At Zoomcar I hired a Senior Finance Manager who had spent several years auditing companies at a Big Four firm. He was smart, fundamentally sound and dedicated to his work. We were excited to have him on board.
One of his first assignments was to build an asset tracker to ensure the accuracy of our balance sheet: a list of all our cars with location, purchase price, lender name and the debt outstanding against them. This required him to coordinate across our city and operational teams as well as our lenders. He said he would have it done in a week.
After a week, I asked him for the tracker.
“Sir, it’s not done yet. I’m still waiting for this information from him.”
“But we agreed this would be done in a week?”
“Sir, I did my part and sent it to him. He’s not gotten back to me till now. What can I do?”
“You can follow up with him explaining the urgency, ask someone else for help, do it yourself, come to me to unblock you. You can do a lot of things if you own it!”
I explained that he wasn’t a task worker but a senior manager responsible for delivering end product. His job was not just to do his part. His job was to get it done!
He understood what ownership meant and I never had to hear excuses from him again.
P.S. – He went on to found his own startup and I’m happy to back him as a small investor.