Latest / TFS WealthCast / Building TFS: People, Leadership and Growth

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Building TFS: People, Leadership and Growth · TFS WealthCast

• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of the TFS Wealthcast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the first episode we are recording for this new financial year.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: The last financial year we had a lot of fun.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a lot of growth.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of stress.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: But to start this new financial year off with the first episode, I thought let's bring Pramu into this.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's put him on a hot seat and let's grill him with some questions.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, Pramu, are you ready?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm ready.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: I got my uh trying out a new whiskey, so let's see how how well that that will serve me.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's the Benriak 12 years, right?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Single month.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, trying it out.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, Pramu.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then the first question.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the TFS growth in the last financial year.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, um, see, last financial year was a year that um a proper financial year after the strategic partnership with LOLC.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I thought I I've seen growth before that.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um that year opened my eyes as well.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: It showed me the limits, it doesn't actually matter because there are no limits.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: And growing a business at 100% growth in uh in probably just under 12 months, at a level of uh TFS, I was blown away.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was blown away because of certain things, such as my teammates, uh the colleagues, the managers, uh, strategic partners, how they came into the game, how they'd contributed, and and the results were that quick, less than 12 months.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was hoping it will be about you know 24 to 36 months.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: In about 11 months to see the results, it it was amazing and it's a massive eye opener for me as well.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I like growth, progress, brilliant.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and speaking of changes, right?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So with with at the scale of the growth you just described, TFS from every level of the company, we underwent a lot of changes.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: So from our people to the systems we utilize, leadership roles, client experience, and even the volume of opportunity, right?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's focus on the people.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: How did this growth affect the people and what kind of changes did it force them to you know bring upon themselves?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So the first thing um I'll highlight is is the management where the managers saw there is a progress for them, there is life beyond their role.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: There is a progress, they can go from a manager to a uh you know uh head of a department.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then you saw uh certain types of um assistants, how they grew.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: We had a we had a we had a uh we had a girl less than two years went to an assistant manager role because capability was there, dedication was there, right?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Commitment was crazy.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because the commitment, when I say commitment, it's not that you're rocking up from nine to five, right?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Not that.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, commitment is for the common goal of the company.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Assistant manager.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So so the career path also opened up for every single person in our office.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like even for me, right?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um a lot of people say, okay, you you you're the founder, CEO, there's no what's out there for you beyond this.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Amount of things I I learned during that year.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and areas such as technology, how the finance and and and the financial industry using technology to to be more accurate in their in their uh projections, right?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's open open different avenues for me as well, from that point onwards.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of growth for myself, including every single person in my team, that's a result of the the whole team is growing.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And sorry.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So Prabhupada, now you mentioned the you know the the scale of the growth that happened after the strategic partnership with LOLC holdings.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So at what moment did you realize TFS was no longer operating like the business it used to be prior to the strategic partnership with LOSC?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um I actually realized it way before the partnership happens, right?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because we can't operate the way that we used to operate with this.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: We have to change.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the change was enforced.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Some stayed, some went.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: We lost about at that particular point of time when when I did the uh a partnership, when we did the partnership, uh we lost about not lost, we we had about one, two, three, three, four, about six people leaving the company.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Some apples left before they had they were pruned.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get me wrong, they thought they were apples.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, right.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And and we were also fooled to a level from the facade level, they were apples.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: But that also opened the whole management uh perspective of individuals.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Who are these individuals we need, what kind of attributes we need, and what is our goal?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because our goal must match with the team members who work with us.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So when certain individuals have a different goal that doesn't match with our common goal, it doesn't work.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: It may not, there's nothing wrong with those individuals, yeah.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't fit.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it don't fit into this equation, into your equation, right?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we we had that change overnight, yeah.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And we love uh to be honest with you, I was a bit worried to a level, and then I realized it amazing, because now I have a certain amount of people left here which were committed to this role, committed to the goal.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let me build from there.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was simple as that.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, I mean, with any any rapid growth story like that, right?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, basically what happened to TFS, it's like you mixed tequila, vodka, and red bull together and downed it, and you know that crazy energy spike you get.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what happened to TFS as well, right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: With this rapid growth.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: With LOSC, so you can you can you can I I don't think you can put it that way.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's the right mix what what it meant to be.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because TFS always meant to grow this way, yeah.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's just right mix, finally, we got the right mix, and then it grew.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so my my initial question with the analogy I used was when things grow that fast, sometimes things tend to break, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so with TFS, what nearly broke as the business grew that quickly?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure it wasn't always sunshine and rainbows along the path.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be financial if that's financial, yeah, yeah.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ups and downs.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think um his understanding of each each of my team members' uh capacity, um, what I could expect from them, and also to how to uh plan and navigate with those individuals to the goal.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that was a surprise to me because I was not prepared to do that.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was only prepared to do, I've got the team, let all of us run.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um for three months I realized I'm the only one who's running.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Quite a lot of things need to change.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it felt like that, you know, it felt like a pop, we felt like puppies on a leash, and then Pramu was running, and then we were like, oh, we're trying to keep up.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but but but again, it's not the uh it's it's not the team's an issue, it's it's it was my issue.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was my issue because I didn't understand my team.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I assumed my team can do this.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: I did not put my time, I did not realize uh to to to bring certain types of um elements into into their game for them to grow.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the point I realized, oh no, no, no, no.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta go back to my drawing board.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just focus on growth of the people rather than the company.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's the point it it's actually pivoted.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because we I mean, as you know, we we we bought few businesses during the first six months, yeah, very aggressively we bought.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we pivoted out uh afterwards.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: We started investing in our people.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: So