. We shut down the old venture and started something new.
I remember losing all my money during the 2008-2009 market crash, and we didn’t even have enough money to pay salaries. I distinctly remember sitting with my brother that night with a zero cash balance, figuring out how to pay salaries and not let the team know that we had lost all the money. But Anurag reminded me that we had made it from zero in just two years, and we knew how to get back up again. That unconditional support was what helped me keep going.
Having a supportive co-founder and close friends helped me avoid burnout despite facing failure in my entrepreneurial journey. Enjoying your work every day is important, and pivoting to something new can lead to success. Unconditional support from loved ones is essential in tough times
Sandra Colhando –
So do you feel it’s always great to have Co-Founders?
Amit Jain –
Trust is key for any startup, and the intent of the co-founders must never be questioned. This is especially important in India, where the ecosystem can be divided into left and right. If there is trust in the intent, everything else can be worked out through communication and collaboration. However, if the intent is bad, then everything will fall apart. It’s also important to note that no startup is created without mistakes. Sometimes things can go wrong when a lot of money is involved, and one founder may become more important than the others. This is where the person in charge needs to balance things out and ensure that there is open communication and equal visibility for all.
Sandra Colhando –
It’s pretty tricky to do that. It’s not so easy. You have this unconscious competition, a competitive streak that comes in with two co founders. But I’m glad you’re kind of managing that in doing well.
Rapid fire
Sandra –
I’ve got some Rapid questions for you really quickly, quick answers. So one is choose one between the two, which is, the first one is massive growth that has been history books, or live in people’s hearts,
Amit Jain –
Live in people’s hearts, I believe in living on through others by impacting the next generation. To have a life acknowledged by many for the lessons they learned from me is where I want to live. I will live on through the people I have worked with, coached, and the founders I have mentored. My thoughts will translate into their next vision, bringing me greater joy than anything else.
Sandra Colhando –
If you were to write a book on your journey, what would the title be?
Amit Jain – Street Fighter, is probably how I would title it. I’ve been a Street Fighter all my life . When I went to the ground, I did telecalling for six months in my own company. I’ve sold my first bike to the dealers. So I’m more like a Street Fighter guy who rose to this position, finally. And I think I value that phase of street fighting the most, versus running this one, because I could not have reached here without that phase. So I think I will probably title it Street Fighter – a story of a Street Fighter kind of a thing.
Sandra Colhando –
What is your go to productivity hack?
Amit Jain – I have a few productivity hacks that I find helpful. First, I use the 6 x 6 x 6 technique where I pause before responding to something. Second, when I feel down, I look at pictures of my kids and meditate to change my mindset. Third, I always start meetings by asking personal questions to build empathy within the team. Fourth, I read every consumer review and pass it on to my team to make daily improvements. Lastly, I find five reasons to smile every day to maintain a positive attitude and pass on happiness to others. Acknowledging and recognizing the work of others also motivates them to excel beyond their potential.
Sandra Colhando –
When we talk about the emotionally intelligent leader, one of the skill sets required to be strong leaders is to be able to have that empathy and connect. And the team meeting example that you gave is first check in with people before you check in with the numbers, we often call it the neck down and neck up approach. So first, find your neck down, where are your people in this moment, emotionally, then check with their state, and then you get a lot of answers on your neck-up, which then you get into your numbers.
Amit Jain –
That’s a brilliant example, to start. Let’s say, if I was not good at meetings and I personally believe after every meeting, I have to ask a question to myself, when this meeting is over, will anything go out or you could do better? If the answer is the later, then I’m not a good lead advisor. Right? So I have to answer this question every single meeting to myself. And if the case is later than I have to pull it back again, which means I have to do a personal call and talk about how I was not a better leader today in the meeting. I probably was not a good manager, acknowledging your own mistake is very important at times because you at times are not right and inward in your heart. I make sure that I’m able to acknowledge my own behaviour, which is not right. Because if I don’t acknowledge that, the other guy who’s working with me, my thing is the right way. And that’s not the right way to go.
Sandra Colhando –
If you had a time machine and you want to go back to the younger metal just starting off, and you had to give him one advice to do something differently. What would that be?
Amit Jain –
I wouldn’t give him advice, but rather let him discover and learn from failures. It’s important to experience them firsthand to truly learn. I believe this approach has been fantastic and I’m happy with it.
Sandra Colhando –
What animal or creature resonates with you the most
Amit Jain –
I love the tiger for its agility, fierceness, and speed. It’s something I relate to in my life. I even have a big tiger painting in my office. Our company logo and missions are also based on the tiger, and it remains a symbol of strength and determination for us.
Sandra Colhando –
If a CEO were to ask you for one piece of outlandish advice to build a successful empire, what would it be?
Amit Jain –
Be good to others and find pleasure in their happiness. This leads to being a good human being and everything else falls into place.
Sandra Colhando –
My question is about balancing between speed of scaling up versus reducing process complications, especially growth is coming from adding new SKU or customer propositions which keep adding new process flows, what’s the best approach ?
Amit Jain –
Simplify processes to avoid limitations in scale and skill. Solve with humans first, then introduce technology once proven scalable. Don’t wait for a perfect product, try and improve quickly along the way to become a better version of yourself.
Sandra Colhando –
Thank you, Amit, for the brilliant ideas and insights, especially ‘chase the inputs, not the output.’ Your humility and appreciation for others shine through. Wishing you all the best in your company’s growth. Thanks to everyone who tuned in, much appreciated.”
