Things only we can do

When you do something for long enough you start thinking anyone can do it.  You stop valuing the fact that you took time to learn something that others didn’t.  I see it in my wife, an upholsterer, often reluctant to charge the true price for her decades of knowledge and expertise, even though very few people could do what she can do. And almost no-one took the time she invested in learning how.

In my last few years at bp, I worked with startup founders, entrepreneurs-in-residence, “ecosystem consultants”.  They were well-meaning but often made us corporate types feel slow, old fashioned and anachronistic.  We were learning to be more agile, less risk averse and go faster faster faster.  In hindsight, it was a bit patronising.

So, as I was preparing to leave corporate life, there was a small part of me that felt like a dinosaur, unlikely to survive.

Roll forward three years and I see it was BS.  Phew.

Because ten or fifteen odd years working in one or more corporates gives us some unique advantages that others simply don’t have:

• Like the way we think strategically. How we seem to instinctively connect things up to something bigger. Nothing we see or do in a corporate gets support unless it has congruence with strategy.  When it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel right.  And that instinct for strategy has value to a range of people who will pay you – to sit on boards, on investment committees, to coach, to advise startups…

• Like the way we consider stakeholders.  No one in a corporate is omnipotent (though some believe themselves to be).  I saw many times how the CEO of bp mandated something, only to have execution thwarted by middle management.  Our corporate training teaches us – often quite unconsciously – how we need to identify who has influence, who we need to get on side, who we need to negotiate quid pro quos with, who we need to distract, who we need to wait until they move roles or go on holiday.  And the same when taking something to market – why customers didn’t buy.  Consultants who have this stakeholder nose are hugely valuable to organisations who need to get things done quickly and efficiently, without frictions or reputation fallout.  Advisors can help CEOs understand why their latest product bombed.  Startup pitches are infinitely improved when a founder is trained to look to address stakeholder needs when presenting.

• Like the way we consider risk.  One of the things we often need to unlearn when we leave corporate life is risk aversion leading to inertia, apathy and procrastination.  The last thing an early stage founder needs in themselves or in a mentor is someone who thinks the sky is perpetually falling in.  But later on, when that startup is scaling up, going for Series A funding or trying to win corporate clients, a mentor or advisor who can help a founder identify risks, and then help put in place robust mitigation strategies is worth their weight in investment dollars.  And that goes for anyone leaving corporate life to get into angel investing, VC advisory, consulting etc.

• Like the way we consider business-as-usual.  Startups can be fun but chaotic, small businesses too, and charities.  At some stage, inefficiencies and doing everything from scratch, costs business, switches off talent and causes stress.  Corporate people are trained to define and run processes, streamlining, scaling up robustly and sustainably – with careful attention to cost (and strategy, stakeholders and risk).  Contract or employed work for formerly corporate folks can deliver mutual value.  Product-based software businesses need processes to scale.  Opportunities exist for thought-leaders, trainers and authors leveraging domain and ‘insider’ expertise.  Corporate people hold back entropy – we reduce the chaos and try to stabilise.  And this creates value that many people and businesses will pay for.

Along with a dozen other “Things only we can do”.

Add a household or industry name where you’ve worked and you’ve got credibility and a way to add a premium to your offer.

Sad, but true

When you leave a corporate, you’re pretty much forgotten: the company moves on much faster than you do.

But what’s also true is they get very little value from you after you leave.

Unlike you.

Your value from the corporate goes on and on – and can in fact form the financial bedrock of the next stage of your life.

EXERCISE

The exercise this week is one I run with clients to think really hard and laterally about the things only they can do.

Extreme situations help here with the brainstorming.  So think about big problems, things that went wrong with high costs (financial, reputation etc) – what did you do to fix things?  How did you connect things, how did you get stakeholders on board, how did you identify the risks and how did you bring about stability to calm things? Could anyone have done what you did? Really?

Equally, think about what you’re best known for – your best ever project – what made you successful, what did you do that others couldn’t.  What were your ideas?  What was your contribution?

This is important work.  Because no longer will you be able to rely on an internal job posting or a restructure (both of which are often predetermined anyway) to decide our fate.

It’s now in our hands.

And that my friends, while a bit scary, is also very exciting.