Speaker #0Hi, welcome to The Pulse. I hope you're doing well. This is our first episode where you might see on social media some small recordings. I am for the first time recording on my phone a bit of videos, but bear with me, this might just be small for the time being, for the one watching or having discovered the episodes through social media. But today I want to talk about the differences between corporate and startup. And that is a major topic for me. because first of all, going through my career since the beginning, I've had a lot of people around me who have worked in either all their life in corporate or some people that started straight away in startup and worked their way through startups and love it. And this has always been a heated, not heated, but energetic conversation. Let's put it that way between the two parties. And for me, I've always seen the beauty of working for major corporations. before I made any jump, but I realized at some point in my life that I wanted to experience the other side by myself. I had family, I had friends telling me, oh, but maybe it's better if you stay where what you know and do what you are aware of. But for me, it felt very important to share and experience the other side of it, not just from the eyes of others by talking to them, but also experiencing it myself and understanding that What it is to work in a startup, how is the environment different from a major corporation and see the balance between the two. For sure here today I won't be talking to you about smaller corporations, smaller companies. I've also only worked in headquarters and not in markets of major corporations so I cannot compare all this yet and I'm hoping maybe one day I can. But for now what I would love to do in this episode is talk to you literally about what I've learned as differences between... startup-wise versus corporate, the goods and the bad of each of them, based on my learning and also based on what I have talked to others over the years and discussed and give you a bit of an overall summary. So I hope you like this first episode and let's dive in. What do I mean about a corporate and what do I mean? about a startup. I think we need to start on that level so there is no confusion because there is a lot of different environment that you could consider a startup and a corporation. I would say corporation is definitely a company that has been established for many years, it has a lot of employees, a clear strategy, so it's not a small family business. Some family business can be corporation because they are major, they are big but a lot of time I'm also talking with companies shareholders, so the structure is even more complex. There are people to report to outside. There is a lot involved in terms of decision-making. And then from a startup standpoint, I would say I'm talking about more of a smaller size companies, newer also, quite young. And that requires investment and support. So it's not like a business that already is rolling and working. I think I've seen... We've seen some companies where they're still calling themselves startup, even those have been there for now like three, four years. They don't need anybody to invest anymore. They already have enough fund to build and grow as it. And in that case, I would not call them startup. But the one that still requires funding, requires support is what I'm referring to. So it could also be that they are five years old and still building as a startup and that's okay. But I think at some point, startups also need to learn that they need to move to the next stage, either being more independent or so based on the amount of employees. When you're building after a certain while, you cannot call yourself really a startup and you would have to switch to a different name. But I do understand the hype of the word startup, the same way we talked about the hype of resilience. I won't make an episode specifically about the hype around the word startup, but you know what I mean? There is a lot out there. that we call startup where actually there are different type of small size business or gross companies but not probably startup. First I'm going to start about deep diving on the corporate side. I've worked for the first 10 years of my career in corporate so this is definitely what shaped me overall when it comes to work environment so potentially there are some biased but What is critical for me is that I've seen that in corporate, you have always a clear vision, goals, long-term, short-term. It's very clear what is your role, how you're going to do it and what is expected for you to deliver and how this impacts the overall short-term and long-term goal of the company and the visions. So this is all very clear, very organized. And if someone doesn't feel connected, you realize it very quickly. And usually there is this form of adaptation created for that in order for you to reconnect to that goal very quickly. So I've always felt like roles and responsibilities, I mean, you still have to define it. This has to be clarified with new teams, if it's project team or actual team members within a group or department. But overall, there is always expectation of that clarity overall. And that is something that... is very different in startups. Basically, in startups, you're going to see a lot more of organization in that sense. You still have a long-term vision. Very often, the startup knows what they're trying to build, what they're trying to create. So that is definitely the North Star is very clearly defined. However, there is the difficulty for some people to be very clear on The limit of their responsibilities. Very often you hear it, the job is a little bit more scattered or not clear enough so that people take over some pieces that the others might not realize that they have to take care of. So there might be some confusion sometimes, but it's also allowed to create an environment that is a lot more dynamic in some forms. I've seen it, the idea of fail fast, learn fast. change fast is very prominent in startup. I think the corporate world's tried to implement that, but definitely the speed of it is definitely slower and the turnaround is slower than in a smaller company such as a startup. So that's for me one of the main pieces. Both are dynamic, but in a very different way. And also I have really appreciated the project team environment of corporate Because it's always very structured, as a project manager, you can really build your whole process and create a full structure. When it comes to project within startup, it's more go, go, go, kind of like patch things up. And the objective is to quickly go into results so you don't potentially put in place all the right bricks to build the right house, if you know what I mean. So for me, this is one of the elements I've seen. Within the startup world, still the beauty of startup is also there and I want to talk more about it. With the structure of corporate, I have felt more equipped to deal with larger scale projects, global projects. And I felt like there was a form of efficiency of going step by step with the overall process. With this experience, I learned all about... vision, about long-term strategy, about structure and also clear leadership. I have to talk about this as well. I have unfortunately seen and talked, and it's not all only based on my one experience in my startup, but I've seen it also talking with other people from different startups, friends, family, many, many people in my network work for startups. And one of the things they keep on telling me is that new people... that have been there for a long time are being promoted into leadership positions, but they are not ready. They don't have the skills. They haven't learned what it takes to be a leader. And you have two ways to deal with that. Either you're going to be someone who's going to be super resilient and learn by yourself and adapt. So it's kind of like you're going to be thrown in the deep end and then kind of like think or swim, and they're going to end up swimming. But then some other people are going to sink because they actually needed to practice To become a leader, they needed the support. They needed the structure around them to help them grow into a leadership position. And I think this is one of the difficulties with startups, is that you need the people that have been there to teach the younger ones. And then you build up the company based on that. And you also, I mean, always every company rewards people that stays for a long time. I'm hoping this is the case for everyone. But overall, there is still the difficulty of the fact that it's not always always so easy for someone to become a leader without any learnings, without any proper studies or without a mentor even. And in startup unfortunately a lot of young people are becoming leaders and some are doing amazing but some are not prepared. And I think that's important to consider whenever you are in that environment if you are becoming a leader and you've never been Be aware, be prepared and happy to discuss that topic in a future episode of what does it take to be a leader. But I also think that if you have all of a sudden someone that is newly appointed as your team lead or manager or however you want to call it, if that person is not ready, it might be very difficult for you in your day-to-day. On the other side, one thing that is amazing with startup is the speed. which they take to switch strategy. And really, I upload this because I feel like for a corporation, when you have put your five-year strategy, you look at it like this is the goal. So whenever you need to shift because the numbers are not so good or actually better than expected, you usually still shift the link to that strategy overall. Are you going to make some slight adjustment or you might prepare... toward a future strategy, but there is always linked to that five years. But nobody is willing during that time period, or at least in the corporate I've been in and the people I've talked to in their corporates have been in, it seemed that within the period when the long-term strategy has been put in, there is no willingness to potentially say, hey, we were completely off like 100%. I'm going to shift to a complete different direction. It's smaller shift, it's smaller changes. Of Because there is bigger financial impact, there is a lot of impact when it comes to the people, to the environment. So this is also why you cannot make such a major change of strategy in the middle of a certain period of time. You have shareholders and a lot of people you have to report to. So it's a lot harder. So no complaints. And I do understand where it's coming from. But potentially, if a company is going the wrong way, it takes a lot longer to fix it and change it. And you also see the repercussions as... are a lot longer for a major corporation than for a startup. On the other side, for a startup, if you don't switch fast enough or if you switch and make the wrong choices, you can very fast fail and be over. So you have also that level of pressure in making those fast-paced decision changes. But I've seen the value of it. And I've also seen that opportunity really for people to... to adapt to that change and bring the latest of what that startup is needed on the go. And that is really a beauty. If you're ready to do that, ready to be involved in that way, you can learn a lot from that environment and you can really thrive in it. So if this is who you are, if you are highly flexible, maybe this is what's meant for you. What's important? out of this that you learn is that it's balance in act. You need both in the world in order to manage the economy that we're facing and I don't have to say that I prefer one to the other and I think there is also other forms of startups than the one I've experienced or the one I know. There's all the forms of jobs, you can be a consultant, you can be an entrepreneur yourself, You can be, maybe it's also different if you're the founder than if you're an employee. It's also different if you're working for a smaller company or for even a major corporation, but instead of working at a headquarter, if you're working in the market, I do believe that it is highly different than all the experience. So there, I have a lot more to learn and I'm hoping that in my career, I get to experience some of the other roles. But in the meantime, I have to say that both have significantly improved. contributed to my career growth and in a very, very positive way. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to build my career in corporate for the first almost 10 years and to build my way up but also to be in a corporation that allows me to go to different departments. And I think some others in some also fields, it's harder to shift, it's harder to change, you might end up being in one area more than another or I I've also heard from someone that even if their role was very similar, but they wanted to be maybe teaching the role for the corporation. It was a completely different mindset and a completely different role. So they struggled to see that person switching from one to the other, even though for that person it felt very similar. So it really depends on which corporation, which fields you're in. But for me, my experience was amazing in order to having the opportunity to work in operation, in finance, in HR. In startup, in corporate, all of it has built me an overall background and has given me the opportunity to build a general list profile, which I'll talk in another episode. I'm already like teasing you a lot of things that will be happening in the future in this podcast. But what I wanted to say is that from corporate, it has given me discipline. I had it through sports as well, but it really... showed me the importance of discipline and of strategic foresight. Meanwhile, my involvement in startup has shown me my entrepreneurial spirit and the flexibility and adaptability that I have and now I'm able in my role, in my career to use it. I knew that I was someone that could could shift and switch quite fast already. But really, the startup world showed me even more my capability around that and my level of resilience to adapt. And my level to adapt, not my level of resilience. We talked about this. We don't want to talk too much about the word resilience. But in that sense, the capability I have to adapt to a new role and learn from the experts. So really, I would encourage... If you're someone that wants to explore the other side, if you're working in startup, wants to explore corporate or vice versa, don't be scared. It might not end up being the best case. Now you might end up loving the other side of the coin. But whatever you do, try to explore. So maybe the first exploration is to listen to this podcast, to talk to some people. Also, be aware of which startup you pick. Be aware of which corporation you pick. Because of course, depending on that, the environment will be highly, highly different. So it's also specific to that. But overall, they are best practice and they're learning to take from both sides. So I hope you like this. I know it's not detailed or there is not like a one opinion topic, but I'm not, I don't want to spend my time just telling you pick right, pick left. I want to tell you what's out there so you can make your own choice. And for me, have I made my choice? I mean, I was in corporate. I went to startup. I'm back in corporate. I am happy in corporate, but it doesn't mean that it is forever. I'm always happy to explore different environment. And yeah, I mean, so long. The career is so long. So we've got time to do everything and to test everything out. As I was editing the episodes, I actually realized that I forgot to do the outro. So here it is. I hope you really enjoyed this episode. And I know, as I mentioned earlier in the episodes, it's quite a complex topic. There is multiple opinions, multiple perspectives. But I would love to exchange. And so feel free to comment on the podcast platform or send me a private chat, private message, or share your comments and feedback on Instagram as well. But I would love to hear what's your perspective. And if you already have decided which one you like best and why you like it best, let's make it an entertaining and meaningful exchange among all the people that are listening and who are part of this community. So feel free to do that. And please like, subscribe. I say this every episode, but any support by putting a five-star rating or liking. on social media, as well as on all the platforms. So YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. are helping this podcast grow. So thank you so much for all your support. And we talk in another soon, I guess in two weeks. So talk soon. Bye.
