“Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s a part of success.” – Arianna Huffington, Author, and Co-Founder, Huffington Post
As per Government reports, there were around 50,000 start-ups in India in 2018 and 1300 new tech startups were added to the list in 2019 alone. So, approximately we have around 2-3 tech startups being born every day. While the numbers may encourage you to join the bandwagon with the idea that you think is amazing and unexplored, take a pause and think again.
If you check other reports, they also say that almost 90% of these start-ups fail in the first year itself. That brings us to the question of why. All the start-ups are built around an idea or a problem that needs to be solved. The entrepreneur has chalked out everything, or so it seems.
(S)he has the problem, the solution to it, supportive people who think the solution is the best, the roadmap is drawn on when the services or the product goes live and it is then launched. But it doesn’t work out. And after losing money, time, and a lot of confidence and faith, the entrepreneur thinks about what went wrong.
This is also what Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier thought to himself, not once but twice after his two start-ups failed to take off the way he imagined. His first idea was that of a retail online business that he had nurtured for 8 years planning everything alongside his regular job and even completing his part-time Executive PGDM at TA Pai Management Institute, Bangalore.
Soon he realized this idea wasn’t working. But he also knew that he can’t go back to his 9 to 5 routine. So he came up with another business idea. Having heard of opportunities in the education sector, he started a business school offering MBA programs in 2009. The institute produced a couple of batches but the cash burn out rate was so high and he lost all his savings.
Seek and You shall Find
In a society that judges people by their financial position and success, Antony had only failures to show. All he knew was he has already set himself on a path that only leads forward and the journey had just begun.
A serious round of introspection and reasoning with himself made him realize that up until now, he was chartering in untested waters. A software developer by profession, his ventures had been in unknown territories, and he started his entrepreneurial career without a plan and market research which led to failure.
So finally, his quest for the next business idea ended with him picking up the domain (workflow) which he was working in before the entrepreneurship bug bit him. He started practising freelance consulting services in ‘Business Process Automation’ and ‘Application and System Integration’, and in 2015, laid the foundations of Entoss Technologies Pte Ltd in Singapore. With Entoss, Antony finally hit the sweet spot in the business where he had the perfect blend of passion, expertise, and opportunities.
Entoss builds a platform of ready to use automated business processes for its customers to make them efficient, flexible, and intelligent enough to compete in the market. Entoss Technologies envisions “The Automated World” – connected enterprises regardless of its size to make the world better for consumers. It focuses on three spectrums of today’s CIO priorities – Business Process Automation, Document Management, and enterprise mobile app. In 2019, Antony started the Indian entity of Entoss.
The Platform
Entoss offers cloud solutions to automate the business processes on demand. It first identifies the key KPIs that are important to improve, and its related business processes and then maps the existing business processes as is with the existing automated business processes.
Next, it implements the customized business process and deploys it on Entoss Pomfret. Once the customer starts using the processes, it also monitors the performance of the key metrics and indicators. Any issues are handled and assisted for resolution by the Entoss support team.
Pomfret is Entoss’s platform for Automated Intelligent Business Processes. It is the digital transformation platform of ready to use automated business processes interleaved with intelligent (AI / ML) decisions routing. It is affordable as customers pay only for the utilized processes. The platform can help customers with increasing revenue, enhance customer experience, achieve better business performance, and improved productivity.
The Transition from an Aspirant to a Leader
On his entrepreneurial journey, Antony has seen both success and failure and believes that neither of them defines or decide the journey. Just as failure doesn’t mean one should stop trying, success is not a milestone but a step towards a larger goal.
To succeed as a leader, one needs to have a vision for oneself and instil the same in the organization. The vision should be the same throughout the hierarchy. He also feels that it is important to assess and evaluate the business journey and whenever needed, there should be a reality check on whether the business is on the right path.
Due to its dynamic nature, there might be instances when the organization’s goals change during the journey. The same must be communicated to and realized by the entire team so that they all work together.
To Lead, You need People who Trust
To know how good a leader is, one must take a look at his followers. For Antony, co-workers and employees at Entoss are not just followers but equal partners who now share the same vision as his. He feels that the younger generation working with him has a lot of information at hand and all they need to stay motivated is a free hand in solving problems.
Antony feels, as a leader or top management, he shouldn’t be micromanaging his employees but encouraging them to solve issues by their free will. All they should be reminded of is that the problem they are taking up and the solution should be in-line with the company’s values. The rest, they can take care of.
This type of trust that everyone at Entoss enjoys comes from three core values that Antony and his core team have been nurturing over the years. These values are:
Commitment – With commitment comes credibility. It is necessary to deliver what one commits, whether to a client or a co-worker.
Teamwork – Together is the way to grow. We must work together and share the knowledge that we possess. And as it is with knowledge, the more we share, the more we gain.
Relationship – Good relations go a long way. Antony believes that when we put other’s needs first, one’s needs are taken care of on their own.
Words of Experience
As a Software Developer, here’s what Antony has to say to the fellow developers. “Do not worry much about what technology will become popular, instead focus on problems. With technology evolving, everyone is confused about what new they should learn to keep up with changing times. However, there is no end to it. It doesn’t matter what new you have to learn, if you are capable of solving today’s problem with what you know, it should be good enough.”
As a Business Leader and Entrepreneur, he feels that the fellow entrepreneurs should focus more on connecting with the customers. Instead of trying to focus on what new technology they need to implement to stay relevant, they should connect with the real customers, find their areas of pain, and provide solutions.
Towards an Automated Future
What the future holds for us is always a mystery, more so in the current times when a pandemic has put most of the plans for the year on hold. However, Entoss has its plans cut out as it envisions all enterprises using solutions provided by the company. This vision can be achieved by connecting with them, addressing their pain points, and motivating Entoss’ employees to solve them.
According to Antony, Automation isn’t a rapid stream and the technology is currently not affordable for mid-size companies. Entoss is trying to make it affordable. He adds, “Our job is to make sure AI and Automation can be put in one bundle for mid-size companies which need it but can’t afford.”
Going forward, Entoss will be focussing on Intelligent Business Automation. They will be looking into integrating Intelligence in day-to-day operational efficiencies. “We’ll see how we can collect data from daily activities, feed the Machine Learning mechanism, and improvise so that enterprises can stay ahead of the market trend”, concludes Antony.
