Growth needs the complete support structure ....

[ This is a story that would make sense to people who work in a global product comapany ]

Company - A global leader in making networking devices.

Products in case -

Alpha - a popular product, been for 6 years in market, liked by a few big customers. Ownership just transitioned from a US team to

an India team. Few months ago.

Beta - another successful product. Almost 4 times to revenue of Alpha. Complex. Current plan is to move the ownership to an India team.

Gamma - an upcoming product. Not much revenue generated yet. Lots of potential and lots of hype about it. There is a break away small team from the team that handles Alpha and Beta in India. A lot of focus. A lot of engineers want to move to that product. Both in US and in India.

Off late, just after the news of Beta being transferred to India, has caused a lot of action and noise in the entire community.

- This is top revenue generator for the entire BU.

- Has a solid roadmap for next few years to grow

- plenty of great work to be done and great exposure to variety of customers

- At the same, time when Alpha got transferred to India, some people lost their jobs in US. That sour memory is still alive in many heads. That causes existing US team owning Beta to shiver. They have all started a rush for Gamma. To be there first. They dont want to be the last ones hanging to Beta in US.

They may lose their jobs.

As a result, the roadmap for the India team, working on Gamma now, a small team working as an extended team, not in ownership mode, is losing roadmap. The Gamma bucket is being filled by the people exodus from Beta in US.

This is the back ground. Sorry about the length of it. But I had to provide this to explain the real story coming up.

Right after the declaration of transition of Beta, a couple of our top people wanted to leave from existing Alpha team (moving to Beta work).

Various reasons put forth.

- Gamma is a new product. Lets stay ahead of the product cycle. It will be easy for growth.

- One of these person thinks, he was already well received by Alpha management. Beta management will be new for him. He has to prove himself again.

Why not prove in Gamma instead ?

- One other person, dislikes Alpha and Beta management. Not sure why ? What he forgets is that he is rated in top ranking people. If the management is not taking care, how did he get to that spot ? But its his logic !

Betaal thinks there are key two reasons for these people to look at Gamma now. All the above are indirect way of articulating an internal fear.

- The previous partial team in Beta, is relatively stronger than Alpha. So top people moving from Alpha to Beta are feeling a bit insecured. Where would they stand among the stalwarts ? Better to go to Gamma that is not yet crowded with strong people and be the king.

- Another fear may be, there is not enough in Beta for so many strong guys to have their own identity and be visible and grow.

Aspirations to grow is the root of it. In a safe environment.

Growth needs support structure more than a next gen product. They are definitely not looking at their own history. They have grown fast using their knowledge, skills. They have established themshelves. They are going in to a product now (Gamma) where there are more than 100 ex-Beta guys in US is coming in. Where there would be shrinking ownership for a while for the India team.

The choice is between visible competition and invisible competition ( from across the pond). The choice is between established support structure that has rated them in top and creating a new support structure. The choice is between established roadmap and backing of great revenue and the challenge of being part of something new.

Both are good choices. But, if growth is the aim, stay where support is. Proven and recorded support. Running away from internal insecurity wont take you north of the growth chart.