Sahar Hashemi
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Start Up Culture
What's love got to do with leadership?
How to behave like a start up when you are not a start up
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1-on-1 executive coaching
“Leap and the net will appear.”
- Sahar Hashemi
Lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, Sahar Hashemi has used her deep knowledge of both the corporate and start-up worlds to become an internationally recognized thought leader on entrepreneurial mindset.
As founder of two disruptive businesses and the author of a best-selling book on entrepreneurship, she understands entrepreneurial behavior to the core. She also understands corporate behavior to the core, evolving out of her early corporate law career, then seeing the transformation of culture when her start-up grew into a big company, and this last decade speaking to over 400 large organizations. This combination of personal experience in both worlds gives her a unique and deep perspective into entrepreneurial behaviors, what blocks it in big organizations, and what it takes to unleash it.
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Sahar left her legal career in a top London law firm after five years to start Coffee Republic, the UK’s first US style coffee bar chain with her brother Bobby. In 5 years, they built it into one of the UK’s most recognized high street brands with 110 bars and a turnover of £30m.
She left the day-to-day management of Coffee Republic and published a best-selling book about her journey, Anyone Can Do It, to demystify the idea that entrepreneurship is an innate personality trait. It has been translated into 6 languages and is the 2nd-highest selling book on entrepreneurship after Richard Branson.
She then founded Skinny Candy, a market-segment defining brand of sugar-free sweets which was sold to confectionery conglomerate Glisten PLC in 2007.
Her latest book, Start-Up Forever, How To Build A Start-Up Culture In A Big Company, released in March 2019, and was named The Financial Times Best Business Book of the Month. Start Up Forever has been much acclaimed in the corporate world by throwing away the excuses which normally stifle entrepreneurial culture and providing a practical, easy-to-implement toolkit to unleash the agility and innovation of entrepreneurial thinking which all large companies need.
Sahar was nominated by Director Magazine as one of its Top 10 Original Thinkers, alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Jonathan Ive. She has been named “Pioneer to the Life of the Nation” by Her Majesty The Queen and Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She was listed in the Maseratti 100, a definitive list of Britain’s most successful philanthropists, investors, mentors and advisors. In June 2012, Sahar was awarded an OBE for services to the UK economy and to charity. OBE - Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Start Up Mindset
The relentless pace of change is forcing big companies to innovate not only their products but also their culture.
That’s a challenge but also a huge opportunity:
What could be better than combining the agility and energy of a start up with the scale and talent of a big organization?
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I have seen firsthand how the start up magic can fade when a company grows into a big business. It happened to both companies I founded and I’ve seen it in the cultures of the 400 or so corporations I have worked with.
Many believe this shift away from agility, experimentation, curiosity, resourcefulness and resilience is inevitable — that start-up culture is something you grow out of. It’s not. Of course a big company can’t be run like a small kitchen table start-up. The sheer size and scale demand a certain amount of systems and controls. But it is possible to retain – or ignite — that startup magic. All it takes is removing the obstacles that stand in its way. That’s why I called my latest book, Start Up Forever. Acting like a start up isn’t a phase companies grow out of, but instead a culture you should fight hard to hold on to.. forever.
