As a growing startup, all entrepreneurs are in constant need of hiring new people. But whom to hire remains the big question. If you want to hire a graphic designer, should you hire an employee from reputed colleges for higher packages or even a less experienced one from not a premium college will fit the work?
Jack Ma said in one of his speeches: “A good team does not mean you hire excellent people from Harvard or from a multinational or from Fortune 500 companies. Hire the right people, not necessarily the best people. The way to get the best people is that you always train them. Hiring the people who are good but not suitable is like you are putting a Boeing 747 engine in a poor tractor. Neither of them are happy.”
His words have stuck with me for long. We often try to get people with the best CV, people from big brands, fancy degrees, but not every role needs it. As a startup, a lot of your roles will require tasks need to be done in a manual way by dirtying the hands. Not everyone can fit in such roles. It is instead better to hire the right people for the job and keep training.
Training is necessary to keep them evolving with the speed of the company. They might need to learn new skills or new software or new techniques. You can provide them necessary training from time to time yourself or with some expert in your network.
Often a lot of accelerators and incubators also provide mentorship support and if you are connected with them, it is likely that they can help you with such training.The other reason for hiring right people and not excellent people is that they often come with a price tag that is challenging for a startup to compensate.
In specific cases, the co-founders might need to part with heavy equity to retain such folks and even then they might not put their heart and soul to the venture just like you are putting, because likely they wouldn’t be feeling for the cause that deeply. This will only lead to misunderstandings, frustrations and eventual separation.So I’d like to reiterate that find suitable people for the job! Happy hiring!
For any queries, write to me on Rajeev@TBSPlanet.com
Rajeev Tamhankar
@rajeevtamhankar
The writer is the founder of TBS Planet Comics. He is ex-Flipkart, Xiaomi employee, and IIT-R Silver medalist.