Overview

pFounded in 1995, CIT is a digital solutions partner for some of the world's largest companies, and provides strategy, research, design and engineering services, digitally transforming customers' businesses by co-creating new business models, digital products and platforms, and innovative ways of working. CIT has always been a trailblazer in emerging technologies - like AI, cloud, blockchain - and practices - like agile and design thinking. CIT is currently breaking ground in establishing an entrepreneurial management model called Adhocracy, which is a shift away from the hierarchical command-and-control to a more flexible and adaptive organizational structure./p

Supernova Award Category

Future of Work: Human Capital Management

The Problem

pCIT’s digital transformation began two years ago, the company had established teams that focused on specific client work but didn’t work cross-functionally with other teams. Mindful of how the software industry was constantly changing, CIT found itself with an organization that was designed for linear people in an exponential reality - a bureaucracy that blocked collective intelligence and limited growth. In 2017, 18 of the 38 most senior executives were in back-office support and administration roles. The company needed it’s executives to be client-facing to bolster relationships and company growth, yet they were spending most of their time on internal administration because their operational teams were too big./p

The Solution

pCIT’s senior leadership team decided that a new structural approach was needed, and came up with the following organizing principles: (a) organise ourselves around opportunities, (b) opportunities are transient, (c) speed is essential, (d) activities are transparent, (e) management is light touch, and (f) governance is flexible. /p pThe focus was to restructure around client-facing Growth Units, each with its own executive squad, 2-3 executives and a small group of senior managers - all client-facing. They would spend some time on managerial oversight, but always with a percentage of their time serving clients. By design, this executive squad would be cross-functional, people with different skills, working together on client problems./p

The results

pThis new model gave these squads an unprecedented ability to adjust to specific client problems and a new level of empowerment to come up with innovative ways to solve them. It helped create a much more innovative environment where teams are willing to take risks. There is no top-down system -instead, it is entrepreneurial and creative in nature.  It’s fostering entrepreneurship, flexibility, and creativity. And these new capabilities have already shown in the numbers./p

Metrics

pCIT went from having 52% of the most senior executives in client facing roles in 2017, to 78% of senior leadership in client facing roles in 2019. /p pRevenue per employee has surged almost 40% in the last three years, from $55K per year per employee in 2016 to $77K in 2019. In the same period, the company has grown revenues by an average of 28% a year, from $38M in 2016 to $80M in 2019. /p pCIT is still set to grow an additional 20% in 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic impacting the global economy./p

The Technology

pCIT’s goal throughout this process was to be as fluid, flexible and transparent as possible, focusing on methods that allowed the adhocracy model to take shape within the organization. While there wasn’t a specific product that helped CIT succeed, the results of shifting to an adhocracy model has allowed Growth Units to prioritize innovative thinking and encouraged them to explore new technology and ways of working both internally and with clients./p

Disruptive Factor

pImplementing an adhocracy model of this scale in a global company was an ambitious undertaking, especially considering we were going against the idea of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Instead we wanted to challenge ourselves to improve our way of working to be more successful. /p pDigital ways of working are not only about technology they are about overcoming the barriers that old management styles such as bureaucracy and meritocracy impose to the companies. Emulating a model of self-organization that we promote to our clients enabled CIT to walk the walk better. /p pShifting towards an adhocracy model - in which employees are entrepreneurs -  was not easy for every single employee. Mindset, roles and responsibilities, and preference on ways of working was something we needed to be mindful of. So our strategy began with  the executive team part experimenting with the new model, later to be cascaded town. Overtime we saw leadership transform itself to work with more fluid structures, facilitating bottom-up decision making./p

Shining Moment

pWhen the Covid-19 pandemic forced many businesses to become 100% remote almost overnight, our adhocracy model allowed CIT to seamlessly transition without losing productivity. We were even able to share our adhocracy best practices with clients, business partners and communities on how to succeed when making these changes. This distinctive approach has proven to make CIT a more resilient organization, prepared for the uncertainties and volatility of the years to come./p