Management Consultant
A Management Consultant is the practice to analyse companies processes, systems, financials or and anything else in the orgnasation to optimise these actvities.
Management Consultant are sometimes referenced to as Project Management Consultant.
The below project I worked on with Samer, Nico, Chris & Ashley and we used various frameworks to analyse the company and make recommendations to enhances the companies performance.
Find more papers and articles on business and startups on the blog of this website.
Project
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Patsnap is a SaaS platform and comprehensive database of intellectual property information. The system allows businesses and R&D teams to input their IP’s research, then it tells the user what patents exist in specific areas and offer further analysis.
Patsnap has set out to become the “Amazon of Innovation”, and this report will explore how Patsnap grew from a startup to a global player in the market with well over 700 employees (2007-2019), and analyse the strategies employed to achieve its overall vision.
Key issues:
- With the development of the “Discovery” platform, Patsnap is currently in the process of diversifying its core product offering and the organisation could benefit from a disciplined approach to growth.
- At the same time, it is rapidly increasing headcount to capitalise on the product-market fit and the expanding IP software market.
- The cofounders recognised that they couldn’t manage the growth themselves and brought on functional experts to introduce operational excellence however this has triggered a shift in culture from startup to “big corporate”. The company is currently in the delegation phase and must ensure adequate planning to plan to avoid a crisis of control1.
- An interview with cofounder Ray Chohan2 suggests that he and fellow cofounder Jeff Tiong have differing long term plans for Patsnap. Chohan may be looking for an exit and Tiong may be looking to retain his CEO role as the company continues to grow becoming the Jeff Bezos of the IP world in the process.
Recommendations:
- Patsnap should rely on its execution speed to create long-term differentiation. The network approach to data with the “Discovery” product represents a unique opportunity to capitalize on its data and maintain a continuous focus on diversification.
- Senior management must make preparations to avoid a crisis of control by monitoring for possible uncoordinated efforts and miscommunication that hinders achievement of corporate objectives.
- Management should lead an operational transformation that takes into account not only the optimization of each part of the business separately but also the interaction between the branches in the organization.
- Patsnap should develop a new managerial model that requires a shift from sales to Key Account Management (KAM)3.
- As stakeholders of Patsnap the founders should stay close to the front line in the organisation to ensure a good culture and change management.
INTRODUCTION
Patsnap is a SaaS platform that has brought together the world’s most comprehensive R&D database4. The platform contains data on all intellectual property across the globe. Using Patsnap, businesses and R&D teams can input their IP (or a description of their business idea) into the system, and Patsnap will tell the user what patents exist in that space, as well as offer analytics including technology trends, competitor intelligence and licensing. Patsnap’s flagship product, called ‘Discovery’, utilises Artificial Intelligence to combine these data points and produce charts and information that identify where R&D teams are innovating, as well as where there is room for future innovation.
According to CEO Jeffrey Tiong, Patsnap’s vision is to become the “Amazon of Innovation”, and be the primary search hub for information on intellectual property and innovation trends5. Today, Patsnap is used by over 3000 organisations globally including Nasa, GE, Lego, Vodafone, Ferrari, Siemens, Xiaomi and China Mobile6. The company is backed by world class venture capital firms such as Sequoia, Summit Partners, Shunwei and Vertex Ventures. With an impressive revenue growth rate of 1078% from 2014 to 2016, Patsnap was ranked 44 on “Deloitte Technology Fast 500”7.
Firstly, this essay explores the key steps that brought the business from inception to where it is today will be presented. Secondly, a discussion around key management figures from early stages to who leads the organisation today will be presented with consideration given to the founders’ impact on Patsnap’s development. Thirdly, the main issues that the business faces today will be presented and analysed. Fourthly, recommendations to management will be assessed with clear actions to be taken. Models, concepts and frameworks introduced in Managing the Growing Firm will be utilised to support the discussion throughout.
Research Sources
Interview 1: Ray Chohan (VP of New Ventures & Co-Founder, Patsnap West). Chohan’s interview (1st February) focused primarily on the topics of Patsnap’s foundations, the many strategic choices made post-product-launch (2012 onwards), his vision of the company’s future, and the major challenges it is currently facing.
Interview 2: Robert Abuaita (Senior Account Director, Patsnap West). Abuaita’s interview (2nd March) focused on the growth of Patsnap from the perspective of a sales employee (now director). Robert outlined the early cultural dimensions of Patsnap, and the challenges faced as Patsnap’s culture shifted over time. He also disclosed some of Patsnap’s revenue figures and targets.
Secondary Sources: Patsnap is not yet a public company, and as is the case with private firms, much information can be difficult to find. Fortunately, due to the significant publicity Patsnap has received in recent years, a wide variety of publications and interviews were utilised so as to create a clear picture of the organisation today.
PATSNAP’S STORY & SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS
Jeffrey Tiong had an idea…
Jeffrey Tiong became fascinated with patents when he joined a medical device startup as an exchange student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was responsible for patent due diligence work and quickly noticed that there were no tools available to assist small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in handling the tedious task. At the time, there were only extremely expensive patent enquiry tools from Thomas Reuters on the market. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering and Technopreneurship from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2007, Tiong founded and built Patsnap out of the university’s accelerator programme. According to Tiong, “Patsnap started out of one dream – to become the ‘Amazon’ of Innovation, providing a platform to accelerate the speed of innovation and discovery for inventors, research institutes and companies”8. According to a fund partner at Sequoia Capital China Fund, Tiong is an agile, passionate, visionary CEO who is constantly learning and devising new ideas to grow the company and drive innovation9.
Founding, Team & Official Product Launch (2007-2012)
Fascinated by the patent industry and the opportunities for innovation, Jeff (Jeffrey) Tiong founded Patsnap in 2007 shortly after graduating from his university. Tiong built his MVP of Patsnap using funding from NUS’s incubator programme.
In 2008 Tiong relocated to China in order to reduce costs and pursue new opportunities arising in the region. At the time, the Chinese Government had initiated a programme entitled National Intellectual Property Strategy Outline with the purpose of raising the importance of intellectual property across the commercial sphere of China. In contrast, patent applications in the US and west had stagnated as a consequence of the 2007 financial crisis10. Lacking sales and management expertise, Jeff brought on Guan Dian as his cofounder, a Chinese management graduate with experience in working with startups. Dian was largely responsible for bringing in Patsnap’s very first clients.
Shortly after moving their HQ to Suzhou China, Tiong and his team secured a seed round of financing from Accel-X and NUS Enterprise for $1.2m, most of which would be spent on R&D. The funding also enabled Tiong to hire now CTO Markus Haense in 2010. A German-born technical expert in machine learning, Haense was soon given the role of setting up Patsnaps R&D centre in Singapore, while Tiong and Dian focused on operations in China. With Tiong’s guidance, Haense exploited his “ability to leverage machine-learning to search through hundreds of millions of innovation-related data, and significantly reduce the amount of time, effort and money companies spent on research and take a new product from idea to commercialisation in a significantly reduced time-frame”11.
There was a lot of foundation building in the early years as it took approximately five years to take the official product live. By 2010, a beta version of the product was tested with Patsnap’s Chinese clients, and after two years of intensive R&D, the product was officially launched in 2012 – quickly rising to revenues of half a million dollars in its first year.
Notwithstanding Patsnap’s official launch, 2012 became an especially impactful year for the company following the enlistment of Ray Chohan. A Londoner and salesman by trade, Chohan was the director of business development at Datamonitor, and was noted for increasing the revenues exponentially. Tiong and Chohan met at a conference hosted by Disney in California. Tiong and Chohan shared an interest in offering Patsnap to a western market, and shortly after meeting, Chohan was brought on as the VP of new ventures (Patsnap Global) and official co-founder of ‘Patsnap West’ (EMEA & North America). Started purely as a sales motion, Chohan alongside a sales team of 3 operated Patsnap West out of his living room before migrating to their current office in Chiswick. Their beachhead segment consisted primarily of universities (Imperial, UCL Biomedical) and corporates (Tesla, Hersheys). Chohan grew Patsnap West to well over 70 employees, and an annual revenue of $10m by 2016’12.
Global Expansion & Innovation (2013-2019)
With the backdrop of Patsnap’s UK expansion, as well as a consistent increase in Chinese patent applications by about 20% per year13, Patsnap reached an annual revenue growth rate of over 100% by 2013. This rate was maintained throughout the following four years, signifying an evolutionary period for Patsnap. During this period of rapid growth, Jeff raised Patsnap’s Series A in 2014, and the company received an injection of $4.5m in capital from Vertex14, an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston. This investment in 2014 was used to fuel growth and support 130+ people across China, Singapore and the UK. With the ability to begin rapidly hiring its labour force, Jeff Tiong could begin laying the foundations of his global vision.
With a team of well over 130 people across China, Singapore and the UK, Tiong recognised that issues of cross-cultural management need to be dealt with before they can take root. Tiong emphasized the importance of unifying Patsnap’s corporate values. He attempted to establish greater trust between regional locations – “every month, different business departments will arrange colleagues from other countries to work in China for a while, and Chinese colleagues will be sent overseas”15. More so, Tiong began delegating greater responsibility towards his regional managers. Ray Chohan was given the task of establishing Patsnap’s operations in the UK, and similarly, Guan Dian gained greater jurisdiction over operations in the East. Meanwhile CTO Markus Haense maintained leadership of Patsnap’s R&D centre. Tiong himself shifted gears towards focusing primarily on Patsnap’s global strategy, and the means by which Patsnap would capture a significant piece of the global R&D market.
Shortly after, Tiong raised a Series B in 2015 for the sum of $10m16, and used the money to establish Patsnap’s operations in the US (San Francisco). Jeff and Chohan wished to integrate US operations into the Patsnap West regional branch, and operate most of their sales team from the UK. Now with well over 3000 B2B clients, Patsnap acquired the attention of VC Sequoia’s Chinese division, and raised yet another Series C and Series D amounting to an approximated total of $50m17. With their global foundations laid, Patsnap initiated a hiring frenzy, and increased its headcount of 400 employees in 2017, to around 700 employees at present. Turnover grew significantly to an annual growth rate of 259% from 2015-2018 (described in more detail later).
In collaboration with Tiong, in 2016 Chohan initiated Patsnap’s wider vision of becoming a digital platform, and hub for all things innovation. Tiong illustrates this further in one of his earliest quotes “Patsnap started out of one dream – to become the ‘Amazon’ of Innovation”. Working close with Tiong, Chohan spent a significant portion of their capital in recruiting leadership and a team to oversee the development of “Patsnap Discovery” – an AI-powered platform that enables different teams to collaborate and analyse scientific publications, keep track of emerging technologies and identify opportunities for innovation18. The fundamental vision of Discovery rests in its ability to analyse 12 different data points in addition to IP (market reports, VC data, M&A data, scientific publications), and in doing so, the system will literally tell a company or R&D team ‘where they should innovate’ (so as to capture maximum value). Discovery, now Patsnap’s flagship product, is expected to be the company’s future driver of growth. Interviews with Patsnap representatives suggested that a target of $120m in annual revenue was set19. Driven by Discovery, Patsnap’s next step will be to begin upgrading its clients from patent analysis to innovative intelligence. The enthusiasm towards Discovery as Patsnap’s next evolutionary stage is vividly expressed by Tiong and Chohan20, yet during their period of significant growth, complications began to arise. Patsnap’s highly diversified operations and global presence have led to a significant difficulty in the company’s ability to coordinate strategies across its regional branches. As a result, Patsnap began hiring ex-corporate executives with significant experience in corporate governance, and the implementation of company-wide systems and programs of control and review21. Hires from Reuters (Mark Bishop) and Cisco (Simon Tu), Microsoft (Laurence Painell) and Hootsuite (Joseph Smith) were collectively tasked with rolling out a new operating model for Patsnap. In recent years however, the implementation of these systems and formalities were largely to the dismay of a well-established workforce whom preferred a more flexible, entrepreneurial approach to problem solving, and had become used to “running things like the wild west”22. As a result, numerous team members – particularly those of Patsnap’s earlier days – began to leave. Tiong, Chohan and Patsnap regional executives alike diverted their attention towards hiring staff who were more attuned to a structured work environment yet have an inclination for an entrepreneurial mindset. The c-suite understood that Patsnap’s startup culture had been a crucial element of its success and had to be maintained.
Today, Patsnap is once again facing a new revolution in its evolutionary journey. Its strategic decisions, both internally and externally, will determine whether the company will maintain its momentum and continue to grow rapidly, or otherwise stagnate, or fall. The success of Patsnap Discovery, and more particularly, the coordination and cultural stability of its internal operations will largely determine the company’s future. Later in this report further elaboration of these significant factors will be presented, as well as their potential influence on the company’s ability to manage its growth.
MANAGEMENT
Guan Dian brought management expertise and led the growth of Patsnap’s Chinese market. When Guan Dian (Co-founder and Vice President) joined Patsnap in 2009, she brought first- hand experience working with startups in Silicon Valley. Her management training was a strong complementtoTiong’shighlytechnicalandengineeringbackground. Overthepasttenyears,shehas grown the Chinese market into Patsnap’s second largest market with over 4,500 clients and a sales and marketing team of over 80 team members23. In 2017, Dian was the driving force behind Patsnap Academy, an online hub that provides free educational content on intellectual property (IP). Within a year, the platform had over 1,700 students and professionals registered, making Patsnap the leading provider of IP-related educational content in China24.
Markus Haense applied his research and expertise in digital libraries to build out R&D arm of the Patsnap platform
Before joining Patsnap, Markus Haense (Chief Technology Officer) had published countless papers on machine learning and digital libraries with teams in Germany, South Korea, and Singapore25. His project to develop a complex metadata crawler for new scholarly works led him to join Patsnap in 2010, where he was tasked with building out the platform and setting up a research and development (R&D) centre in Singapore26. Since then, he has continued to lead the technical direction of the company and has also built out the engineering team to over 100 members in Patsnap’s Suzhou office27.
Ray Chohan’s sales experience in the data intelligence industry enabled him to execute growth opportunities and strategies in Patsnap West and the digital platform Discovery.
For eight years before coming to Patsnap, Ray Chohan (Co-founder of Patsnap West, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy) was Director of Business Development at the research and intelligence company Datamonitor, where he had won multiple awards for revenue generation. In 2011, Chohan and Tiong met at an industry conference and agreed there was an unmet customer need in IP technology and had similar visions for how to execute in that space28. A few months later, Chohan joined Patsnap as the founder and Vice President of Patsnap West focused on the European, Middle Eastern, and African (EMEA) and North American markets. He launched the operations from his London home in early 2012 and grew the business to over 70 team members and $10 M ARR within 4 years29. In 2016, Chohan generated the product concept and vision for Discovery, a digital platform that enables teams to collaborate and analyse scientific publications, keep track of emerging technology, and identify opportunities for innovation using machine learning and artificial intelligence30. In this project, Chohan demonstrated his ability to envision products to meet customers’ needs and recruited new product management and executive leadership teams to execute those visions.
Key hires from global, data-driven corporate and high-growth startup companies gave Patsnap decades of knowledge and experience in the industry.
On the technical side, Simon Tu (Vice President of Engineering) spent 12 years as Director of Engineering at Cisco, where he led a major initiative to develop a global big data analytics platform to help drive decision making. The platform leveraged machine learning and artificial intelligence to conduct real-time media diagnosis and monitoring, which parallels much of the technology underlying the Patsnap Discovery platform.
In pursuit of an international growth strategy, Patsnap recruited Joseph Smith (General Manager), a software industry veteran with over twenty years building highly productive international sales, marketing, and operations teams. Smith spent five years between SmartFocus and Qubit, two customer-centric, data-driven companies, and as a senior executive at Hootsuite, Smith was reportedly the catalyst behind the “controlled [international] hyper growth”31. This deep knowledge and understanding of global go-to market strategy, revenue, and operations will be instrumental in helping Patsnap to expand its international reach32. To execute this vision, Mark Bishop (Director of Revenue Operations) has extensive experience defining and implementing strategies in domestic and international markets, particularly in Asia where Patsnap is headquartered. The depth and breadth of Bishop’s career at Thomas Reuters and Iron Mountain give him the ability to take a holistic, end-to- end approach to implement and manage sales, marketing, and customer success operations33.
At the product level, Patsnap recruited Laurence Painell (Head of Product), who oversaw ID Business Solutions’ (IDBS) rise to become a leading provider of data analytics. Over the course of his twenty-year tenure at Microsoft and IDBS, Painell was responsible for partner strategies, marketing, and product management34. As Patsnap continues on its trajectory of rapid growth, Painell’s expertise and reputation as a thought leader in artificial intelligence and data analytics will be fundamental to conceptualize, develop, and implement new products in a large company on the global scale35. A key component of Patsnap’s growth will rely on channels to reach potential customers and partners, which will be led by Kevin Zellmer (Vice President of Channel and Partnerships), a well-known serial technology entrepreneur and early evangelist of the Internet. Zellmer developed an extensive network of companies and investors while successfully designing and implementing worldwide partner and channel strategies at Qubit and Hootsuite36.
KEY ISSUES
The issues that Patsnap is facing fall into three main areas: 1. diversifying the core offering without a discipline around growth 2. operational transformation to expand internationally 3. corporate structure and culture management.
Diversifying the Core offering without a discipline around growth
Patsnap is currently in the process of diversifying their core product offering37. The company
developed their proprietary IP database search and analytical tool that they sold first to universities in the UK achieving product market fit, which they have continued to quickly execute which has been the primary driver of their explosive top line growth. Even though management argues that technology is a source of competitive advantage, the technology is not a proprietary asset that significantly differs from other players in the market. It appears as though the organisation searching for sustainable advantage through their high investment in R&D combined with a hustle approach to execution with the intention to a create network effect38. Patsnap is currently developing a new product that is outside of their core offering which will allow it to evolve the business model into a “single source platform for innovation”39, essentially becoming the Amazon for IP40. Known as “Discovery”, this new product is expected to provide intelligent recommendations based on user interests by utilising artificial intelligence to analyse 12 different data points including IP, market reports, VC data, M&A data, scientific publications. Approaching adjacencies to the core business presents a significant risk if they are unsuccessful in creating the discipline around growth with a repeatable formula41. Patsnap’s is expanding internationally to capitalise on a growing IP Software market that is expected to grow to $6.8bn by 2025.
Operational Transformation to Expand Internationally: Process, People and TI Patsnap is facing operational challenges due to the high growth which is affecting its processes, culture and technologies and requires that the operational model evolves to capture synergies. Whilst Patsnap is working to expand their product line, they are also seeking expand their team to increase market penetration and gain market share. The organisation’s move is on trend as the IP Software market is expected to grow significantly by 14.3% from $2.3bn in 2017 to $6.8bn by 2025. Key drivers of the market growth are China’s increasing interest in patent registration42 and the strengthening of the global government regulatory frameworks43. In the early days the company found success in selling their IP product to universities including Imperial College London, before diversifying their client base to corporate R&D departments such as Tesla and Hershey’s. Patsnap has been strengthening the organisation to cope with the growth which has involved increasing the headcount from 400 employees in 2017 to 700 employees by early 2019 and aims to reach 1000 by the end of the year44. Turnover grew an average 259% over the period 2015-7 from £650k to £30m, however growth has moderated somewhat to 125% between 2017-8. The growth in staff is deemed necessary by senior management45 in order to achieve their ambitious turnover targets which is £100 million by 202046. Even at the lower relative growth rate of 125%, meeting the £100m can be easily achieved 2020
However, this growth in headcount to achieve the sales target along with the opening of new offices has resulted in a 37% increase in total expenses increase (from -£8m in 2016 to -£19m in 2017), resulting in operating profit margin erosion of -42% with operating results declining from -£7.8m to – £19.1m in over the same period.
Profit & Loss
Senior management is approaching the operation transformation with “increased rigor, structure and planning”47 in each business unit (BU). However, this siloed approach limits the communication and possible cost synergies across the organisation.
As a licensing business that generates it’s turnover from subscription income, Patsnap is using the cash received up front to fund growth, and this is evident in that deferred income was £8.9m in 2016 and £11m in 2017, yet the ending cash balances were £4.0m and £1.3m, respectively. The cash was helpful in funding growth which worked well as staff costs increased 121% and overall expenses rose 137% between 2016-201748. As a Saas business with no inventory and limited trade creditors, the self-financeable growth (SFG) rate49 was 12444% in 2017. This figure is extraordinarily high due to the negative cash conversion cycle which is driven driven by the deferred income. However, with a current ratio of 1.94 and quick ratio of 0.53 (conservatively assuming deferred income is delivered at £0 cost), Patsnap’s ability to meet short term financial obligations is weak.
Change in Sales Management Impacts Culture
Recognising that there is strong market pull for their product solutions, Patsnap has rapidly expanded their sales team to maximise sales growth. As recently as 2017 sales representatives were given a target and were free to achieve the target as they saw fit50. The downside of this culture is that there are potential inefficiencies resulting from sales people meeting their targets early and then coasting through to the end of the sales period. For example, if a salesperson meets their sales target half way through the year, there could be a lack of focus on generating further sales, and staff could focus outside business activities which management appears to have encouraged51.
To mitigate this inefficiency Al Newman was brought on as the new SVP of sales in early 2019 and introduced a methodical approach to sales and increased the number of KPIs. In addition to their individual sales targets, sales people were assigned call and meeting targets. This meant that even if sales targets were met early in the year, staff would still work to meet their activity targets, thereby maximising the revenue potential for each salary spend. In addition to the call targets, new management also standardised the product terms. For example, sales people were previously permitted to negotiate on factors such as contract length to get deals done, however the standard contract is now two years52. Furthermore, to making it more difficult for sales people to close deals, and lost revenue, management clearly believes that the increased efficiency from avoiding added cost from bespoke contracts will more than offset the associated loss in short term revenue and potential staff turnover. New management also brought with them the idea to change the sales pitch which has become much more about the value provided with the product solution and is quantified by actually showing ROI figures to their clients and prospects53.
Growing Sales team and Evolving to Account Management
A key issue that has arisen as the sales team grows is the segmentation of sales territories by
client type and geography54. Up until very recently sales people in London for example, were able to sell to any client type globally, however the under new management staff were assigned a specific sales territory55. The benefit of this approach is that sales people become more specialised in specific segments allowing them to offer more value to customers and possibly increase close rates, however this benefit is offset by potentially unhappy sales people leading to staff turnover and lost legacy
Other issues that Patsnap faces is that since the business model is geared towards subscription revenue with long customer lifetimes, the need for hiring account managers will increase. Most of the product and accounts staff joined the firm in a sales capacity56 which would have spread commercial mindedness across the firm. As the business matures and the account management team grows, the lower overall to compensation expense per client facing team member will decrease. However, at some point the firm will be forced to hire directly into account and product management, where the new staff will likely lack a commercial mindset leading to a potential erosion of the entrepreneurial and innovative culture.
Corporate structure and culture management
A number of issues relating to corporate structure and culture management have arisen as
Patsnap has made changes to scale. With the hiring of functional experts in finance, sales, HR, legal and introduction of more structure, employees constantly questioning the purpose of the changes. Senior management aims to overcome the scepticism with increased and transparent communication57. Open and consistent communication from the cofounders can make it clear where the organisation is headed, and staff can then decide themselves if they want to stay. However, this is easier said than done communicating directly with 700 employees across eight offices in three continents becomes extremely challenging58.
Hiring Functional Experts
Realising that they lacked the expertise to create efficiencies and manage the scaling of the
business as they scaled, senior management made some key hires of experts in functional areas to deal with the increasingly complex organisation. The key recent hires were a General Manager (Joe Smith) who helped grow HootSuite from $20m to $90m in three years, the SVP of Sales (Al Newman), VP Growth (Spencer Mann), Head of Talent acquisition (Jessica Speirs), as well as heads of finance and account management. These new senior managers brought with them a traditional management and standardised processes to scale, presenting a risk that the company will experience increased staff turnover as people used to the startup culture become frustrated and leave the business. A perception also exists amongst lower level employees who believe that the efficiency has maxed out, which is evidence that the operational efficiency which shows that the impact is being felt across the organisation59.
The hirings of these function experts and the successful implementation of a decentralised organisational structure implies that Patsnap is in the delegation phase of Greiner’s growth model60. These newly hired managers have been provided the power and incentives to continue to drive the high growth by penetrating larger markets and increase the speed of customer communication61. Senior management must make preparations to avoid a “crisis of control” by monitoring for possible uncoordinated efforts and miscommunication could hinder achievement of corporate objectives62.
Culture and Misalignment between two Co-founders – Exit vs. No Exit
Last but not least, up until these new managers were hired, the culture was innovative which
is consistent with Pisano’s63 description which characteristics of “tolerance for failure, willingness to experiment, psychological safety, highly collaborative, and (non-hierarchy)”. Employees were also free to pursue outside activities such as manage their rental properties and operate small businesses64. The old culture involved sales managers acting as mentors by helping staff identify personal goals and relate them to corporate goals and creating a plan to achieve both. By making a clear connection with employees’ efforts to move the business forward and their personal goals (such as buying a house), management was able to positively impact employee engagement, retention and overall productivity. Given that recruiting and keeping key personnel is known to be a key concern of entrepreneurs, Patsnap had been doing a good job in addressing this concern65.
Although some of the sales managers still follow this process there is evidence to suggest that the new managers have a far more “corporate” and impersonal approach to management. The new structure and processes have consequences including lower staff morale, higher administrative costs, increased staff turnover with some highly rated sales people leaving as soon as three months after certain managers joined66. This implies that the company may be hiring too quickly and not successfully maintained the entrepreneurial culture as desired67.
Finally, the two early co-founders have very different backgrounds. With a tech heavy
background, Jeff Tiong is likely more passionate about the product offering wants to grow the business massive organisation, therefore making him more of a “Type O” entrepreneur68. Ray Chohan, has a background mainly in sales and therefore appears more likely to want to run the business based on hustle69 suggesting that his emotional attachment to the business is lower, characterising him as a “Type E” Entrepreneur70. These differing views on the business suggest that Tiong may want to retain control, whilst Chohan may be looking for an exit. So, in addition to clear and consistent communication across the organisation the early co-founders must employ a similar approach to ensure a unified vision as the business continues to scale.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Patsnap’s founders should consider strategic initiatives in three main areas: 1. Build adjacencies to the core business using the “Discovery” product as a platform for growth; 2. lead a operational transformation base on principles of excellence whilst maintaining an agile organization; 3. Reengineer the organization to include best practices on corporate structure and maintain a close relationship with the business’ front line.
Adjacencies in the core business: “Discovery” as a repeatable formula to grow
Patsnap should rely on its execution speed to create a long-term differentiation. It should methodically scan the future for new opportunities and for potential disruptions71. Examining broadly is essential, but so is concentrating on factors that could weaken or strengthen key income and value drivers in Patsnap core business. For Patsnap, the network approach to data with the “Discovery” product represents a unique opportunity to capitalize on their data and maintain a continuous focus on diversification. “Discovery” should be a strategic priority for Patsnap, thus R&D investments should be focus on this line of business to leverage their capability to consolidate and analyse multiple data sources. Understanding the shifts in competitive advantage and adjust quickly to new challengers would create a sustainable competitive advantage for Patsnap.
Hence, effective coordination and execution requires a “diverse leadership team that can
continuously analyse different scenarios, discuss and realistically evaluate the choices that are available, and look beyond the obvious to envision opportunities and risks that may lie beyond the horizon.”72 Maintaining a properly execution speed requires agile strategy execution. Across the organization, teams should define and test the strategies that they consider are most probable to recognise the organization’s strategic initiatives. Then, utilizing the insights, they should adapt their tactics to better realize the organization’s objectives. To guarantee alignment and execution, the founders should align their personal objectives first (exit vs. non exit) to then tie single and team missions to Patsnap’s overall strategy. Any inconsistencies among objectives and constraints must be identified and eliminated early, to reduce time waste and efforts. In summary, one way to elude disruption should be to maintain a solid focus on the factors that creates a competitive advantage and align the founder mission to the overall Strategy.
Business Complexity as an Opportunity to Capture Value
Nowadays, in an effort to control complexity,
Patsnap has designed more rules, processes, and guidelines for each new objective. The result is an increase in organizational complexity (Figure 3) which causes staff to lose their sense of direction74.
Operational Efficiency: Standardizing ways of working whilst remaining agile
Unfortunately, Patsnap massive growth has led to an organization that looks at siloed metrics and fail to see the system as a whole. Management should lead an operational transformation that takes into account not only the optimization of each part of the business separately but also the interaction between the silos in the organization. Overlooking the operation as a group of siloed metrics to optimize, may lose the context and decrease overall performance76.
Senior management must make preparations to avoid a “crisis of control” by monitoring for possible uncoordinated efforts and miscommunication that hinder achievement of corporate objectives (Greiner, 1998). The
Figure 2: BCG (2018) Analysis on Organizational Complexity vs. Business Complexity
the business75. Patsnap’s effective implementation in this complex growth environment should be to support employee’s ability to make decisions autonomously. However, as they evolve to the later stages of the delegation phase, they need to ensure an operational excellence approach and an
raising coordination problem means that SVP and Directors end up spending the majority of their time navigating bureaucracy rather than the work itself. In the process, they became distanced from activities that actually create value for the customers and organizational model that aligns to this transformation.
Whilst all of this focus on interoperability may reduce the efficiency of the individual teams. Patsnap top management should be able to adapt quickly and promote a culture of experimentation. Patsnap management should not think in conventional terms of efficiency but must structure networks around a shared mission that leads teams to operational efficiencies77.
organizational growth has resulted in some key hires mentioned earlier, however management should be cognisant of redesigning the operational model around agile principles and practices78. Managers with experience in mature and corporate ecosystems who have been doing things the way they have Patsnap approach to for years could limit the growth process and lead to inefficiencies.
A high degree of autonomy works only when there is focused coordination across teams, so
Patsnap’s founders should align interests throughout the organization. The first step to achieve an agile process should be understanding what types of activities needs to be delegated to create an autonomous organization. If Patsnap succeeds in aligning its growing organization behind a clearvision and mission, they should be able to capitalize on this massive opportunity. Nevertheless, Patsnap has to be very conscious about the benefits of maintaining an agile organization on some areas of the business. For example, growing into a corporate structure with traditional processes can be potentially destructive for product innovation teams79. In this new organizational structure, management should implement an agile process of quarterly business reviews to ensure employees throughout the organisation stay committed to Patsnap’s mission. However, the success of this transformation will require strengthening of the governance mechanisms and promoting the best performance management practices80. that “productivity can improve by a factor of three, when large companies get agile right”81. Agile can be achieved through a variety of approaches that organise work which emphasises in “self- managed, multidisciplinary teams with [complete] control of product development and other business. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reports that “productivity can improve by a factor of three, when large companies get agile right”81. Agile can be achieved through a variety of approaches that organise work which emphasises in “self- managed, multidisciplinary teams with [complete] control of product development and other business
Reengineering the Organization: From Sales to Key Strategic Account Management
Through effective KAM, based on a BCG benchmark analysis, Patsnap could increase revenues by 5 to 10 percent, improve margins by three to five percentage points, and lower the cost to serve by 10 to 20 percent. Patsnap should achieve these results by improving account penetration and retention and by allocating resources more effectively. Patsnap management should think about reengineering the organization to not purely execute, but to continually adapt. Growth has to be managed cautiously to handle the natural
Patsnap should develop a new managerial model that requires a shift in how sales managers view their role in the organisation. They should become leaders that promote “a flexible and dynamic behavioural system”83, one that fosters autonomy and collaboration to achieve Patsnap’s goals. Furthermore, their approach to scaling up should reinforce an approach to Key Account Management (KAM)84. This implies a change in mindset from C-levels down to middle management where relationships with strategically-important customers represent a new source of value. For this initiative to be executed efficiently with minimal issues, management should recognize that “KAM is not a sales technique but an organizational change that requires [changing] the way they do business today85. Millions relationship problems that arise in organisations. This links to the problem of how information flows from senior management to front line sales people87. To create efficiency in a growing organization, it’s fundamental to foster a “shared consciousness” by creating connections between teams. Reengineering the processes to promote collaboration and interactions will result in increased productivity and efficiency. Allowing people to look beyond their own jobs creates a systematic approach to problems that positively impacts the bottom line.
As stated by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, “the limit to maintain stable relationships in a group of humans is to be about 150, now known as the Dunbar Number”88. After this point organisations lose their fun and exciting start-up culture and evolve more corporate feel. Patsnap ́s fast growth has led to an organization of +800 people in less than 3 years. Still, the loss of communication is tangible in Patsnap and things began to deteriorate as evidenced in the interview with the Sales Team89. “Reorganizations rarely take informal relationships into account, which is why they usually fail”90. Patsnap management should be aware on maintaining a transparent approach to all the changes in the organization to ensure success.
A well-functioning organization is “a fluid social network and thus should thrive on internal connections”91. Inanearly-stagecompanythesenetworksformintuitively,butinascale-upcompany they need to be cultivated. Reengineering a growing organization creates the potential for major challenges and has to be approached in a structured way prioritising culture. An additional recommendation for this process is to spot people who appear resistant to change and weakening the culture which could result in loss of strong team members and making it a challenge to lead the company. Furthermore, management needs focus on junior team members to make sure that they are trained and mentored well. New team members can bring with them positive energy and the desire to succeed which can reinforce a strong corporate culture. Furthermore, one way to build connexion at the junior levels could be to create an internal training program run by the Directors and SVPs – also a great chance to make mentoring relationships. By doing this, Patsnap team should work as part of a cross functional team, and new employees get to understand the bigger picture92. Patsnap management should not approach organizational change in a linear way, they need to get a critical mass of change in order to realise the profits. Rather than speeding up processes, decision making, and results, an unstructured approach to organizational growth could leave Patsnap less productive than it was before93.
Change in Management Style: Closer to the Actual Work
The combination of autonomy and cooperation does not occur on its own. Rather, it demands a particular role in management. “Instead of focusing on formal procedures, managers must pay attention to the behavioural dynamics that shape organizational performance: why people do what they do; how they understand their individual goals, the resources available to them to achieve those goals, the constraints that stand in their way; and how individual behaviours combine to produce the collective behaviour underlying performance”94. Patsnap has successfully started to implement this approach with its sales department but needs to consolidate a replicable model that permeates into other areas of the organization. Finally, because Patsnap’s founders are key stakeholders, they should identify the best approach to mediate in the mid and lower levels to foster more effectual collaboration. They must stay close the front line in the organisation to achieve this goal95.
Reengineering the Organization: From Sales to Key Strategic Account Management
Through effective KAM, based on a BCG benchmark analysis, Patsnap could increase revenues by 5 to 10 percent, improve margins by three to five percentage points, and lower the cost to serve by 10 to 20 percent. Patsnap should achieve these results by improving account penetration and retention and by allocating resources more effectively86.
Patsnap management should think about reengineering the organization to not purely execute, but to continually adapt. Growth has to be managed cautiously to handle the natural
Patsnap should develop a new managerial model that requires a shift in how sales managers view their role in the organisation. They should become leaders that promote “a flexible and dynamic behavioural system”83, one that fosters autonomy and collaboration to achieve Patsnap’s goals. Furthermore, their approach to scaling up should reinforce an approach to Key Account Management (KAM)84. This implies a change in mindset from C-levels down to middle management where relationships with strategically-important customers represent a new source of value. For this initiative to be executed efficiently with minimal issues, management should recognize that “KAM is not a sales technique but an organizational change that requires [changing] the way they do business today”85. Through effective KAM, based on a BCG benchmark analysis, Patsnap could increase revenues by 5 to 10 percent, improve margins by three to five percentage points, and lower the cost to serve by 10 to 20 percent. Patsnap should achieve these results by improving account penetration and retention and by allocating resources more effectively86. Patsnap management should think about reengineering the organization to not purely execute, but to continually adapt. Growth has to be managed cautiously to handle the natural relationship problems that arise in organisations. This links to the problem of how information flows from senior management to front line sales people87. To create efficiency in a growing organization, it’s fundamental to foster a “shared consciousness” by creating connections between teams. Reengineering the processes to promote collaboration and interactions will result in increased productivity and efficiency. Allowing people to look beyond their own jobs creates a systematic approach to problems that positively impacts the bottom line.
As stated by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, “the limit to maintain stable relationships in a group of humans is to be about 150, now known as the Dunbar Number”88. After this point organisations lose their fun and exciting start-up culture and evolve more corporate feel. Patsnap ́s fast growth has led to an organization of +800 people in less than 3 years. Still, the loss of communication is tangible in Patsnap and things began to deteriorate as evidenced in the interview with the Sales Team89. “Reorganizations rarely take informal relationships into account, which is why they usually fail”90. Patsnap management should be aware on maintaining a transparent approach to all the changes in the organization to ensure success.
A well-functioning organization is “a fluid social network and thus should thrive on internal connections”91. Inanearly-stagecompanythesenetworksformintuitively,butinascale-upcompany they need to be cultivated. Reengineering a growing organization creates the potential for major challenges and has to be approached in a structured way prioritising culture. An additional recommendation for this process is to spot people who appear resistant to change and weakening the culture which could result in loss of strong team members and making it a challenge to lead the company. Furthermore, management needs focus on junior team members to make sure that they are trained and mentored well. New team members can bring with them positive energy and the desire to succeed which can reinforce a strong corporate culture. Furthermore, one way to build connexion at the junior levels could be to create an internal training program run by the Directors and SVPs – also a great chance to make mentoring relationships. By doing this, Patsnap team should work as part of a cross functional team, and new employees get to understand the bigger picture92.
Patsnap management should not approach organizational change in a linear way, they need to get a critical mass of change in order to realise the profits. Rather than speeding up processes, decision making, and results, an unstructured approach to organizational growth could leave Patsnap less productive than it was before93.
Change in Management Style: Closer to the Actual Work
The combination of autonomy and cooperation does not occur on its own. Rather, it demands a particular role in management. “Instead of focusing on formal procedures, managers must pay attention to the behavioural dynamics that shape organizational performance: why people do what they do; how they understand their individual goals, the resources available to them to achieve those goals, the constraints that stand in their way; and how individual behaviours combine to produce the collective behaviour underlying performance”94. Patsnap has successfully started to implement this approach with its sales department but needs to consolidate a replicable model that permeates into other areas of the organization. Finally, because Patsnap’s founders are key stakeholders, they should identify the best approach to mediate in the mid and lower levels to foster more effectual collaboration. They must stay close the front line in the organisation to achieve this goal95.
Patsnap ́s explosive growth has proven to dilute the direct link between founders and employees whose impact became evident96 with the opening of offices in cities such as Toronto and San Francisco97. As a result, the rapid international expansion should prioritize and incentivise a structured approach to how the organisation of tomorrow should be built to minimise the risk of massive turnovers.
Project Management Office and Change Management
In addition, Patsnap should implement a Project Management Office to apply best practices in project management and optimize project resource utilization. In order to enable a successful execution of key strategic projects across the organization this should leverage on Patsnap’s existing PMO practices and tools to create an adequate project governance. Furthermore, this ensures that the benefits from both the operational excellence transformation and the new organization are captured. In terms of efficiencies, this will allow Patsnap to capture synergies through centralization, coordination and monitoring of key activities. This practice should operate under two agreed guidelines. First, the execution needs the founder’s leadership to assure that authority and autonomy are respected. Second, the PMO should have the sufficient authority to exercise control over the adoption of project management practices, methodology and tools – and to implement a robust quality control program.
Some critical success factors are paramount for the PMO to reach the expected results. First, an active role of the founder should provide input and communication of the company strategy and guarantee availability of resources. Second, the project manager needs to have the authority and empowerment to manage the resources assigned to the project, make decisions regarding the day- to-day execution and reject deliverables due to lack of quality, and delegate as required. Third, the project manager requires timely and direct access to decision making levels – through established committees and, if necessary, in ad-hoc meetings. Fourth, the executive level and the sponsor of the project will make decisions in the required timeframes to promote the continuous execution of the project and minimizing delays derived from bureaucracy.
CONCLUSION
Even though Patsnap’s future looks promising, the founders and management needs to approach the next growth phase with control and structure. This will provide the mechanisms and tools to control the organization and align everyone to the same goal. The trends in the intelligence platform market foresees a growing trend, however competition is palpable and Patsnap must continue to execute as agile as possible to spot opportunities both in products diversification and in new markets.
As a result, Patsnap must prioritize its efforts and resources to build strong capabilities
around operation to support this new growth wave. Furthermore, as Patsnap’s founders have evidence recently, organization plays a key role in a fast-growing company and must be considered as a strategic priority. Building the right organization and the right mechanisms to promote interaction and communication are key success factors in Patsnap’s future. A well-functioning organization must be created around the right incentives to align the organization to a common purpose.
If you like this analysis, check out my business analyst artice, like a external consultant would perform on a company.
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