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Turn HR into Your Startup’s Competitive Advantage

After 15 years of working for someone else Mikaal Abdulla finally got smart and started his own company. He is the co-founder and CEO of 8 Securities and his journey has taken him through Silicon Valley, New York, London, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore and now Hong Kong.

human-resources-pickA lot of factors will determine your startup’s success. Product innovation, consumer adoption, and competition are of course critical factors but get too much ink in the startup press. What is often only given lip service, but is in my opinion the most fundamental determinant of success, is the people you hire today. I have been very vocal in conveying the challenges that startups in Asia face, particularly in building teams beyond the founding members. I outlined some of the key structural, cultural, and societal challenges we face as entrepreneurs in a post I titled ‘There is No Glamour in an Asia Startup’. I want to focus this post on solutions.My co-founder and I are old men in this startup game. We both came from a 4,000 person company called E*TRADE which was once a startup darling born in Silicon Valley. We both agree that the most valuable lesson we learned before leaving to start our own company was how to lead an organization through both good and bad times and how maintain an execution-focused culture . People work for any number of reasons and have their own ambitions and motivation. It is arrogant to think that every individual that joins should share yours. Don’t dismiss an individual because they don’t want to drink Red Bull with you and write code until 4am. This lack of motivational alignment absolutely does not mean they can’t be a great fit for your startup. The best people I have ever worked with have two clear qualities. They were self-directed and execution oriented. If you want to be a growing company you are simply going to need to anticipate and accommodate the diverse motivations of your team. Furthermore, enthusiasm can manifest itself in different ways. So how do you turn HR into a competitive advantage for your startup? In Asia, we are typically not fighting a talent war with other startups, as is the case in Silicon Valley. Instead we are competing with large companies that have the perceived benefit of security and a long-term career. When you launch a startup these naturally won’t be the easiest selling points for you. On the basis that you hire people on a foundation of trust and respect, you can really push the envelope. Here are some ideas.

• Consider killing the idea of a vacation policy

vacationWhen we launched 8 Securities we decided to use our size to our advantage. We started with vacation days. Statutory vacation in Hong Kong is 14 days so we decided to offer 25. Quality is not measured in days or hours but in execution. Hire execution-oriented people who will deliver what you ask of them and you don’t need to worry if they take an extra day off here or there. I am tempted to kill the vacation day policy all together and not track it. Really, I don’t care. The day we cease to be more focused and productive than our competitors is the day I will rethink this approach. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.