When a well-performing team member of Pine Labs quit, for Amrish Rau, the CEO, it was good news.
The member was a support engineer in a remote part of Uttar Pradesh and in five years had grown to become a useful fintech resource. So, why was Rau happy to see him go?
"Companies should be happy. They made a difference in someone’s life," Rau said.
Recollecting his first interaction with the colleague who has not been named, Rau wrote, "About 2 years back he had ranted that the sales people aren't selling correctly. I responded and did a zoom. He came prepared with 10 slides. He had spelling mistakes all over, but advice was spot on."
The team member also explained the three stages of sales and what functionality should be highlighted and when. "He also created a sales incentive plan on the fly," Rau said, adding that the company immediately moved him to sales, trained him, got him exposure to fintech stories. He was also rewarded with a bike.
In the five years that he spent with the company, the unnamed team member worked first as a service engineer and finally as a fintech resource, before getting a new job at a better salary.
"It's heartening when a team member learns a new domain, grows new skills and flies away. Companies should be happy. They made a difference in someone’s life," Rau said in his LinkedIn post.
The message resonated with a number of people on social media.
Devendra Trivedi, a sales professional in digital payments, commented, "Thanks Amrish for sharing this. Very few organisations and Leaders take such bold bets of listening to a person on what is out of place and then support them to prove themselves right, thereby helping the organisation at large."
"It is important to hear those well intended challenging statements than being opinionated about the person. Believe in them and support with right inputs, then I guess there are no boundaries for success," he added.
Vijay Kumar, director, head south sales at Gupshup Technology India Private Limited, said, "Really impressive. A CEO of the company speaking about front line sales team member. This speaks a lot about this company's culture."
Retail professional Shalabh Dhingra wrote, "It's rare to see a leader acknowledging that everyone who quits is not bad. Unlike the traditional ways wherein the blame game starts the day one is out of any company."
Read more: Pine Labs gets $20 mn investment from SBI ahead of IPO
A few, however, questioned that if the team member was valued, why was he not retained at Pine Labs.
Anupam Mishra, a digital payments professional, said, "Wonderful to hear this Amrish Rau. Kudos to Pine Labs But just wondering how the company missed to match the reward for enhanced value that service engineer brought by learning new skills."
Echoing the same, product developer Farhad Tarapore commented, "This is great, but just curious - why did you not retain him if he was so valuable? Was 'better salary' the only motivator?"
While Rau has not responded to any of the questions yet, the post had gathered close to 3,000 likes on LinkedIn.
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