Step out of your office and stare at the busy traffic where people are walking in a hurry and you realize that there is barely any time to go to a local restaurant to grab your favorite dish. The notifications bar on your cell phone keeps pinging because ‘meetings and business calls’ have replaced the regular social time with friends on your calendar. Ever since, we transitioned from a factory setup towards an innovative and globalization framework, millions of entrepreneurs sprouted around the globe. These are a set of people who are quick, creative, agile and are hiring people who are like them and can carry the same vision.

You cannot help but wonder, as you notice that these entrepreneurs spend some quality time in hiring Executive Assistants to help them fill the vacuum. This could mean anything – starting from getting a cup of coffee for them to providing Market insights, business intelligence or preparing an investor presentation. This is the future and i would like to ask you, if you are ready for the challenge? This is the fast moving culture where rules are broken only to make the world a better place.

The Traditional establishment requires task and order oriented job whereas the entrepreneurial establishment asks more from you – be innovative, take responsibility, execute ideas and carry market awareness. Hence, this requires you to set aside the old oars of the boat and fit a motor to accelerate. Invest time in those areas of the organization where you are comfortable to volunteer and contribute. If you can run employee engagement program or event planning go ahead and take the initiative. If you are good at analysis and have a knack for detail, join the Revenue department and understand the reports, perhaps the regular people cant identify a certain detractor on the reports that you can!!

It is always possible that you want to contribute and want to populate your calendar with activities assisting the business- start hitting the internet and search for courses for free to start with and learn and spend time with the relevant folk to gets a hands-on. Some of the ways you can show your helpful are as below:

• Inter-departmental co-ordination: Since you understand the boss’ mind and are at proximity at work, there is an opportunity here where you can help departments work together and lead the network of communication and execution of tasks in a seamless manner.
• Product Innovation: This works in two ways, the first is that the company is evolving and since there could be lesser people doing the jobs, you could fill in and extend your help. Secondly, its a great opportunity to understand how the product, which is the lifeline of the company, is engineered and brought to the market. Its a privilege to be part of this exercise and grow alongside the company to growth.
• Market Feedback: If you like going outside and talking to people, feel free to do so, ask them about your company’s product range or a new product in the market. Ask some random people, if they used it or have an opinion about it. Bring the feedback to the marketing team and let them know about it. It helps a lot to become better everyday!
• Business Intelligence: Hey, if you are an introvert and not into talking to people at all, there is one good news – you can start reading and you could find information through reports and online research and come up with interesting observations of the products or the way the company does things. A fresh outlook is always welcome in an ssentrepreneurial environment.
• Project Management: If you would like to be a part of the daily hustle, then align yourself with any ongoing project. There is a lot of life in the execution of operations of the company on a daily basis and a lot of things are learned in the process.

There are many opportunistic ways to build yourself effectively and contribute to the business in a meaningful way. Every Entrepreneur faces a challenge of extremely stringent budget and they find it hard to hire people for specific jobs and this is where your mettle can be tested and you will be encouraged to force your limitations beyond. Try something new and it doesn’t matter if your experiment is a success or a failure because there is something to learn from everything.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Ratna Kumar Sreerangam, EA to Founder & CEO, MakeMyTrip.com