One in ten corporate honcho jumping to start-up wagon: Survey

NEW DELHI: An average of one in every ten top level corporate executive is opting for start-up ventures to satisfy their urge to take up challenging roles, a new survey has found.


However, the success rate of an executive working with an established traditional business moving to a start-up venture is very low.

According to executive search firm MANCER Consultancy, ten out of every 100 executives seek jobs with a start-up and only one aspirant out of those 10 actually get hired.

Some of the recent examples of this trend include former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit joining India's JM Financial to lead its ambition of setting up a bank.

Besides, Fresenicus Kabi Oncology's former CFO Dheeraj Chopra has joined as the financial controller of Indian start-up operation for Akron, while Huawei's former Chief Technology Officer A Sethuraman has joined Deeya Energy.

Experts believe that entrepreneurial bug, flexibility of doing their own work and pay packages have driven a large number of executives in the last 3-5 years to join a start-up.

HR Consultancy Unison International estimates that as many as 15,000-25,000 top level company executives in the country have migrated to start-ups in past 3-4 years.

"A start up in this age can become a multi-millionaire company if the idea is great...top level executives have grown in a large structure with very minimal risk, so they tend to incline towards a start-up venture because the idea of facing new challenges excited them to a great extent," Athena Executive Search Firm Director Bhavishya Sharma said.

As per Executive Access MD Ronesh Puri: "Nowadays, risk appetite has increased, as more and more executives are becoming financially secured these days. The concept of start ups is more exciting with great fun and various hurdles."

Experts also believe that the growth in the Indian market has significantly helped in promoting entrepreneurial ventures.

Unison estimates that as many as 10,000-15,000 start-ups were set up in India last year alone.

Experts say that the pay packages at many start-ups are much higher than the salaries given by even MNCs.

"It's a risk in reward ratio, higher the risk higher is the reward," Sharma said.

Other than the attractive money, MANCER Consultancy's CEO Satya D Sinha believes, bureaucracy and limited growth within the MNC are also key factors for the shift.

Unison International MD Udit Mittal, however, said that the executives prefer global startups over their Indian peers due to a better sense of security.