Everest Engineering
Overview
Everest Engineering, founded approximately six years ago, is a technology services company primarily serving Southeast Asia and Australia. With a workforce of about 250 employees spread across India, Southeast Asia, and Australia, Everest Engineering has helped launch over 60 startups and worked with five of Australia's top ten unicorns.
How to Scale Alignment without Losing Agility?
As Everest Engineering grew to 250 employees, the company faced a significant challenge. The founding principle of minimizing traditional management roles was becoming unsustainable. A small group of seven experienced people acting as coaches and administrators couldn't effectively support the entire organization. The cognitive load on these individuals was too high, impacting their ability to provide quality support to both employees and customers.
Am Evolutionary Process
Leadership and Decision-Making
The evolution was led by a senior engineering leader which was appropriate in an engineering-led organization. The process was iterative and collaborative, involving consultation with the coaching team and senior consultants across the organization.
Principles Guiding the Change
- Solve problems without introducing unnecessary complexity
- Minimize the impact on team members
- Design for validation and further evolution
The New Structure
After careful consideration and consultation, Everest Engineering decided to restructure into business units based on their customers' lifecycle stages: start-ups, scale-ups, mature businesses. Each business unit is led by two managers - one in India and one in Australia - to ensure cultural alignment and time zone coverage.
Implementation and Challenges
The primary challenge was finding time for busy employees to engage in the change process. There was also some mild fear of change among staff. To address these concerns, the leadership team emphasized that the change was incremental and reversible, communicated regularly about the process and its rationale, and allowed time for the new structure to settle and prove its value
Impact
While the change wasn't immediately noticeable to customers, over time they experienced more consistent and personalized relationships with Everest, faster decision-making due to better-information, and improved alignment with their specific business stage and needs. For example, a long-standing client now benefits from regular check-ins and more strategic involvement from Everest Engineering in their planning processes.
For employees. frontline employees experienced minimal disruption, senior team members now have clearer points of contact for support, and there was improved stability in management relationships.
For the organization there was an increase decentralization of decision-making, more ordered processes while maintaining agility, and business unit leaders adopting entrepreneurial mindsets, leading to innovative approaches and revenue growth. The changes proved their worth during the challenging tech industry conditions of 2023, Everest managed to weather the conditions and come out stronger than their competitors.
Alignment with Zero Distance
Everest Engineering's evolutionary approach aligns with Haier's RenDanHeYi model, demonstrating;
- Decentralized Decision-Making: Business unit leaders have more autonomy to make strategic decisions.
- Customer-Centricity: The new structure is designed around customer lifecycle stages, enabling better alignment with customer needs.
- Entrepreneurial Mindset: Business unit leaders are encouraged to think and act like entrepreneurs within their units.
- Reduced Management Layers: The company maintains its commitment to minimal traditional management roles while providing necessary support.
Conclusion
Everest Engineering's organizational evolution demonstrates a successful approach to scaling a technology services company while maintaining agility and customer focus. By creating a structure that aligns with customer needs and empowers employees, the company has positioned itself for continued growth and success in a rapidly changing industry.
