How an electronics firm stopped rapid growth from losing their identity

Culture is dynamic, a living state of entropy that changes with the times.

With robust culture being imperative to thrive in a post-pandemic world, balancing it with growth is an emerging challenge., As companies grow, their culture changes. Growth is a deliberate exercise, and as change initiatives are executed, adrift from values or principles can occur. This is especially evident in companies caught on a current of rapid growth, the all-consuming energy of change may eventually
lead to an identity crisis.

A disconnect between culture and company values may lead to internal confusion. The same principles that initially served as a guide to how “things should be done” become merely a suggestion. The looming threat of loss of identity amidst rapid growth is what brought the CEO of an emerging firm to CALX.

The firm was a projectized organization composed
of many different business units. Shrouded by evident success and growth, each business unit operated as separate entities.

The root cause was an instrumental difference in the business winning strategy across the different industries.
For example, the military business unit had a life cycle averaging two-three years, with an estimated 6-7 figure cost. In contrast, in the telecommunications industry, the life cycle averaged two to three months with a price
of around 10,000 SAR.

The differences in the duration, investment and size of the projects became the core reason for the desynchrony between the business yets.

The disconnect made it seem like the firm was composed of different firms under a single umbrella. Each business unit used different processes and tools, and more worryingly, a separate culture was emerging independent of each other. As a result, the firm was unable to leverage its internal resources, as the move from one business unit to another was jarring, to the point it was identical to recruiting from the outside.

As part of a larger engagement with the firm, CALX was tasked to address and tackle this emerging challenge.
Starting with our traditional approach of digging deep to understand the key challenges faced by the firm, CALX conducted holistic studies on the various business studies.
Developing a unified solution required a comprehensive understanding of each business unit’s considerable differences and requirements.

CALX delivered a hub-and-spoke model to address the customer’s needs, with the hub is the corporate portfolio office and the spokes being P3Os for each business. A common pitfall for many consulting firms is offering static one size fits all solution, but this is bound to fail. Just as no two snowflakes are ever the same, so are businesses. Tailoring solutions is a time-intensive and exhaustive process, but it is critical for the long-term success of a solution.
CALX modified our hub-and-spoke solution by making 80% of the model similar across the entire organization. The other 20% was reserved for customization across the various business units. This hybrid approach protected the identity and culture of the organization whilst answering the specific needs of each business unit.

By speaking the same language offered by the 80% shared processes, identity was maintained whilst the firm experienced its growth. As a result, the firm continued to experience growth and an improved winning rate whilst retaining its core identity to this day. Today, the firm serves as a backbone of the Kingdom’s defence electronic division in line with Vision 2030. This shared success highlights that only a robust, coherent identity can allow organizations to contribute to the world and thrive in a turbulent climate.