“I quit because I want to do my own thing.” How often have we heard that. Employees are not indispensable, the organisation finds a replacement and the employee moves to greener pastures. That’s the story of every company. You can’t control attrition.
But what happens when the person who quit is your star employee? What happens when the star employee is a bigger brand than the company itself? Times Now sees itself in a similar storm after its star employee Arnab Goswami quits. Love him or hate him, without any doubt he was a TRP puller.
Whether Brand Arnab will loose its sheen or whether it will grow bigger that waits to be soon. Whether Arnab will be seen is his trademark fiery ‘The nation wants to know’ Newshour avatar or will he reinvent himself only time will tell. But Times Now after Arnab looks like in deep trouble.
Star reporters quitting a news channel is not new. Pranoy Roy quit Star News taking the likes on Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai along and Star could not take the jolt. When Rajdeep quit NDTV it was still a huge loss but the channel managed to handle it. This is because NDTV had a pool of talent which they had nurtured over time. Times Now has a big hole named Arnab which they might never be able to fill.
No doubt Arnab singlehandedly took Times Now to the top of the TRP race. But the channel missed an important rule in the book. Don’t depend overtly on a single employee or group of employees. They failed to nurture other stars in the making. Perhaps it might have got to do with Arnab’s autocratic way of working. Also they failed to win back their star employee, striking a deal could have worked.
Important lessons to learn here not just for News Channels or other TV channels but all organizations, particularly startups. A big organization might be able to bounce back with the huge bucks they have but for a startup the human resource is one of the biggest strengths. The answer could be to have a long term vision and don’t forget to plan for rainy days.
Leading Lines 
Nice lines and nice thinking
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