International Software Startup

Challenges

A Herzberg Smith expert was contacted by a former consulting client who had accepted the role as President of the U.S. division of an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions provider based in Germany. With their U.S. offices based in the San Francisco Bay area, they were having challenges attracting staff – technical, sales, and administrative – in that highly competitive employment market. Growth having stalled at eight employees, the challenge was to not just expand the U.S. operations, but to do so by creating the culture and environment that would attract the individuals who would help achieve sustainable growth in both manpower and profitability for years to come.

Solutions

The expert worked onsite, performing a 360-analyses to discern the current culture, mindset, and perceived organizational needs of both the executive and engineering staff. A team- focused process was created for interviewing and hiring, ensuring that the initial hire was a strong cultural fit with respect to the company’s mission, vision, values and principles, as well as technically adept in growing and supporting the product base.

Results

With continued, consistent application of this new attraction & selection model, the company grew ten-fold in just under 18 months. Company outcomes steadily improved in both constructive culture and work productivity, leading to a successful IPO within two years from inception. After four years of successful market growth, a merger was crafted that created the world’s largest ECM solutions provider.