It’s the beginning of a New Year and we’ve had time over the festivities to reflect over the last 12 months to identify our success, lessons and put together actionable plans to execute in readiness for the New Year.
So what do these plans look like? For some it’s to move on and secure new opportunities in other companies, some it’s to relocate to pastures new, for some it’s more personal. It could be investing more in their craft to create corporate visibility; the list is endless and may be a combination of all of the above. However the most common New Year goal is to seek opportunities in other companies and those ideal companies are multinationals, international brands, and NGOs.
Well, I have news for you, there’s a new sheriff in town, an upcoming and rapid player in the economy and they are called “start-ups”. In the last few years, particularly in 2020, we saw a rapid increase of start-ups making an entry in the market and in key sectors such as FinTech, Transportation, Technology, and Financial Services. Not only were they introducing themselves to the market, but they also came prepared with heavy financial funding from well-known venture capitalists, angel investors, and even established international brands that have bought into their vision.
In the era of new money, these organisations are bringing a new dimension to the future of work and rewriting the mistakes that larger corporations have made by focusing on hiring talent because of skill as opposed to quantifying skill by duration. Their focus is more on professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset, those who can understand the vision, and adapt to the trends of the economy and consumer market.
In terms of culture, they are imbibing the true essence of work/life balance by incorporating a hybrid working environment that includes remote working as well as on-site. With this comes a new level of reward for hard work, not just about giving you the remuneration, they want you to invest your skills for the long-term so for senior hires they are offering Stocks/Shares.
Stocks give you a sense of ownership and ultimately means as the organisation grows you are rewarded for the hard work you invest in. This is something that can solidify your future asides from your pension contributions, savings, and tangible investments. It is also a way to reduce staff turnover to an ultimate low because employees are not just financially invested for stability, they are physically invested to reap the fruits of their labour literally which is something larger corporations cannot give.
Read also: The effect of remote work on employee productivity
The structure of start-ups creates a level of unregulated flexibility in their business model. It’s very easy for them to start up a new business entity to suit the demand of the market and at the same time, it’s easy for them to tweak and repackage a product or service that isn’t working or yielding the results they projected. The larger corporations are the legacy brands, the companies who have been trading for decades, and the pioneers who have set the pace for the start-ups emerging today. These CEOs and Co-Founders were once employees of these very same brands who have mastered the market to bring something new and dynamic to shake up and revive the economy.
The uncertainty of the sustainability of start-ups is a thing of the past. Being a large corporation may seem as though it is sustainable, but the profit made is recycled to keep the business afloat and this is what I refer to as “old money” if the business is not hitting the target, salaries are reduced to cover overheads and eventually you’ll see productivity dropped, the morale has been tainted, and eventually a high level of turnover.
While this is not the case for all large corporations and start-ups, it has also shed some light on your relevance in the market as a professional. Once you have worked in a few large corporations, you have worked for them all. From company to company there is not much difference in terms of scope, it just means that you are working with different people and executing your role in a different capacity. After a while, you run the risk of your career becoming dated because you bring nothing fresh to the market that is embracing the new wave of consumer behaviour and trends.
So you need to ask yourself when you are looking at the future of your career, “Am I driven by size? or sustainability? Is being associated with a globally recognised brand more important for leverage? Or am I looking at how I can utilise my skills for measurable impact?”
Plan strategically, large or small, there is no wrong or right answer, all there is, is your vision and your journey.
Oyelade is the director of Transquisite Consulting, a UK and Nigerian registered Recruitment and Training Consultancy
