The Covid-19 pandemic has hit all the sectors like a cyclone. The founders and CEOs have been forced to change the route of their startups. Most of the strategies and plans have changed due to the lockdowns, and people know only some information regarding what happens next few days.
Some changes are made recently, like the acceleration of trends which emerged from the last few years, and some companies stood and turned the situation. Making decisions based on the long-term vision of what to do and how to do with limited knowledge is the founder and CEO’s job.
CEO is the critical position in a startup. Even CEOs can make decisions with incomplete information and face some risks, and you need to require the courage and knowledge to face. So, the CEO should be courageous to direct a company even if they don’t know the right direction. It is tough to make tough decisions that may affect the CEO’s critical stakeholders, like employees, investors, and customers.
Here are some suggestions to run a startup in this pandemic crisis.
- Think about why you are in the business:
As a founder and CEO of a startup company, you should remember why you are in the business. Gregoire Vigroux, a business angel and French serial entrepreneur, stated that “never start a business just to make money. Start a business to make a difference”. The founders and CEOs who have specific reasons to start a startup will be driven by their broader impact when making decisions.
Generally, all the CEOs’ responsibility is to drive the startup to achieve the goals and vision. But, keep in mind that your values and vision should be aligned with your employees, investors, and customers as many people are directly questioning the brands they interact with.
CEO’s should think in a way like why some should join our company? Why customers have to buy our products? Why should someone invest in our company?
Even company values and cultures are also important, along with revenues and business growth. Think once about why your brand should compare your competitors, how your company culture is beneficial to the employees, and the goals and values.
- Make a clear plan:
Should the CEO and startup founder do everything? Each person of a team should have their contribution over their respective areas. Being a CEO will have many responsibilities like should execute the overall strategy, fundraising, administrative work, and presenting before the board or investors.
It’s imperative to make a plan and to act accordingly. The CEO and startup founder should consider all the factors like financial metrics, healthy relations, talented team, product improvement, and many individuals and together to achieve significant success.
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Many technology-based tools help you to make a plan. Here are some useful tech-enhanced steps.
- Set a remote workflow
- Choose conferencing software.
- Messaging applications for team cooperation
- Create KPIs and deadlines
- Security measurements to store data safely and to share
- Be a severe leader:
A founder and CEO should lead the company, and the leadership will be inclusive, ongoing, strategic, positive, influential, and productive. You should think of many aspects if you want to approach decision making as a leader. The aspects include timings, deadlines, direction.
When you motivate your team members to own or participate in a decision-making process, it creates a high engagement level and can solve many problems.
- Limit your options:
Making many options is one of the big mistakes we make. Sometimes, we believe that having many options will give us a better chance to make a plan. And think that by reviewing everything, we won’t miss anything and won’t be any uncertainty. But, the problem is that we risk being overwhelmed and cannot make any decisions.
As a CEO, you should make the decisions very fast. Limit your options to help yourself and others and to make decisions effectively and efficiently.
- Create an open space for discussion:
Some leaders think that having inputs from others will be their weakness or indecision. Don’t think in that way. Generally, making some time and space for the team members’ feedback strengthens the leader’s influence and will increase the trust and buy-in present within the team.
You can make a better decision by creating an open exchange as many contributions come into account. Team members should feel comfortable expressing their ideas and points without judgment.
You have to practice to make significant decisions. So spend more hours and hours analyzing every option.
