1. Apigee : People Management practices and
the challenge of Growth
1. Amit Prakash Singh (CGT21002)
2. Dipanjan Sengupta (CGT21005)
3. Indranil Ghosh (CGT21006)
4. Mohd Zinhar Uddin (CGT21010)
5. Bhargav Sri Dhavala (CGT21027)
2. Situation Analysis
• Apigee is a tech company that delivers API services to companies that provide connected
digital experiences. The company is run on the idea of ‘empowered employees’ and the
values and its culture were designed accordingly. The values of passion, bias for action and
respect were internalized and exhibited in their behaviour. The prevailing culture of Apigee
was focused on freedom and autonomy to its employees, fostered innovation, and to engage
employees through an empowering and fearless communication with no hierarchy. The
employees enjoyed a liberal work-life balance, a self-review-based performance evaluation,
an impact-based compensation plan with rewards based on experiential events like paid
vacations, and freedom provided through self-managed teams. There were also several
unique practices like open layout floor plans and no formal leave policies. This autonomous
culture has begged the question of sustainability over the growth of the organization.
3. Problem Statement: Is the current organization
structure sustainable with the increase in the size of the
organization?
4. Evaluation
• Employee Leaves: Introduce a more formalized leave application process for employees. The
existing process is not standardized and gives the organization no capabilities to plan. With
increasing employee numbers, prior information about employees and a count of leaves
makes the organization more room to make necessary plans.
• Organizational Structure: Apigee has a flat organizational structure. With increasing size and a
need to sustain their competitive advantage and Innovation, they should come up with a
matrix-like organizational structure. This provides room for both functions as well as the
division/product aspects. It is important that the organization introduces hierarchy. It serves
both the aspiration and a control measure.
• Communication: The current office plan allows people to interact with everyone, and the
teams have no formal meetings as such. This would be very difficult to track with growing
complexity, both in terms of the number of teams as well as difficulty in tasks for these better
communication channels such as EIT and the minimum number of formal meetings.
5. • Performance Evaluation Measures: The current system spends a full day, and employees,
regardless of experience, are put in the same pools. This might be hard on certain employees
and the size ability to address concerns might go down. So, the system suggested in
classroom discussion, BARS, etc. a more comprehensive, and pools based on cadre is
necessary. This can be based on JD & JS.
• Hiring policy: A new hiring policy, which includes freshers, can be undertaken. Given the
original scale, they can train the employees for skills and attitudes, etc. while the culture fit
can be a dimension for hiring.
6. Criteria for Evaluation
• Sustainability: In the highly dynamic and rapidly growing industry, it’s
crucial for the proposed solution to be sustainable in nature. The
company’s growth will bring in more revenue and thereby would require
more employees. Any change in the organizational structure or culture so
proposed should be well-aligned with the growth strategies of the
company, and also account for changes in the environment
• Budget: In the financial year 2014, Apigee recorded a loss of $60.8 million.
With the plans for expansion in place, the proposed changes should be
well within the budgetary limits so that Apigee has enough money to
reinvest in profitable areas in the future
7. • Core Values: The different alternatives so proposed should reinforce the
values stated below: 1) Passion: Employees at Apigee had always exhibited
a passion for their work and were supportive of their peers around, giving
the company a light hearted and friendly surrounding
• Bias for Action: Apigee is known for responding promptly to clients. They
believe in the concept of “customer centricity” where the employees give
utmost priority in delivering value and best practises to the clients
• Respect: Employees are given considerate autonomy and are empowered
to be a part of the decision-making process.
8. Evaluation of Alternatives:
• Formal leave policy: The leave days taken per employee are well below 30 per year. With the rapid
growth of the company number of new hires in the organisation will increase and this might result
in a significant increase in the number of people misusing the current policy of the unlimited
number of leaves. This will also ensure better planning at the organisational level. The number of
leaves per employee is also a cost to the company and formalised leave policy will establish a
control on the same Formal leave policy might have an adverse effect on the autonomy of the
employees and might send a message that the organisation has lost trust in its employees.
• Changing the organisational structure: A flat organisational structure is a good alternative when the
number of employees is less, but with an increase in employee strength, flat organisational
structure will be difficult to sustain. Hence there is a need to introduce some hierarchy in the
organisation. The autonomy of employees will remain unchanged and the compensation plan will
also be kept the same. Hence this alternative should not have implications on the budget of the
organisation. Introduction of the hierarchy can result in introduction of bureaucracy in the
organisation and might send a message that the organisation has lost trust in its employees.
9. • Introduction of formal meeting culture and limit on work from home: Currently, employees have the liberty
to plan their workday. They can allocate resources and find ways to coordinate with each other. This freedom
is currently misused by some employees. With an increase in employee strength, preventing this misuse can
be a difficult task. Hence, the introduction of formal meeting structure can help prevent this misuse. Also,
this will also ensure proper utilisation of resources. Imposing a limit on the work from home days will
prevent misuse and will ensure that all employees can avail the work from the facility. Imposing this limit
might adversely affect the feeling of trust and freedom in Apigee employees.
• Changing the performance evaluation measures: Current performance measurement system requires the
employee and coach to evaluate performance every month. As the size of the organisation is increasing, it
might be very difficult for the coaches to evaluate all the employees every month. Monthly goals can also
create unnecessary pressure on new joiners who are trying to mould themselves in Apigee culture. Time
spent by employees and coaches every month also has an opportunity cost associated with it which the
company is incurring. Considering the losses in recent years, Apigee also needs to focus on measures to
reduce costs. Reduction in frequency will not have a significant impact on the culture of Apigee.
10. • Changing the hiring policy: Apigee currently has a rigorous selection process and considers only
experienced candidates for employment. Apigee looks for candidates who can handle freedom and
responsibility in the most productive manner. Integrity, sense of responsibility and commitment is
also tested. Considering the growth of Apigee, hiring experienced professionals with the
aforementioned qualities can be tedious job and a bad hire could render Apigee’s culture
vulnerable. Hence, Apigee can go for hiring freshers from engineering colleges. They can look for
culture fit and the technical skills can be imparted through training programmes. For better
evaluation of candidates, Apigee can introduce internship programme and hire candidates that
comply with the requirements. Hiring freshers can also result in significant cost saving. Experienced
candidates might take more time to adjust to Apigee culture, but in the case of freshers, this time
can be reduced and they can be moulded to work in “The Apigee Way” easily.
11. • Final recommendation plan: Based on the evaluation of our criteria we would recommend changing the
organisational structure and formalising activities like leave policy, meetings, working conditions. As with
the increase in the number of employees, control and coordination among employees are at stake. In
order to avoid unwanted problems, it is better to start with changing structure of organisation. And as
apogee focus is on being sustainable, as well as preserving its core values, the above recommendations
should be taken based on these criteria.
• Implementation plan: Choose a structure which is close to flat structure as if changed abruptly to a
structure which is poles apart employees might face problems while adjusting to new structure. Along
with the changes in structure, formalising the other activities is to take place. And as the budget is to be
considered, we have to take steps keeping in mind that the recommendations should not show a
negative effect on the budget of the company.
• Contingency plan: If the selected structure doesn’t go with the company's values or reduces employee’s
focus, should go with gradual experimentation of any other structure form. If the very motive of the
company is at stake then the company should opt for the original practices.
12. • Rigorous
selection
process
• Motivated to
work
• Integrity,
responsibility,
and
commitment
• Bi-annual
appraisal
• Bonus by self
rating, coach
ratings and
reviews.
• Mobile
application for
PMS.
• Real-time
feedback
• Stock options and
competitive salary
• Annual incentives
depending upon
individual’s impact
• Impact bucket and
self rating
• Challenging
assignments and
supportive work
environment
• Flexible
working hours
• Vacations with
family.
• Free flow of
information
• No formal
meeting
culture.
WORK LIFE
BALANCE
COMPENSATION and
BENEFITS
HIRING
PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMNT
Collaboration, openness to experimentation, and an emphasis on innovation and Learning
and business leader.
Apigee: Vertical and Horizontal alignment
13. 13
Recruitment
and Selection
Performance
management
system
Compensation
and Reward
system
Training and
Development
Career
Management
Placement from B and T schools
Internship – PPI and PPO
Lateral Hiring – More than 3 year of experience in other organization
Third Party Recruiter – For Diplomas and IL6 Contract
Promotion based on Ratings and Performance
Compulsory Job Rotation
StepUp- A program for cross learnings from departments of Tata steel
Internal Talent Bank- Easy way to change the department( Many options in one Flatform)
Annual Increment
Bonuses
Steel Icons
International Business Trips and
Capability Development(SNTI)- For Imparting special Training)
MoU with IITs and XLRI
Special task need and alignment in performance and Training
Standard Bell Curve
Feedback Intra and Inter Department( Part of Bonus will decide from here)
Performance management System for Continuous Monitoring( Tow review in year and Continuous Review)
Tata Steel Business Strategy
