Professor: How does a company differentiate itself?
Students: Profits, Monopoly, Competitive edge.
Professor: Yes, so tell me one competitive edge that's hard
to replicate?
Students: Technology, Business Model, People
Professor: Almost there, People and Culture!
But What is even culture?
What is the first thought that comes to you when you think of
culture? Some of us might think that it's just a cliché, but then all these big
companies like Tata, Google have set their value systems to help define the
culture. Not without any reason.
The reason for commencing a business and its mission,
vision, and values help define the culture — which makes it unique.
And how does culture make a difference?
Every company looks to develop a sustainable competitive
advantage in the market by framing strategies on product, price, processes. However,
it is possible that these strategies are short-lived because of the dynamic and
uncertain market conditions. Technology is changing, customers are demanding
faster, and employees are looking for a collaborative workplace. But there is
one thing which stays constant – Culture. Although please note, it is not a "define
it and overlook it" concept. It is something that must be cultivated and
evolved with time.
Dream11 - Episode 3
In this episode, we will talk about what Dream11 does to curate a high-performance culture.
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| Credits: Lattice |
DU POT (Do put) our culture first – Dream11
Dream11 follows five tenets of culture – Data, Users,
Performance, Ownership, and Transparency.
Though these tenets are self-explanatory, they use two
special frameworks for data which we thought is interesting and important to
highlight - ICE and HEAL (designed by the CEO himself), to understand the user
data.
ICE framework stands for
Impact – if my idea works, how big is the impact?
Confidence – How likely is this to Succeed?
Ease of Implementation – How many resources will it take?
HEAL Framework Stands for Hypothesis Experimentation Analysis Learning, which
says that propose the hypothesis, double down, triple down, if failing, fail
faster and start again.
Moving on!
We are sure most of you have your appraisal rounds basis your
manager's feedback on your performance. But what if a company comes and tells
you that if you are a culture fit, I'll pay you the 99th percentile
of the salary paid across companies in India without any negotiation.
Well, that's what Dream11 does!
Empowered Dreamsters
Also, the company allows dreamsters to work in cross-functional
pods. They come up with their ideas and work on them, but on one condition, the
idea should be supported by data.
Organizational Structure
The company is doing great. But as per the conventional setup,
you need employees and different departments to run smoothly, right?
Dream11 has proven that it is not necessary.
The company has no departments, and the number of employees
is only 543 till August 2020, working together under one roof.
It means that the company is making sure it will earn
approximately $1 million net revenue per employee. Ambitious, isn't it?
The Way Forward
Dream11 has already gained the largest share in the pie of
Fantasy sports, but that's not all. The co-founder, Harsh Jain, sees fantasy
sports as a cash cow, milking millions of revenue, and aspires to build a
sports data company.
The company is looking for expansion in different fields like
content, merchandising, ticketing, and commerce. All this requires user data
that can help the co-founders to achieve milestones.
Dream11 already possesses data of the users – about their
team's preferences, favorite team player, interest in different sports, and
also the money they are earning from fantasy sports. And data is the new oil.
To understand how data can be used to customize their
offerings, allow me to ask you one thing.
Suppose you are a die heart Kohli fan, and you won 50,000 on
a match because your gut feeling about Virat phodega turns true. When you were
about to exit, the notification comes asking you would you like to buy a limited
edition Virat's official signed Jersey.
Will you be able to resist?
Well, your answer will determine the future of Dream11.
If Startup stories excite you do read our other episodes on Dream11 Defeat and Success and Business Model and Customer and Acquisition.
Why are we doing this?
As business management students, we keep reading theories, principles, and General Gyan about businesses. But all this comes with caution! Caution of copy-paste, 'pick and apply' because businesses do not work like that. So, to connect our learnings with the business world, we came up with a simple vision of Decoding Successful Start-ups and their Strategies.
You can write to us at decodingsuccessfulstartups@gmail.com.
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