Page 96 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Unit 6: Components of OD – Operational and Maintenance

Notes
Through the ups and downs, Gold Smith Consulting emerged intact and more close-knit
than ever. Statistically speaking, most start-up organisations fail within the first year of
inception. The reason they fail is that, often the people, who bring a company together, are
the first to fall apart. That is part of a natural process through which the corporate world
goes through Darwinian evolution. Four years into Gold Smith, the entire senior team
remained intact, not just the first ten people who came to build the organisation. When
Fordham University of New York did our third annual employee perception survey in
2003, 90% Gold Smith Minds across the world said that it was a great place to work.
As the company grew together, the employees at all levels saw each other very differently
from their initial perceptions, formed during the go-go days of the nineties. They saw in
each other new strength; they saw aspects of personality they never knew existed. Nothing
helps like tough times to bring out the true nature of individuals. Once you know who
you are sans the trappings, you feel secure in that knowledge and life becomes so much
simpler. It gives people massive emotional security. Leaders approach issues without ego
and that becomes critical to the nurturing process that every young company must have.
The Onset of Good Times yet again..

By the summer of 2003, Gold Smith was reorganized, fully aligned, self-confident and
with high energy levels. They were getting closer to employing 1000 people. As they
looked forward to 2004, they were clearly poised for 40% growth in an otherwise difficult
market. Most companies that started around the same time as them had evaporated. They
were clearly being seen as the emerging face of the mid-size segment. They earned a
reputation of being the credible alternative to larger competitors. Many customers and
prospective employees did not want to go to these companies because of their sheer size.
For those who chose Gold Smith it represented agility, access and attention that came
from youth.
The new phase: Continuing the Good Times…
The challenge of terrorism and global geo-political disturbances continued to overshadow
the business of economies. Amidst hope and caution, at Gold Smith, the next phase had
begun. This is the phase that the leadership at Gold Smith knows would have to be led
with fractal leadership. In the formative years between 1999 and early 2003, they had been
able to build an outstanding cadre of people who were now rearing for larger action and
greater space. Clients were always intrigued by this something that made Gold Smith
different.
An Analysis by Professor Raghu Garud…

What happens when people come together on the platform of a shared vision? How do
they change and how do they cause change as the game unfolds? Professor Raghu Garud
of Stern School has expressions for these. He talks of “creaction” – a coined term that is
formed by the coming together of the words “creative” and “action”.

Momentous tasks like institution building involve deep churn and that is the core of any
creation. Churn is about a constant balance between strategy and tactic. It is about leadership
and followership. It is about submerging leadership’s ego to the overall purpose. It is also
about building simultaneity as you plan for fractal growth. Every growth is a potentially
destructive phenomenon. Only simultaneous organisations can manage the opposing
forces that hold what is essential, what is the core and, at the same time, expand in space.
In contemplating the process of institution building, Raghu Garud talks about concepts
like path creation and path dependence. There are the people who are more comfortable

Contd...

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