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Ken Lian

3 critical roles of a founder/CEO, which one you think it is more difficult in 2023?

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1. Strategy and Measurable Success: Define a clear strategy that addresses market gaps, provides valuable solutions, and targets specific customers. Establish measurable goals tied to creating shareholder value. 2. Recruiting and Retaining Talent: Build exceptional teams by recruiting high-capacity talent suited for the company's growth. Retain talent through vision, culture-building, and recognition. 3. Capital Generation and Allocation: Generate capital through external funding or business profitability. Allocate capital prudently and with precision, focusing on high-return initiatives aligned with strategy and value creation. In short, the founder/CEO's key roles are to provide direction, attract and retain talent, and secure funding. Which one do you think it is getting more and more challenging in 2023? Please share your experience.

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Sai K
Retaining talent would be the most of toughest is what I believe. Working style or culture has drastically changed. Giving good salary is no longer a mantra to retain talent. As the saying goes one size does not fit all. The way to handle this changes from start ups to MNC's vary.
Ken Lian
@sai_k9 I think it takes time to build a personal reputation and attract talent. but what if you have a lot of capital? let us say if a good developer cost $100k but you have the money to extend the offer up to $200k, do you think talent will still be the toughest issue?
Sai K
@kenlian Agree to some extent Ken. The problem is we will never have enough captial especially running an IT business. And I'll share my experience, I've resigned once and they gave me really good retaining offer infact they gave me (Promotion+Hike). The offer I have is 35% less than retaining offer. but still i didn't take cos the work isn't challenging, culture is not good, too rigid on work from office, no flexibility to keep in other projects or technologies. Yes I agree with the part it takes time to build our own personal brand and retain talent.
Aneesh Gupta
I agree with all the points that you mentioned, Ken! Very valuable insight. I personally think to ensure you're able to do all of these things, having a disciplined routine is critical. I ensure that I have dedicated time blocked for each activity that I need to be doing on a recurring basis which are critical to the business otherwise it's easy to loose track of time and tasks. I've noticed that if it's not on the calendar it doesn't get done. So its critical to plan ahead and keep yourself accountable.
Ken Lian
@_aneeshgupta_ Yeah man, you only have 24 hours a day but you need to get 3 major items and another 97 tasks complete.... so having a disciplined routine to prioritize is very important, you can kill yourself if you try to get 100 things done....
Aneesh Gupta
@kenlian Couldn't agree more! Are you using any tools to track daily tasks and manage your schedule? I'm using TickTick currently but would totally be open to any better products out there
André J
Hiring and fundraising is the hardest and most important part of a startup. Currently we are in a bit of an ice age when it comes to funding. So nr 3
Ken Lian
@eonpilot I think #3 can help you solve #2, capital might solve some of the talent shortage, to get things going. but if you don't have a good #1 then the more capital raise the bigger cost it leads to. but I am with you on the challenges in the current macro environment.
André J
@kenlian yeah maybe. It's not a recipe. Everything is intertwined as you go along. There is no perfect plan as the "tectonic plates" will shift under your feet as you move forward. In general I think founders underestimate the power of the idea they want to execute on. Most founder will execute on idea nr 4 or 5. But should have probably gone through 2-300 ideas first and executed on nr.143.
JD
1. Communicating the company's vision and values to employees and stakeholders. 2. Making decisions that balance short-term and long-term goals. 3. Building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. I believe that the most difficult role for a founder/CEO in 2023 is building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. With the emergence of digital platforms, it has become increasingly difficult for businesses to establish meaningful connections with their customers. Companies must find innovative ways to engage with their stakeholders and build meaningful relationships in order to remain competitive.
Ken Lian
@jd_manager I like the summary, I think the founder needs to be a good storyteller so communication skills are so important.
Arun Kumar Kankipati
With so many startups / VCs it's definitely become a cat and mouse race in any industry. I believe that No#3 become the crucial differentiator for the CEO to wade the organization through.
Ken Lian
@kankipati_arun Sometimes it is hard to understand some founders can raise so much capital at pre-product and pre-revenue... I don't get it.
Arun Kumar Kankipati
@kenlian duly noted your area of concern but I do believe that a few times it can be more of a hunch (out of experience in investing in various products) that let's a sizable investment come in even at an early stage as pre-product