Institutionalised men

When we started ThreeSea in 2011, we had quite a share of our corporate experience. Not that we hated, but definitely not what we wanted. There were restrictions on all front. Right from identifying team members, preparing project estimates, managing projects, handling customers, team management, product management amongst others.

We had managed a division in multiple organizations. All are the same. Only the name differs. Core process remains the same. Treat each member as a 'source of revenue'. Maybe that is why they are called as 'Resources' :). Rarely you will encounter a manager who will empathise with you. But he is also limited. The approach to starts from the top. We understand they are answerable to the stakeholders at large. They have their task cut out which is driven by numbers. Revenue has to be only northbound. When you move up on the ladder the knife is closer to you. Can fall anytime. It can fall not necessarily because of your action. When it comes down its free fall and with no control on the speed. Alarming.

Everyone has a breaking point, we too had. We wanted to have a work atmosphere that is against all these. We quit the corporate world to begin the next chapter of entrepreneurship. We had a certain high level 'agenda' while starting. Might ask, is 'Target' bad. No, 'Target' per-say is not bad. But it depends on the execution method which determines good or bad. Target with empathy is better than only having Targets. Managers have to move up the ladder and become Leaders. We felt the present scientific methods of identifying a fresh member is devoid of personal touch. To have a long-standing relationship between two parties, you need to have a bond that is not on paper but in mind. Provide them with an atmosphere that focusses not only on money but life beyond that. These are quite tolerable. Isn't?

As we speak we continue to be bootstrapped. Hope to continue as much as possible. We are unique in the sense, we do both - service clients and also have products. We don't have a separate team for this. Few of our products are received well in the market, however, the revenue from these cannot be used for running a 30+ member team. And there come our services line of business. Been growing at a good rate. One major drawback or irritating factor is collections. Sometimes customers hit a roadblock which affects our collection. We generally have a reserve of 2 to 3 months. Not more. We were stretched once, we survived. The second time when it happened we compromised on one of our core value. Once you may call it an accident. The second time when it happens, it's plain stupidity.

After 7 years of being on own, we had compromised on certain values that we stand for. It was something we were not comfortable with. But we had to do. It was a nice gesture from the members to stand by our side. But we promise not to get into such a situation again. We wish to stand for any goof-ups we do. We will own them up. 7 years ago we started this to 'create value for the members' which in turn will boost the value for the company. Hope we don't compromise on that.

Hope is a good thing, probably the best thing. Hope the best happens.