What are the primary differences one can expect when moving from a corporate set-up to a developmental set up? A very little changes in the pace and intensity of work; rather, the nonprofit sector warrants more in many ways. However, there are a few key aspects that are vastly different and, therefore, need us to change our approaches.
Project time spans
Cycle times in development projects are much longer than a corporate set-up – largely due to the time it needs for a new complex multi-stakeholder process to be set up, followed by the level of proximity that you have with people (longer if you work directly on-ground with people) and ending with the time it needs to witness evidence-based outcomes. These long tail aspects of developmental programs are difficult to gauge, sometimes even across years, and are definitely different when compared to highly efficient process-driven work within corporate set-ups that have predictable cycle times and clear outcomes.
People & processes
The density of talent moving to the sector is still sparse when compared to the sunshine sectors and, therefore, challenges us to find the best talent and work on audacious goals with really lean teams. The comparative programs or products in corporate India would see significantly more capital, time, and people investments across sectors – but that investment is still very lean here.
The processes that corporate set-ups have across internal services – like technology, HR, finance, sales & marketing are still needed in the development sector – but they can’t be funded or managed with the same resource levels. Hence, a lot of these organisational aspects fall back on the program to manage.
Intent & ownership
Not all is grey & gloomy; the development sector offers individuals to own critical problems important for the country or our communities at scale and end-to-end. The opportunity to do that in corporate set-ups is sometimes limited to new product development teams working to enter new markets and understand that complexity. But that doesn’t last for too long – operations and the rest of the machinery takes over post the pathway identification, and the seed team doesn’t have the responsibilities any more.
However, in nonprofits – people who show intent are rewarded with the ownership of their program lenses; they own the spectrum of understanding the issue to implement changes to working with varied stakeholders to finally build for change in the future – a rare opportunity to work on national and domestic issues and be a part of the solution.
Note: This response is an effort to address the questions we couldn’t cover during our past jigyaasa. Stay tuned for more insights and answers from our in-house experts and leadership team.
