Steve’s Company

A short bio on the parallels between starting your own company and job hunting

Governance, Risk and Control (GRC) is an area flooded by tools and the Big Four; Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte and KPMG. Simply put, Governance represents the actions of the board to ensure that company objectives are met. Risk is the impact if they are not met and Control represents the actions taken to mitigate the risk.

Steve, backed by over 20 years of IT Risk and Audit experience, has divined a gap in this market and is close to releasing tools and processes to simplify and accelerate the GRC market.

“The Big Four are fine at what they do but organizations need experienced practical help from experienced professionals with specialist thinking so I decided to start my own company and identify those areas that could disrupt the GRC market and give me a shot at longevity in earnings and staying ahead of the thinking in this sector. This is something that I want to do now. Paid employment is enjoyable enough, but the longevity of employment is not in my hands and, as organizations change, those over 45 are often the ones who get cut. I’m surprised at how many friends and colleagues in the second half of their career are now wondering what to do. I want to avoid that scenario - seize control - but to do this you need to have partners, support and a strong belief in how it will all turn out.”

When Steve decided to leave the international bank that he was working for and explore, independently, the possibilities in this area he was struck by the common experience between starting his own company and job hunting.

“When I started off, I focused on contracts and short term experiences to broaden my knowledge, my network, and my market exposure. I realized that what I thought employers would value - my breadth of knowledge - wasn't what really interested them. It helped, but what I had to do was focus on the pain points and issues that were current and in demand for employers and broaden my knowledge around that.

Once I had made that decision to focus in on those hot topics then it was an easy decision to start a company. I met other like-minded professionals and we started working together. Just on a couple of contracts to start with but this gave us the chance to deepen our thinking. Starting a company means more focus, more networking, having a plan and finding what’s hot and in demand.”

Turning Point

What I didn’t expect was that when you have something that people want, something that interests them, then the process quickly inverts and you get approached for work. That was a watershed event. Until now most of the effort had gone into building the processes and tools that simplified the process of getting the most out of Third Party Outsourcing and smoothing the way to the Cloud. But it was when people got the idea – bought the pitch - and wanted to help that things turned around. The tools and processes that I have are important, but it’s the practical help and guidance that I bring to help solve their issue that is the selling point and that is personal and it’s about trust.

When job hunting what you sell is ‘you’. It can get too personal and you can get too wrapped up in what you were. Somehow you have to, at least partially, externalize your view of yourself and work out what you have that can deliver what they want – their pain point or hot topic. When you make your pitch, what people will actually buy is ‘you’ and whether they can trust you to deliver. It’s the same process for a company, when they know we can deliver, then the sales are easy. In the fullness of time I would like to use other experienced people in this space. Their experience is what will differentiate us as a company.”

Reflection

There are common elements in becoming employed and starting your company: knowing what you want to do, a plan, focus and networking. But all these things are not easy. It’s a full time job to get a job or start a company. It takes time and support from other people and networking is the activity that is part of everything that you do. There is only so much that can be achieved with pen and paper. After that you have to get out and meet people because no-one knows everything or is the best at everything. Networking is not a social event, its work, a systematic process to meet people and broaden your knowledge around what you want to do. It can lead you in new directions and highlight new things about yourself or job opportunities so that you don’t remain stuck in what you were or too attached to your own ideas. Networking keeps you visible and current – out of sight is out of mind – and builds relationships with people where you can help others and others can help you.

As Steve observed, “it’s not for free but it is not about the big bucks either. It’s about the buzz you get from each new challenge or experience to launch a company and a product that helps an organization deliver their strategy.”

Photo credit:

Peshkova via shutterstock.com (licence standard)

handshake via photopin (license)