Introduction:
In 2007, when technology was booming and the recession was looming, four big dreamers had the audacity to embark on a journey to evolve the face of mobile advertising. From this bold vision, InMobi didn’t just brave through the economic tempest but was also created—the first unicorn startup in India. And at its very heart is a radical approach toward company culture—one that puts trust, innovation, and personal growth above all else.
The Turning Point
Approaching InMobi’s fifth birthday in 2012, co-founder Naveen Tewari found himself in a rather peculiar conjuncture. The firm had boasted of strong growth, going from 200 to 900 people in four months. But with rapid expansion came some slippage. New employees simply could not understand their roles, while overlapping roles created a mess of inefficiencies and murmurs in the chutes.
Tewari realized they had made a critical mistake in managing their people: the systems and structures that had been haphazardly droned into place to manage the growth only served to slow down the once-nimble startup. It was clear, if InMobi ever had to stand a chance against the likes of Google and Facebook, a radical change was needed.
Reacting to the crisis at hand
InMobi went through a cultural revolution: they wrote a unique philosophy, YaWiO, using the Turkish word for imagination—”haYa”, the Sanskrit word for oneness—”aWirodhin”, and the Latin word for action—”Opus”. This culture was designed, intentionality, for fostering creativity, oneness at work, and action-based results.
It unleashed a series of unorthodox policies that moved the stodgy corporate world to shake their heads in amazement. Attendance was done away with, nearly all employees were given 100% bonuses to their take-home pay; performance appraisal systems were done away with. International travel, incidentally, was left to employees’ discretion. And they gave a hefty “quitting bonus” of three months’ salary to new traineeees who quit within a month .
Fostering Innovation and Personal Growth
Clearly, InMobi’s aims at personal development and creativity are displayed by the distinct schemes it has in place. All workers are issued an $800 “learning wallet” each year to be able to indulge in whatever skill or hobby one finds pleasure in—be it cookery courses or scuba-diving lessons. This spend is over and above their $200 mobile allowance to cover the latest gadgets which probably they are working toward revolutionizing.
It also initiated “bridge assignments”, where employees volunteered for short-term projects in different departments. Such cross-pollination of ideas and skills helps to break down the silos and furthers a more worldly view of business.
Accepting Failure and Advocating for Entrepreneurship
But perhaps the most remarkable attitude is that on failure and entrepreneurship at InMobi. When workers leave to start their own thing, the company doesn’t resent it, offer to support instead. And sure enough, the ex-employee is able to enjoy free office space, interact with former colleagues, and crack company cafeteria jokes.
This acceptance of failure and risk runs rampant at their cultural festival, YaWiO-x, where InMobians spend three days working on real-world problems pitched by a number of different non-profit organizations or start-up companies. The festival is the realization of the InMobi belief that innovation can only occur to a rested mind that has just come out of overcoming a broad set of different kind of challenges.
The Results of Cultural Innovation
The InMobi way, it seems, pays off. The company launched a revolutionary discovery platform, Miip, in 2015, through which they projected that, by 2017, they’d make $1 billion. More recently, it has extended itself into consumer businesses with Glance and Roposo, to completely reimagine how humans should interact on the mobile and CTV surface.
The company’s culture has also cast a deep influence on employee retention and nurturing. Roughly 20% of InMobi’s work-force are there for more than 5 years and above 40% of the workforce in management positions have been groomed within the organization. More significantly involved, 30-40% of the current leadership team consists of people who exited to start their own entrepreneurial ventures and returned to InMobi later.
Timeline of Key Events:
- 2007: Founded when the world was in recession
- 2012: Hyper-growth, cultural crisis, and revolution
- 2015: Miip discovery platform launched
- 2017: Grown its own co-founder, Piyush
- 2022: Entered consumer businesses with Glance and Roposo
Key Takeaways:
How a fledgling startup grew to be a global powerhouse—its journey says everything about culture and innovation. It is trust, personal growth, and pre-disposition to challenging accepted norms that have socially built an environment where creativity thrives and employees dare to buck the odds. Success at InMobi speaks to the fact that in tech, especially during these super-rapid changes, culture can be that one great, possibly determining differentiator between good and great. As global businesses struggle with changing work paradigms, the story of InMobi provides valuable learnings in how an organization has integrated its people at the center of its strategy.
