BLOG| Why is corporate venturing not making headway in Shillong?

 | 

BLOGS | June 30, 2018: 

By Aiborlang Andrew Chyne

I have always asked myself this question for years even before starting my career in the Corporate world. As I started my career at an entry level in one of India's renowned MNCs -HCL – BPO Division in 2009, I began to realize the actual picture of Corporate world.

Life in the corporate world is always glamorous, from the kind of office space you are in, to the facilities provided at work. It is a different feeling altogether and I'm sure it would take another 100 years or more for Shillong to have such an office infrastructure for enterprises or business organizations.

For a typical person like me, working in a fully AC-ventilated office is a luxury because work for me is just about getting myself preoccupied in the most useful manner and the idea of an office-infrastructure was never on my mind.

However, some of us failed to start a self-employed venture or small business because of some of the following reasons:-

  1. Being away from home, we would prefer to work in established MNCs where salaries are credited before 30th of every month, mostly in the IT and BPO sector.
  1. We still have a very narrow concept of work. We often feel that our job is just about going to the office, do our job and come back home.
  1. We often have this blind faith that if we have a tag of major brands like TCS, Infosys, HCL or IBM in our resumes, we would easily get a job back in Shillong. In other words, having a blind faith in brand names.
  1. Very few of our parents are aware of corporate institutions. At times, we often misguide them by the kind of positions we hold in the organization.

No doubt, one needs to appreciate oneself for being selected to be a part of the Corporate workforce of Delhi NCR irrespective of the industry or brands one works for, but we need to realise that it is the people that constitute a brand name and a brand-name does not exist by itself.

Despite the common financial problems that one faces, one needs to understand that a white-collar job in an MNC is the first step of ruining one's own career. As per my experience, established MNCs have too much hierarchy and let's not forget the bureaucracy or red-tapism in such organisations and I just wonder how people survive in such environment. I can only pray that they learn something new about their work in which I found it highly doubtful.

One can learn a lot when one works in a startup or take new initiatives in an organization. As per my experience working in startups, the main drawback is that salaries are always credited 7 or 10 days late. There are no provident funds or health insurance and forget about the leave policy, one just can't think of it.

The scope of learning and development is huge in startups because you are being encouraged to experiment new concepts, be it in marketing or product development for different domains. At times, you would be required to work more than regular working hours, I still remember in one of my startup careers, I was asked to send a report on Christmas Day, 25th of December because I was taking care of a pilot project which was still at its nascent stage, back in the year 2014. I do feel sad doing an office work on Christmas but can't help it when situation demands.

In startups, there is no hierarchy or red-tapism and employee engagement is at the highest because startup founders and co-founders don't have the luxury of resources available and manpower is always scarce.

Shillong Corporates of Delhi needs to be encouraged to work for startups because it is the only option to be able to start their own venture in their hometown and to survive or else we would be like dead leaves that gets carried away wherever the wind blows.

And last but not the least, never use contacts or lobbies to start your career because it is nothing less than taking a short cut to success.

______________________________

(The writer is a Business Development Consultant from Shillong)