The (Not So) Surprising Similarities between Startups and Consulting
Five months ago, I traded the structured world of consulting with the chaos of startup hypergrowth.
I still remember my days leading up to the change — a countdown of anxious anticipation.
Like messengers of prophetic warnings, my consulting friends who moved to startups told me that things would be different. I’d be plunged into an unstructured environment. I’d be asked to abandon old habits around careful planning in favor of improvisation. I’d have to trust in my ability to invent the way to do things rather than turning to best practices.
Needless to say, my friends were right and I have a richer understanding for why. Startups are definitely a different beast. When I propose recommendations at Go-Jek, I do have to rely more on business judgment and less on detailed analysis. I deal with a greater variety of stakeholders — not just a team of consultants and our main client sponsors, but people from HR, marketing, branding, creative and leadership. I spend more time thinking about how things should get done versus what needs to be done. This journey to learn new things and unlearn old habits has been humbling and personally revelatory.
But, I also realized something else. I’ve found that much of what I have learned in consulting has made it a little bit easier to embark on this journey of learning and unlearning.
Again, I’m not advocating that both roles are similar. I’d be the first to deny this. But, in some notable ways, both roles can be quite similar.
This is the undertold story I wish to share — the ways in which the eccentricities of a consulting job have served me well for the surprises of the startup world.
1. What hats won’t you wear?
No two consulting engagements are ever the same. Last year, I was immersed in the glamorous world of animal feed. I knew the names of all the raw materials, the suppliers in Indonesia and the struggles around procuring these commodities. Just when I thought I was finally getting a hang of things, I had to learn a new world — that of e-commerce. Literally in the span of two days.
Each engagement comes with a new industry, topic, team, client dynamic, you name it, so over time, I’ve grown to trust in my ability to compensate for lack of specific industry knowledge with raw problem solving skills.
I’ve found this to be comfortingly similar at Go-Jek. The current project I’m working on is revamping Go-Jek’s employer branding strategy. This sounds fondly familiar — yes? Somehow, though, in the span of this project, the work has gone from strategy (my bread and butter), guiding a team (sort of my bread and butter), a bit of writing (I guess I can pretend that this is my bread and butter), recruiter (don’t think this is my bread and butter) and working with creative to develop ad campaigns (can we please bring back my bread and butter?) But, just like in consulting, I’ve learned to trust to compensate lack of experience with self belief, focus on big picture objectives and the support system around me who has been more than helpful in bringing me up to speed on new skills like the world of ad campaigns.
2. Done is better than perfect
When I was a consultant, I remember being asked to figure out the right structure for the commercial team of an e-commerce company. We had a whopping two days.
So what did we do? We called up former HR employees and team managers of comparable companies and probed them on why they did what they did.
Because consulting demands hourly milestones, working smart is important. Consultants have to work quickly to deliver what we call a directionally correct answer.
In some ways, startups demand a similar mindset to working smart. In thinking about what recruiting messages would be most compelling to an engineering audience, I might have an idea from speaking to those around me. I could try and emulate what Airbnb is doing. I could ask startup buddies that were offered jobs at Go-Jek and comparable companies.
But, quite frankly, nobody really knows what the right message is. Go-Jek is inherently unique. There are no multi-sector unicorn startups within a startup originating from Indonesia with a regional ambition. What’s important, just as with a consulting recommendation, is to put something out there, test, measure and iterate.
3. What is scope?
Ah, scope creep. Good ol’ scope creep. We consultants cringe at this — that moment when all seems aligned and then the client pivots, out of left field, and declares an additional deliverable, which contributes five hours of work. This, of course, takes place the evening before a major client presentation.
Fortunately, the very fact that I have dealt with scope creep before means that I am better able to weather sudden changes in direction — something that is so core to the startup experience.
When I started at Go-Jek, I was asked to move from thinking beyond recruiting for a technology audience to a wider Go-Jek candidate pool because the key elements of the messages were largely consistent. I moved beyond thinking about this as a recruiting problem to a broader challenge to cement our company narrative. Marketing people were brought on. Then PR people. And just as this seemed fixed, I was asked to drive implementation as well.
Had it not been for consulting, I may never have felt equipped to maintain composure in the face of sudden changes. The key is understanding that, for most, scope change is ultimately for good reason: getting to a better strategy by looping in the right subject matter experts and streamlining a never ending checklist.
4. It’s all about listening
When you start a new consulting project, it’s important to study the culture of the receiving organization. I remember going to transfer on Australia after a year in Indonesia. I recall how important it was to pick up on the subtle ways of doing things. Meetings were more scheduled. Small talk needed to be longer. And no client drank just the regular latte. It was skim, beefed up with an extra-shot or taken with a dash of soy.
I wish someone had reminded me how important it was to just listen on day 1 of Go-Jek.
I made the mistake of assuming that things would operate the way they did at my consulting firm. I assumed similar speed to output and modes of interactions among peers. But this was an oversight that ignores a fundamental consulting skill set: adjusting to different client contexts.
What I should’ve done is liken my arrival to the start of a new client engagement — patiently observing how best I should navigate the nuances of this new organization.
I probably would have been seen as less of an outsider had I spent more time quietly observing. I mean, really observing — and politely asking questions like: “what does that team do”, “why does that sound similar to what I have been assigned” and “in what way could I add value to that existing team by removing duplication of efforts”?
In Summary…
So, yes, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to embrace change — and to abandon old ways of doing things. But, in some unexpected ways, the transition to startups could be a story of continuity.
To those consultants wondering what the parallel universe of startups entails, realize that what you’ve learned will put you in good stead. You’ll continue to wear many hats. You’ll be asked to work quickly by trusting your judgment and managing changes in direction. Most of all, you’ll need to listen and watch closely — I mean, very closely — to get things done.
Written by Sean Widjaja
