INCEPTION DAY – Team Blog #3

June 1^st dawned bright and happy for all of us here at Inception Business Services.  A celebratory mood prevailed as we were marking our very first Inception Day. Although the firm came into being in March 2011 and well, the idea of Inception was founded and named as early as October 2010, it was on 1^st June 2011 that the firm’s evolution from a one person idea to the energetic and enterprising team it is today began.

Well, it is but natural that we’d like to share some of the highlights of the journey since then.

What happened on 1^st June 2011? One of our partners Mala Dhalani officially joined in on that day. By then, the firm had just set up office at the current premises. Until then, Inception was essential just a one-person outfit comprising of me (Pavithra Charan) backed up by two non-working partners (who continue to be our mentor partners).

By September 2011, it was clear that Mala and I shared a lot of common ground with reference to our professional ideas and love for the kind of work Inception could take on. As individuals, there were striking differences as well, which in a productive working relationship helps us complement each other.

We realized that we thoroughly enjoyed working with different businesses. We also realized that as a concept, the kind of services or business support we were willing to offer was not easily available. Not because there are not enough experts or specialists around, but especially because there are many highly skilled specialists available for a lot of work functions, but not always enough generalists who can simply extend managerial bandwidth.

Ofcourse, as in every start up’s journey, it is never All Is Well all the time. We’ve had quite a few hiccups or issues we’ve grappled with. Starting with how to scope our work, price our services right, on to how to distinguish what we do as a team from what other service providers offer. We’ve also been extremely lucky in many aspects. We have some wonderful clients and exciting businesses that we’ve had a chance to work with. Some wonderful human beings who took a chance on us to work with a new team and we’ve had tremendous learning and growth opportunities. We have two supportive mentor partners who give guidance and help play devil’s advocate once in a while. We ‘ve especially been blessed and lucky to have some good people who found it exciting and challenging to join us. And this is the team you see in this post.  Anusha Kousik, a wonderful person with great work ex in start ups and a fantastic approach to work came on board in January 2012. Mala and I can barely recall what we did and how we managed before Anusha joined Team IBS. Then we got Subha joining us in end of April, straight and fresh out of  her engineering course (also bringing down the average age in an already young firm!).  And then we have had Manoj (one of our project trainees) also joining in after completing his MBA (not in pic due to a train delay – No thank you to the fuel hike bandh!) And last but not the least, we had one more 1^st June addition, this time in 2012 – Madhumita Ganapathy comes on board after a marketing stint with some of the giants in marketing like ITC.

As we wrap up this day, it is clear that Team IBS is gently and firmly stepping out of the start up mode. Having been part of large organisations, Mala and I simply want to ensure that we celebrate every little milestone and take a moment to savour every such step along the journey of Team IBS.

One of the ways in which we ‘ve decided to do this is to mark one day in every quarter to celebrate some aspect of our work. June 1^st is the first such day that we are observing. Our values or ideals at the firm, Integrity, Innovation and Involution will also soon have their own days which we intend to celebrate appropriately.

There’s a lot of great work going in around us, a lot of new possibilities are emerging. And we look forward to some great times for us as a team in terms of  work, fun and learning.

Here’s ending with cheers to that !