More than 5 million new startups launch every year. However, over 80% of these entrepreneurship ventures fail within 5 years. You need severe patience and good skills to pull off a business from scratch.
Often, startup executive leaders don’t have the necessary skills and competencies to lead their company from the front end. This is an important reason why only 40% of new startups succeed and become profitable.
A lot of people ask me- what are the main skills that executives should have. However, experts say that executives don’t need natural skill sets. Instead, they need to acquire skills like networking, sharp communication, partnership development, and projecting big visions.
If you don’t prepare everyday as CEO or other executive, you might fail easily.
Areas of expertise of startup executives
The executive in a startup company requires a high level of confidence. Firstly they have to learn some effective communication styles. Simultaneously, they must gain in-depth knowledge about their industry too.
Are you the newly appointed executive head of a company? Here’s something you must do immediately. Start with gaining a crisp idea of what’s going on in your sector. After that, you can study the market. Remember, your responsibility is to find ways in which your company can be unique. Or search for how you can do something extra for your clients.
Limitations
All executives don’t have a ready-made knowledge base. But, they must start gathering information about the industry from day 1. For example, a lot of CEOs might not be aware of the legal affairs in business development.
However, they might hire a consultant and jointly create a roadmap for all legal issues their company might face.
They might not know the most effective marketing techniques for their business or advertising ideas for that matter. Often executives don’t know good customer retention and new customer acquisition policies.
Areas covered by executives in start-up businesses
There are four prime areas to be covered by executives in any new business. The first of the lot is business development. It includes a detailed understanding of the latest market trends. The role of executives is to create a business profile based on the latest trends in the market.
Secondly, all executives should have a clear idea of intellectual property rights, agreements, and contracts. If you don’t have a clear idea, you may contact a genuine executive coaching company.
A lot of executive coaching consultancies offer business services. However, a few of them provide hands-on experience to executives. Or help them underpin a really good business growth plan. So choose your executive coach carefully.
Thirdly, all executives need to play a great role in advertising and Marketing. They are the strategy setters in both departments.
Mostly you have a team to brainstorm ideas. However, executives need to create a road map to implement the idea and link business objectives to it.
Responsibilities of executives
The executives are individually responsible for a lot of pioneering rules in an organization. The responsibilities become severe when it is a startup we’re talking about.
Research handling and cash flow management
Startup executives must ensure that the company never runs out of money. On that note you must know when it is the right time to start raising funds.
You have to take the initiative to create a list of venture capitalists and create a pitching strategy for each of them. However, there is always an area of cross-dependencies.
An executive can appoint or consult a financial officer in place to manage cash flow or suggest alternative financial plans.
Investor management
Executives have to communicate with investors and other stakeholders to ensure that the regular interests are being met.
On that note, remember that investors have the right to receive all leads about company strategies. They should also get a clear projection about the plans of the company. Hence it is one of the prime responsibilities of the executive to keep them in the loop.
Company culture and working environment
The basis of success in an organization is its culture. Again, the CEO or other executives in the company have a primary role to address that the company needs a good culture. But how do executives maintain a good culture?
Firstly you must ensure that your employees are happy and want to deliver for your company. Secondly, you must create a culture that is favorable for productivity. On that note, you can introduce small changes like taking care of the work-life balance of employees.
The bottom line
The role of executives in an organization is often overlooked. However, the key role of holding on to the fine thread that links inter-departmental cross dependencies.
Often, executives play a lot of hands-on roles as well. The bottom line is that every company needs a genuine and skilled executive team to succeed.
