MARCH 20208IN MY OPINIONIF NOT CAPITAL, WHAT HINDERS START-UPS FROM GROWING INTO ENTERPRISES?By Shalini Bhattacharya, Founder & Executive Leadership Coach, White RayA certified leadrship coach, Shalini helps leaders to attain sustainable growth by leveraging the emotional intelligencestudy conducted by the European Associa-tion of Business Angels found that around 50 million start-ups are established every year. Of these, 90 per cent start-ups fail within four years of inception. While there is no denying that a lack of capital and a lost market are major reasons for an organization's decline. It is worth noting that there are several other reasons why start-ups fail in the ear-ly stages. These include a lack of trust and communi-cation among the team, abrupt upscaling, aversion to feedback, lack of leadership skills, burnout, and dis-harmony with investors/co-founders. If looked at closely, it becomes quite clear that the basis of all these issues is a lack of leadership skills and the loss of a holistic vision. While all start-ups are established with an overarching vision, they soon lose their way due to the several pressures that are characteristic of business. This is exactly where things start to go downhill. For instance, Call9, a promising US-based health sector start-up with $34 million in funding, failed mainly because of a strained relation-ship with a key investor. Similarly, online interior de-signer Laurel and Wolf closed down mainly because of management and operational challenges within the organization.While each challenge is unique, the deciding factor in each case is ­ the mindset. A successful start-up can differentiate itself from a failure through a mind-set that is based on growth and not rigidity. When the mindset of business leaders is growth-oriented, challenges and momentary failures are perceived as growth opportunities instead of the end of the road. On the other hand, failed start-ups often have leaders with a fixed mindset that adds a lens of self-reflection in the form of inability, confusion, and frustration. This mindset is very risky, especially for a new busi-ness. When the mind focuses on negative assumptions and continuously builds negative conclusions,it slowly turns into reality. Failure, in this case, is inevitable. Achieving a Growth Mindset Through Emotional Intelligence A person's mindset leads to innate emotions, expe-riences, thought-processes, and responses to sit-uations. Every decision one makes is driven by their AShalini Bhattacharya, Founder & Executive Leadership Coach
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