Hail the micro-entrepreneur

At OfBusiness, we were going through our bottom-up business planning exercise these past few weeks, which included a reflection on the last half year and planning for the financial year ahead.

One similarity that I observed was that each team, rather each member, had grown by >10x in the 2^nd half over the 1^st half of last year. And in this recent lockdown had managed his business at 20% lower than peak, compared to ~40% last year. That’s some doing given the severity of the wave this time.

But the approach that each one of them had taken was very different. Some had held on to their customers fiercely; while others opened new avenues: products, geographies. Some had focused on learning and adding new services, while others kept doing what they knew best. And each one proposed a fearless and customized approach to growing this year as the lockdowns lift. Borne out of their own experience.

As I sit back and think about it, over the last 5 years, our strategy making has passed down from a few top managers to the micro-entrepreneur on the ground. And our job (especially in these trying times) has moved from being an entrepreneur ourselves to creating an environment for this micro-entrepreneurship to thrive, feel safe, and be a part of our culture.

Read more from CEO speaks Column:-
– The last sermons
– Setting things right