Twenty years ago, when we were doing a scenario planning exercise at the Hero Group, Mr. Arun Maira (ex-member Planning Commission and ex-chairman BCG), one of the most respected professionals and experts in scenario planning had highlighted that non-experts add tremendous value. I have experienced this in quite a few projects and achieved amazing outcomes.
I would encourage founders of Start-Ups to have non-experts who are curious, driven by passion, and have the hunger to contribute and learn, to be a part of their journey of institution building. They can make a great impact as Start-Ups are open to experiment and adopt new ideas.
In my personal view founders must have a formal framework and policy to attract and engage students at school, colleges, institutions, and even homemakers (from tier 1-4 cities and all income strata) to engage with them either virtually or face to face to contribute in creating new products/features, business models, branding and consumer insights, etc.
While matured companies can also imbibe this philosophy but they may need mindset change to get amazing outcomes.
I hope my founder friends find these insights helpful.
March 2021
