A nationwide study conducting evaluation of people managerial effectiveness in start-ups and entrepreneurs has been launched by Great Manager Institute in association with the Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Bombay. Great Manager Institute (GMI) runs the Great People Manager Study where it evaluates thousands of companies and its managers, in a bid to find the best companies with great people managers and individual great people managers. This Study for Startups shall be a subset of the same.

GMI Team at the Launch of the Study

Research report shows that 90% of startups in India fail within 5 years of their inception, while around 6000 new startups come up every year. There is no clear reason attributed to the failure of startups, though separate studies show lack of sustainable innovation or lack of team bonding as some of the top reasons of failure.

Ashwin Srivastava, Global Investor and Co-founder of Great Manager Institute, shares his views on the same, “In my experience of working with major venture capitalists across India, I found a common pattern in most startups that fail after receiving investments. Most of these companies show a problem in growing at the right pace and with the right plan once the team expansion begins. People Management issues lead to disintegration and unsustainable growth.”

Kritika Pugalia, Client Engagement Manager and lead for the Great People Manager Study for Startups, adds, “Major VCs and Investors now consider people management abilities of the entrepreneurs and the founding team before investing. Therefore, people management should be in focus right at the ideation stage of a startup. Hence, we decided to partner with E Cell IIT Bombay and work towards creating sustainable companies out of young startups, even at ideation stage, by helping them evaluate their people managerial effectiveness, free of cost. The startups that cross our threshold will receive a huge valuation boost through a strong media plan involving a feature in Forbes India.”

Eureka is the business model competition by the Entrepreneurship Cell IIT Bombay and is supporting the Study. Aayushi Agrawal, Media Manager for Eureka says about this partnership, “Eureka aims to develop viable startups out of disruptive ideas. We do so by helping the teams develop a business model canvas, a proof of concept, with the help of various workshops and mentoring by leaders in the industry, over a time span of 5 months. Great People Manager Study is a step in the same direction, helping these startups build a sustainable business that respects people relationships, and help them reach out to a larger audience.”

Great People Manager Study 2019, the parent study for this program, led to recognition of top 100 Great People Managers across the country along with a list of Companies that nurture great people managers. The winners were honoured by Forbes India and included names such as Satish Sundaresan of Elektrobit India, Gagan Jyot of RMSI, Miguel Munoz of Mahindra Holidays, Dilipkumar Khandelwal, then with SAP India, among others.