Cricket Coach Vs CXO - The hiring parallels

The latest on 'Indian Cricket Coach Saga' suggests that Gary Kirsten has been offered the position of the India coach and is considering the offer.

Sorry, but I can't resist the parallel between hiring the Indian Cricket Coach and the challenge of hiring a CXO in new age India. Lets look at the coach hiring experience in perspective:

1. The full time coach position has been open since March 2007. It has taken 8 months for the country to find a suitable coach. It yet remains to be seen if Kirsten will accept the offer. Even if he does accept, he can at best join in a months time. This makes the recruitment cycle 9 months - should he join.
2. During the past 8 months, the BCCI has met with 3 candidates: Dav Whatmore, Graham Ford and John Emburey. Lesson: Increase your pipeline of serious candidates so that the each person is assessed in relation to the other rather than in isolation.
3. Of the 3 candidates, they met with Dav Whatmore in April, soon after the World Cup debacle, followed by John Emburey and Graham Ford in June.
4. Dav Whatmore was the only serious candidate - being considered in April, and when things fell through, the BCCI did not have a pipeline of candidates to meet, the search had to be resumed afresh. Hence the search lost steam for a bit.
5. By the month of June, the BCCI had become desperate for a coach and shortlisted John Emburey and Graham Ford - without sufficient due diligence. They offered Graham Ford the job - almost overnight and paid the price for it. He refused for family reasons, meaning his motives for meeting them were not clear and he was the wrong candidate. John Emburey was shortlisted overnight without sufficient information, just to give a semblance of objectivity to the process. Lesson: Get real, don't think the world is at your feet.
6. This humbling experience, triggered a more practical approach:A bowling coach - Venkatesh Prasad, Fielding Coach - Robin Singh and an Interim Team Manager - LS Rajput. Working well in fact.

The Indian coach experience is similar to what a whole lot of corporates experience:

1. Initally reject the first couple of candidates : ' We'd like to meet a few more and then decide'. Not really sure whats available.
2. As time goes by they get desperate: Hire and roll out the offer overnight to the 3rd or 4th candidate. Candidate is taken aback that it happened so quick. Feels uncomfortable and backs out. Time lost, back to square one.
3. Finally, hire an Interim CXO and build the internal leadership team to get upto speed.

The Moral of the experience, be it a coach or a CXO - first get an interim team, or key individual in place so that the 'show goes on'. Once the immediate vacuum is addressed, the focus can be on a structured and professional selection process to find a permanent solution. This will address the short term stability needs while ensuring that the long term is not compromised due to desperation.

Startup CXO Salaries

This is a tricky one which I have been grappling with recently. With the tremendous growth in startups the demand for senior folks has increased significantly. In this context, the CXO salary is a critical factor in attracting the right person. However, with startups, we need to address this fundamental contradiction:

"How does a startup which cannot afford to pay market salaries attract the best folks?"

While there maybe several dimensions and view points, the key is finding the right balance between stock and cash - i.e.Risk vs Security. The risk levels of an individual would depend on how financially secure he/she already is, apart from the attitude of course!

Another factor to consider is the current stage of the company:

• Is the company a complete startup with just an idea?
• Has the startup already received some angel funding?
• Has the startup received VC investment?
• Is the company in the first round of funding is it moving to further rounds of funding?

As these questions, suggest, the risk levels decrease progressively as the organization evolves from pure startup to a firm looking for additional rounds of VC funding. So the principle would be to offer higher stock (risk-reward) in the early stages and progressively shift the stock to cash ratio - in favour of more cash (more secure). The key is finding the balance between long term gains and interim rewards for achieving various milestones along the way.

How much stock is another debatable point. Some pointers would be the valuation of the company (If it has been valued) or possibly a small equity stake, if the stage is very early and value still needs to be built. Also the projected valuation of the company as a result of the transformative impact of the incumbent CXO must be considered.

Such negotiations are going to increase in time to come as founders will have to increasingly attract seasoned CXO's into their startup ventures if they need to succeed!