How a Corporate Turnaround Taught Me True Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur

10 hours ago

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My entrepreneurial journey didn't start in a garage or with a venture capitalist's check, but within the confines of a multinational corporation. As a VP of Controls and Digitalization at Siemens Energy, I was tasked with revitalizing a seemingly stagnant division, turning around a business unit that was stuck in a severe revenue slump. Little did I know, this corporate turnaround would become my crash course in entrepreneurship and managing extreme duality.
The challenge was daunting. The business unit was flatlining, and the team was demoralized. My first instinct wasn't to cut costs or reorganize, but to set an audacious revenue target - a North Star so ambitious that it initially drew laughter from the team. But instead of dismissing their skepticism, I leaned into it. I asked, "What's stopping us?" and then encouraged them to unleash their frustrations on Post-it notes. The resulting wall of colorful complaints, once organized, revealed five key roadblocks. Crucially, all were solvable.
This simple exercise – acknowledging the challenges, collaboratively identifying them, and collectively owning the solutions – were my first lesson in entrepreneurial leadership. It wasn't about top-down dictates, but about empowering the team to take ownership and drive change from the ground up. We held workshops, translating roadblocks into actionable plans. That wall of Post-it notes became our roadmap, a constant visual reminder of our shared commitment. That ambitious 'Order Entry revenue target'? We didn't just meet it; we achieved it ahead of our three-year plan.
True leadership isn't about having all the answers, but about facilitating a conversation where every team member feels heard and empowered. My learning from this experience that the most innovative ideas often come from the people on the front lines. It is about building an enviornment of trust where honest feedback isn't just tolerated, but actively sought after.
My second lesson came in the form of investing in people. Recognizing that mindset is everything, I engaged a coach for myself and my entire team. We worked on communication, motivation, and overcoming limiting beliefs. The PQ (Positive Intelligence) training, in particular, proved transformative. By understanding and addressing our own mental saboteurs, we could unlock our potential and foster a culture of growth. We weren't just turning a business around; we were transforming people.
This focus on personal and professsional development was a a significant departure from traditional corporate fixes. We stopped just "fire-fighting" and started building a foundation for a sustainable success. We streamlined processes, embraced digitalization, and fostered a culture of continuous improvement inspired by the Kaizen philosophy. My mantra became: "You can't improve what you don't measure." This entrepreneurial mindset, coupled with the team's newfound sense of purpose, sparked a dramatic turnaround. We rightsized our headcount – first reducing, then rebuilding strategivcally – and lowered SG&A expenses, all while overachieveing our profitability targets. The team achieved the highest order entry in five years, even landing the biggest single ticket order globally that year. Our Net Promoter Score soared to 100, a testament to the trust we had rebuilt with our customers.
The success wasn't just financial. We created a workplace where people felt valued, empowered, and excited to contribute. This experience mirrored the core principles of entrepreneurship's: identifying a need, building a team, developing a solution, and iterating based on feedback. While I operated within a large corporation, the process felt remarkably similar to launching a startup. The limited resources, the need for innovation, the constant pressure to deliver – these were all the hallmarks of the entrepreneurial journey.
My time at Siemens Energy taught me that entrepreneurship isn't confined to startups. It's a mindset, a way of approaching challenges and driving change, regardless of the environment. The duality of managing a large corporate division while also building my own brand, ILÁI SARÁI, leaned into learnings from each other. My corporate experience has given me the discipline to build robust systems and the rigor to track progress, while my entrepreneurial venture has reinforced the importance of authentic storytelling, passion, and purpose. It's a masterclass in managing extreme duality, showing me that the most powerful leaders don't just manage tasks; they manage purpose.
Looking back, the most rewarding part of this experience wasn't hitting the ambitious targets, but witnessing the transformation of the team and the realization that my purpose was to build things – whether a team together or a brand – from the ground up,, with passion, people, and a clear vision at the heart of it all. It's about transforming not just businesses, but people.