The CACTUS Way #6: Dream big and take risks; overcome the fear of failure.
Looking back on my journey at CACTUS, I am able to recall many instances where I had to take a giant leap.
I’d be lying to myself if I said that every decision I took was easy. But I knew that without these decisions, I—and CACTUS as a company—would not be able to achieve its many milestones.
When I joined CACTUS, I was given a tough mandate. As the operations head of its flagship brand, Editage, I was tasked with scaling up operations and quality. That meant doing things better and faster. We had a small team of in-house editors and reviewers, and some trusted freelance editors. We had to expand this pool drastically to accommodate our business goals and find out ways to make our processes leaner.
I realized that the quality review process was time-consuming. We had well-trained editors who could deliver high-quality work, but their work was reviewed thoroughly by senior quality checkers. As a result, there wasn’t enough bandwidth for grooming new freelancers.
This was a problem that had to be fixed quickly. We experimented with a new review process. We called it “smart review”: This involved running some basic checks on the editor’s work. If it met the quality criteria, it was sent to the client. If it didn’t, it was reviewed thoroughly before being sent to the client.
The plan seemed straightforward but implementing it was a Herculean task. We were overhauling a long-followed quality check process. We had to ensure that the in-house team bought into this idea and was calibrated across the board. Easier said than done! We also faced resistance from some reviewers who felt we were diluting the review process and this would have an adverse impact on quality.
These were valid concerns, but I didn’t want to deal with ifs and buts. The goal was clear and we decided to roll out the new review process. And it turned out to be a success. We were able to create a review process that was scalable, agile, and robust, and were able to do more with less. I believe that Editage would not have been able to achieve the scale of operations it enjoys today had it not been for this decision.
I continued looking for opportunities to improve operations at Editage. But life had different plans. I moved to the UK in 2014. This sudden change forced me to revisit my life’s goals. Should I continue doing what I have been doing for six years or should I explore other opportunities?
Little did I know that an exciting, if daunting, opportunity was waiting for me.
Publishers, Journals, and Societies, or PJS, was identified as an important segment for Editage. I was asked to head this new function. But I had to adjust to many new things: working in Europe, building my own team from the ground up, and introducing high-profile stakeholders to our services, which I had no experience with. I was thrilled but nervous.
The newly formed team had started pursuing some leads. But partnering with publishers was a long and slow process, and we were not able to convert leads as quickly as we wanted. While we made some structural and operational changes, we knew that the real game-changer would be building deeper relationships with decision makers.
In January 2015, I attended the APE conference in Berlin, my first conference as the head of PJS. I was very stressed before the conference. I had a lot of self-doubts. Will I be able to make any new connections? Do I know enough about the industry to make an impression?
I decided to go in with a different mindset. I will do what I know best—be attentive, make notes, and talk to as many people as I can (something I love doing!).
I am so happy I took that first step. That experience taught me some lifelong lessons which I remind myself from time to time: It is important that you figure out some things on your own. Identify your fears, address your concerns, and take the first step! One way or the other, you will move forward. As the saying goes, action is better than inaction.
Today, we have 175 partner publishers, journals, and societies! This would not have been possible without that important step I had taken five years ago!
This writeup is part of a series called The CACTUS Way Leader Stories. The CACTUS Way is what we collectively call our 8 guiding principles. We asked the senior cadre at CACTUS to share personal experiences where they practiced or identified with these guiding principles. These stories of struggle and reinvention, despair and hope, conflict and collaboration, and self-doubt and self-discovery make for an interesting read.
Learn more about The CACTUS Way here: https://cactusglobal.com/about-us/culture-and-values/
