You may have seen this post on LinkedIn in which its author said they had “spent fifteen years pilot digital projects for large groups. Structuring, framing, international deployment. And rightly thought that this course would be an asset to join a growing startup.
However, the recruitment meeting was more than expressed, the co-founder ending the exchange after a few minutes in a laconic sentence: “What you did is impressive, but that’s not what we need today. ». An unfortunate scene but which becomes classic.
If many executives from large groups approach the startup universe with solid experience, operational mastery and strategic rigor, however, communication often ends with a failure, not for lack of skills, but for lack of common language, and an adapted posture. How to remedy it?
Get rid of the statutory reflex
If in a large group, a title, a function or a budget may be enough to legitimize a decision, in startup, the value of a contribution is judged in terms of its concrete effect on the trajectory of the company. What matters is to demonstrate what we have done and resolved, not what we framed and directed.
Adapt to the attention economy
Presenting a course by unrolling past responsibilities can quickly tire an interlocutor used to arbitrating in an emergency. What matters is what can be brought immediately. The speech must then go to the point, formulate a clear promise and highlight the benefits reached.
Integrate the implicit codes of the Startup world
Entrepreneurial vocabulary has its benchmarks (often in good franglais): Vélocity, test-And-learn, a product lever effect, a semantics conversely, notions like “multi-year roadmap” or “transformation plan”, which although relevant, risk ringing quirky. If it is not a question of giving in to a jargon, the objective is to understand the logics under jactants and of translating his experience in familiar terms for the interlocutor.
Transform expertise into a contributory resource
In a universe as dynamic and changing as that of a startup, expertise is never a point of arrival. However, it constitutes an excellent basis for discussion, which should be adjusted permanently. What is valued is the ability to co-construct in uncertainty, to offer while listening to, so the descending approach must give way to an alignment posture and a certain humility.
Go from process reflex to network reflex
If in a large group, the circuits are very marked, in startup, the information circulates by short, direct exchanges, and most of the time informal. It is therefore necessary to dare to contact, restart, ask, without waiting for the approval of a superior or the triggering of a process. The relational initiative becomes both a judgment criterion and a working method.
Take advantage of your fundamentals … at the right time
The “corporate” experience becomes very precious when it allows you to anticipate a growth phase, to structure without braking, to deliver with rigor without rigidity. It is still necessary to introduce it as an activated lever for the team, and not as an inheritance of another time to impose.
Create a common language
Finally the barrier between large groups and startups is neither technological nor generational, but cultural, and many bridges exist. They nevertheless require to relearn, to reformulate, and to make themselves intelligible without losing its legitimacy.
This exchange recalls that adaptability is not the ability to reinvent itself constantly, but to change mental frames without getting lost. To be understood remains the real exercise, an obviousness which is not always, good interviews and appointment at the end of September to discover the recruit tech companies! During our special operation “Build the Future”
