CoffeeMug is a fast-growing community of over 2,50,000 senior professionals, business leaders, CXOs, founders & investors. As we see opportunities flourishing from both startups & corporates in 2022, we conducted a survey amongst our members to understand what the senior professionals prefer Startups or Corporates & what influences their decision. We received responses from 1250+ senior professionals from the CoffeeMug community.
In the era of The Great Reshuffle, it is getting more & more important for Startups & Corporates to understand what the senior professionals want, what can make them choose one over the other & where their long term goals lie.
What makes the senior professionals choose startups over corporates
Growth Opportunities (74%) happen to be the most prominent reason for senior professionals to choose startups over corporates, followed by Diverse experience (57%) and Impact they can make in the workplace (53%). This clearly highlights what the emerging startups should focus on when it comes to their talent acquisition strategy.
While the business leaders agree with the choice of senior professionals, they emphasize how other aspects will play an important role too. Gaurav Porwal – COO of OLA says, “Definitely top professionals are looking for exciting opportunities for growth. It is just that startups in recent times – while there is a lot of growth and action happening there – there are also a lot of governance concerns that are coming up. Whether it is the corporate market performances of startups that went public or the Bharat pe startup issue, so what’s important is to know that what professionals are looking for is an environment of growth but without shortcuts. I think business fundamentals are going to be very very important.” On the same topic Chandan Kumar, Associate Partner of Stanton Chase International, a top executive search & consulting firm from his experience says, “Recognition is an important factor when someone is choosing startups over corporates, where senior professionals do not want to be one of the fish in the sea, rather they would prefer to be a big fish in a small pond. For leadership roles – working in a startup means working on too many roles – so delivery is very important. Whereas in a large corporate – you are master of one and you will sail through.”
While senior professional have made their choice, it is also interesting to know how the senior professionals access offers from startups
The top three characteristics happen to be the Business idea (79%), followed by the founder’s profile (67%) and the Growth Trajectory of the startup (62%). These happen to be the decision-making factors while accepting an offer from a startup.
The report also comes with a few interesting takeaways for the Corporates
Senior Professionals have highlighted the key reasons that can make them choose Corporates over Startups. Leadership positions (53%) happen to be the top factor, followed by Work-life balance (46%), Job stability & security (43%) & Perks & benefits (42%). This will indeed play a crucial role for the corporates in managing & retaining their senior professionals in the current era. Gaurav Porwal – COO of OLA also adds, “For these professionals who have spent a good portion of their careers in companies that really value people, value integrity, value business models and fundamentals and if they see startups shortchanging that, that would not be something that is preferred. It is more about stability and to some extent work-life balance.”
Chat with Industry leaders & Founders
We also got some perspective from Industry leaders & founders to understand the view from the other-side. Govind Maheshwari – Co-founder of Shoor says, “My view is that there is an increasing trend of moving towards startups primarily because there’s an opportunity to create value, senior professionals have a more bigger role to play as startups are looking to scale and grow and also especially because there’s a dearth of experienced management professionals working in the startups so that’s where experienced professionals can play a pretty big role in startups looking for growth, market expansion and scaling and as well as in driving improvement in operations of backend.” Shantanu Saha, Founder & CEO, The Recruiters says, “Senior professionals in the higher age bracket want a stable company that is well funded and they also prefer working with large teams. Senior professionals in the younger age bracket prefer companies growing at a rapid pace.”
Senior professionals take on need for flexibility in The Great Reshuffle Era
Multiple studies on The Great Reshuffle highlights that flexibility happens to be a key factor for the professionals today & the same is confirmed in the study as well, 87% respondents agree that flexibility happens to be an important factor today. It is interesting to know what aspects they give most importance to.
Flexibility in work timings (69%) happens to be the most important factor, flexibility in work locations (60%) happens to be the second in priority & the third being the process of work (57%). This will be very important for both startups & corporates to cater to their employee’s increasing need for flexibility.
Long term Goal of Senior Professionals
To conclude, we were keen to understand what the long-term goals happen to be for the generation who prefers startups over corporates. 47% aim to start something of their own, while 37% say they aspire to climb up the corporate ladder & be a CXO. This is a very interesting change we have started seeing in the senior professionals today.
Members Speak
1. Gaurav Porwal, COO, OLA
Definitely top professionals are looking for exciting opportunities for growth. It is just that startups in recent times – while there is a lot of growth and action happening there – there are also a lot of governance concerns that are coming up. Whether it is the corporate market performances of startups that went public or the Bharat pe startup issue, so what’s important is to know that what professionals are looking for is an environment of growth but without shortcuts. I think business fundamentals are going to be very very important. For these professionals who have spent a good portion of their careers in companies that really value people, value integrity, value business models and fundamentals and if they see startups shortchanging that, that would not be something that is preferred. It is more about stability and to some extent work-life balance. I personally don’t think that anybody really fully understands how the work dynamic is going to look like. So – there are two extremes – either no virtual work VS complete virtual work and people are taking sides on both ends of the spectrum. But this is just going to evolve, because people will realize that some settings would require physical facetime VS the others and how to create it around employee expectations and maybe the rewards systems around it. It is too early to say how it is going to land. But of course, it will be a departure from current norms as under the norms were before covid. But it will look a little different.
2. Chandan Kumar, Associate Partner, Stanton Chase International
In my opinion it depends upon individuals like what they prefer – startups or corporates. Well, if anyone is looking for job satisfaction, which if a startup is providing, then people will tend to move. Corporates provide because at leadership level salary is one of the constants which however is not the full choice constant to decide on a job. They will be already on a very high CTC, they will look to join somewhere where they are challenged and get job satisfaction. Recognition is an important factor when someone is choosing startups over corporates, where they do not want to be one of the fish in the sea, rather they would prefer to be a big fish in a small pond. Today – startups are offering lots of ESOPS etc to attract talent. For leadership roles- working in a startup means working on too many roles – so delivery is very important. Whereas in a large corporate – you are master of one and you will sail through.
3. Shantanu Saha, Founder & CEO, The Recruiters
There are two kinds of senior professionals nowadays… those with around 10 – 15 years of experience, but at the top management of well-funded startups. They typically have an excellent pedigree in terms of education and have fairly high compensation packages – typically 60 lakhs to 1 Cr plus and have good ESOPs. Such candidates are happy to take a leadership position in high-growth startups. These folks are typically under 40 years of age. They would not really fit in large traditional org cultures or corporates. The other senior folks are the ones who are in their 40s and 50’s and have mostly worked in traditional companies and have risen to top management levels. They prefer job security and prefer traditional organizations and Corporates. Even if few are open to the idea of startups, they would want assurances on funding, and then they mostly end up as cultural misfits in a company where the average age is in the late 20s or early 30s. Senior professionals in the higher age bracket want a stable company that is well funded and they also prefer working with large teams. Senior professionals in the younger age bracket prefer companies growing at a rapid pace.
4. Mridul Sharma, CEO, Ikusei Private Limited
Although it depends upon the professional about what they prefer to be a part of, our Indian markets usually prefer to buy a product from a brand which is well established in the market rather than trying out the newer ones. So, as it is quite simple to build a product or a brand in India, it is a bit difficult to sell it in the market. In my case, I switched from working in a big giant to starting my own company in the education field because of the experience I was keen to gain. If I would have remained in my previous organization, I wouldn’t have become the CEO as that’s how the hierarchy works in the corporate, however, my interest in venturing into entrepreneurship made it possible for me. The factors that seem most important to the senior professionals while choosing a startup or corporate is the package they are getting and the experience they would be getting from working there as these are the 2 motivators that makes a professional decide what they would like to opt for.
5. Govind Maheshwari, Co-founder, Shoor
My view is that there is an increasing trend of moving towards startups primarily because there’s an opportunity to create value, senior professionals have a more bigger role to play as startups are looking to scale and grow and also especially because there’s a dearth of experienced management professionals working in the startups so that’s where experienced professionals can play a pretty big role in startups looking for growth, market expansion and scaling and as well as in driving improvement in operations of backend. Managing the need of stability depends upon the sector in which the startup is because there are several sectors like, fintech, consumer tech, health tech or the whole SaaS ecosystem in which startups are operating, so I think it depends upon the product, or if there’s a feasible traction and funding is also very important and lastly the talent and ability to scale their product. So if a startup has these ingredients right then it can work pretty well.
6. Kamal Kishore Kumawat, Co founder, Edgistify
In the year 2022, senior members have started preferring startups because of the buzz created in the last 1 to 1 and a half years. Senior management people have started inclining towards startups. There are 2-3 reasons for it. The kind of salaries that startups are offering, people are becoming confident that if one start up does not work out but their experience will help them to lead another company due to the kind of growth of the Indian economy – it has built more confidence towards startups. Taking example of my own company, we are right now in the most traditional industry of warehousing and fulfillment where people who have 2-3 decades of experience of working in organizations, they know in and out of local geography. Therefore, people have started moving into startups. Startups require experienced people for growth.
