Case for hiring a CTO for a Startup (at the seeding stage)

 

Hiring of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for a IIOT Startup 

(IIOT is Industrial IOT or Emerging Technologies or Industry 4.0)

Background

An Indian business house which is also a market leader (₹4000 Cr+ (~$500 m)) in its respective product offerings conceived the idea of implementing IOT in order to optimize the cost of manufacturing and sustain the market leader position while positively impacting the numbers in balance sheet.

Scenario

The industrial house was going through the phase of transition where the speed of conceiving the change was retarded by factors such as, validation of the initiatives being planned, unsure about people acceptance, perceived notion of imbalance in ongoing scenario of conventional practices vis-à-vis policies. The talent pool available transforming this vision into reality was not found to be sufficient including the leadership level.

The think-tank including Head of the Organization, HR Partner decided to create a captive Tech division with a separate name (alike Captive entity), with separate business identity, with a new set of concurrent policies similar to IT Industry and in a separate working space. The entire business processes from hiring, employee management, payroll, policies, procurement, finance and accounting including offer letters, welfare schemes, etc., were designed differently to benchmark with the IT industry.

This shall enable the new entity to project itself as an IT startup, attract talent from IT industry in with skillset in emerging technologies (IOT, Cloud, Databases, etc.).

The Organization identified multiple internal projects which require a Technology Leader (CTO), who shall build a team of Technology Enablers (Program Managers, Database and Networking Architects, Testers, etc.)

 

Approach

An extensive market research was done to understand the compensation structure, benefits, welfare schemes, competencies that are required for CTO role to lead a Starup from almost seeding stage to the success. The success of vision transforming into reality will shape up the future of the organization so that Captive (technology division) can be transformed into a separate corporate entity as a profit centre.

ü  Preparation for the position

Following HR Systems were designed:

§  Job description

§  Competencies Basket required (Behavioural and Technical)

§  KRAs & KPIs

§  Career Architecture for entire organization

§  Presentation with USP for hiring and Vision

 

 

ü  Mode of hiring

§   Social media (including WhatsApp, LinkedIn)

§  Job boards

 

ü  Interview Process

An extensive interview process was designed to include multiple level of interactions to ascertain that individual aspirations are aligned with the Organizational vision. Broadly these steps included:

§  HR interaction to assess the fitment

§  Interaction with Business Leader

§  Online and face2fface interactions with both

§  Behavioural interviewing

§  Competency assessment

§  Discussion on the vision and its overview on the blueprint

§  Future plans and including alternatives

§  Culture-fit assessment

 

ü  Compensation

§  Combination of Fixed and Performance driven variable were designed to be in sync with the market standards.

 

ü  Pre-joining engagement

The position of CTO was critical for the organization as it was supposed to shape up the future of the organization which was at the seeding stage. Therefore, it was a top priority for HR to ensure the joining of the selected candidate even though a backup plan was in place. This level of engagement further enhances the partnering between the HR and the Business.

§  The offered candidate was included in planning stage post-offer so that we can ascertain his joining or sense the possibility of dropout in case that happens.

§  The planning primarily focussed on identification of phase-wise manpower & skills requirement, tweaking KRAs, KPIs to be more realistic.

§  Offline meetings were also carried out in a coffee shop.

 

ü  Outcome

We were able successfully hire a CTO from US based $80+ Bn Fortune 100 Company after an exhaustive search and evaluation process. The selected candidate had a proven track record of driving innovation, a strategic mindset, and the ability to lead technical teams.

The new CTO later played a pivotal role in shaping the Organization’s technology roadmap, driving innovation, and ensuring the alignment initiatives with the business objectives. This executive-level hiring not only strengthens the leadership team but also puts the Organization on the sustainable roadmap which had a clear road trajectory.

ü  Duration: Six months from search through onboarding during Year 2021-22

 Key Takeaways

The executive-level hiring requires a focussed and comprehensive approach for an HR Partner that requires a bouquet of crucial factors viz., technical acumen, business goal & functional understanding, leadership assessment, cultural fitment, the known and unknown dynamics, hiring challenges, above all trust in the leadership for a captive startup.

A robust evaluation process, including technical assessments and scenario analysis, helps identify the most suitable candidate who was a culturally fit and aligned with the crucial vision for transforming the vision into a reality.

 

About hiring other leadership role:

Kumar Archit has rich experience of hiring the following few of the key roles:

§ VP Engineering, Solutions Architect for Electronics R&D company (NASDAQ traded) which had the innovative and mission critical projects from US based clients
§  Practice Head, Solutions Architect for a large IT Consulting Company
§  Head of India organization for a Captive (GDC) centre of Fortune 500 company in India
§  COO, CFO for a leading FMCG producer (a Unilever licensed company) in West Africa
§  Head R&D (for new business of Food) for a leading FMCG producer (a Unilever licensed company) in West Africa

During his career, he gained rich experience of interviewing international candidates from different Countries and few of them were called from different countries to meet the leadership in the home location. This process also included maintaining the high level of confidentiality, managing all logistical requirements such as, immigration process, mobility, etc.