India is full of “Country Heads” - a designation and role which implies that you have climbed the career summit if you wish to stay in India. Yes there are always bigger brand names, bigger companies but it is still more of the same. But what happens if you have reached there in your 30’s and early 40’s! How long would you do this?

The way to beat this perhaps is by moving away from MNC’s to domestic companies with global aspirations, the Indian MNC’s as they say. But then many of them are family owned and driven with distinct cultures sometimes very “foreign” to even the non-NRIs! Try to see if you can spot the few that are in a mood to transform and have sown the seeds by taking external funding from PEs. Definitely worth giving a shot. But be prepared to fail for it is a learning for them and for you. So often enough the first change may not work. It prepares you well for the next one for you now know what to expect and how to navigate in the new milieu.

Another great option which in India we loath to try are start-ups. They are the future big companies, atleast some of them. And you won’t know which one till you have tried a few. A start-up demands and expects a paradigm shift in your mind set. Be prepared to unlearn and relearn entirely. What worked for you in a big company will fail to fly in a start-up. So first lesson – Go with an open mind and be humble about what you bring to the table. A start-up cannot and should not pay “market” salary especially not the MNC salary for it would show poor management if it offered to do so. Again if you do what you sign up to do you might hit the jackpot in terms of upside. Best thing to do is to wear the investor hat and pick the salary figure. Give up the past. That is the only way you can get started in your new journey.
Don’t micro analyze role and job descriptions. start-ups are like chameleons. They will change constantly and you might end up typically doing something way beyond what you signed up for. That also means hierarchies; designations have no meaning in this new world. Do you have it in you to give up a lot of your ego, roll up your sleeves and do everything from A to Z? Then jump on to the start-up band wagon sooner rather than later. Remember Steve Ballmer dropped out of a Stanford MBA program to join Microsoft in 1980 when it hardly had 25 employees!

Finally if you have hung around too long and are in no mood to venture in to another career stint, how about taking up an advisory role? The Indian growth story is dominated by youngsters who have made it big be it Sunil Mittal who started Bharti in his 30’s or and they all seek executive expertise from outside as they grow. But again here you will not straight away walk into a successful enterprise – it will be unknown and unheralded when it seeks you. So it is up to you to identify the diamond in the rough. Of course there is still a big part on how to structure such an engagement to make it meaningful and worthwhile which I will talk about another time…..