ead the case study on Page 372-373 (Time for Realignment:... Read the case study on Page 372-373 (Time for Realignment: Developing a Culture of Transparency at MX across the pond) and provide detailed answers to the questions following the case. Case Study: Time for Realignment: Developing a Culture of Transparency at MX across the Pond Introduction Nate leaned across the table, "Here at MX, we're trying to empower the world to be financially strong. What values does it take to do this?" Nate often includes this question when looking to hire new talent at MX. Creating a transparent and open culture where people are excited about their jobs means that everyone in the company must embody the values required to improve the financial lives of individuals. At least, this is what Nate Gardner believes. Nate Gardner is the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) of MX and started working for the company in this role in 2012, after working as the CEO of Costa Vida, where he helped build a restaurant brand that expanded to 25 branches and led to a multi-million dollar exit. In his time at MX, Nate has been involved in the contraction and expansion of MX. By 2016, he and other members of the executive team realized that the organically-grown culture of MX had strayed away from its foundation. Ryan Caldwell had founded the U.S.-based company in Lehi, Utah, in 2010, with the idea that people would be able to manage their finances through banks and other financial institutions more easily if they could see exactly where their money was going; if they were given some easier-to-use tools in managing their finances. They could avoid many of the financial problems he had seen his own friends and family sufferproblems that sometimes led to unanticipated debt, unnecessary fees, and even financial ruin. Knowing that over 80 percent of the U.S. population lives from paycheck to paycheck, if he could simply create solutions for end users and banks to more effectively visualize and track their finances, he could help individuals become financially stronger. He called this the "foundation" of the company. As a result, MX helps financial institutions and fintechs utilize their data more effectively to outperform the competition in a rapidlyevolving industry. MX provides software solutions to enable people and organizations to quickly and easily collect, enhance, analyze, present, and act on financial data. The company uses a method where software tools are delivered and licensed online via subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers (Software as a Service). MX also provides organizations mobile banking apps, financial visualization for banking customers, analytics and marketing of internal data, and data aggregation for customers who want to focus more on their core business of banking and financial services. The goal is to make sure the customers have a seamless experience dealing with their banking or financial transactions online. Alignment Problems By 2016, however, MX had started to become a victim of its own success. It started hiring experienced senior leaders who were more familiar with the financial sector. It looked first and foremost to a person's resumeyears of experience and technical competencieswith little acknowledgment of an applicant's fit to the MX foundation. It didn't take too long for Ryan, Nate, and other members of the executive team to realize that this was a mistake. The new senior hires were extremely good at what they did and quickly started to steer the culture more toward profits, processes, and privacy. As a result, people were losing a sense of why they were there. People were also being fired for mysterious reasons, and doubt started to set in regarding the organization and its purpose. They also doubted the senior leadership team and their decisions. Who are they going to fire next? How do I perform and show that I'm valuable to the company? What are the criteria? What once felt like a small, open company was now turning into a large, closed culture with no common vision or common way of working. If something wasn't done fast, MX stood to lose everything it had worked for. MX would be counted among the many tech start-ups that saw a surge in growth but was unable to handle that growth. Alignment Solutions From Nate's perspective, he saw two options. First, they could acknowledge this shift in the culture and build in rigid processes to ensure that people were doing what they were supposed to be doing. They would move to a more professionalized model that is necessary when a lot of companies start to grow and bring in new senior leaders who are familiar with large organizations. Second, they could fight back against this shift and go back to their foundational roots. But going back to their roots didn't seem like an option for a maturing company. How could they maintain an open and transparent culture while also supporting major growth? One day, Nate was reading Laszlo Bock's Work Rules! about how Google had developed a start-up culture in a large organization, and he realized that if Google could do it with thousands of employees, then MX could do it with just hundreds of employees. Even before finishing the book, he called up Ryan: "You've got to read this book. I think it's the key to our alignment problem." Desperate for a solution, Ryan read the book and quickly agreed. Ryan then distributed copies of the book throughout the organization. "We need to get everyone thinking like founders," Ryan said. "Having a founder's mindset means that regardless of title, we are empowered to act on our ideas to compose world-changing solutions to our customers and our MX team." This triggered something inside of Nate. We need to start with the problem, not with the solution. What problem are we trying to solve and what kinds of values are needed to solve this problem? "Someone interested in climbing to the top of Mt. Everest only has to go online and look at some pictures of Mt. Everest to get a sense of what kinds of values will be needed to make it to the top," says Nate. "Looking at Mt. Everest, you see that this is going to take some real grit and preparation. It will attract a certain type of individual. Climbing Mt. Everest is not for everyone." Nate started by calling the executive team together to discuss the "mountain" they were all trying to climbto empower the world to be financially strong. Once they agreed upon the challenge, they were then able to focus on what should be most important to the company. These values would act as guidelines for the company's aspirations. Through multiple iterations and talking with key stakeholders in the organization, the team put together a rough list of seven core values for the company. These values were then presented in a town hall meeting to everyone in the company as a rough draft of what the company values should be. They then asked everyone in the company to give feedback on the core values and to help make changes to the values. Many changes were made, and then a final set of values was constructed. But this was just the beginning. Once the foundation was re-identified and values were created, the team then laid out a plan to realign the culture. The next step was to embed these values in everything they did. They started by transforming the hiring process. Up to this point, hiring was random and done by managers alone. They quickly developed a hiring process that democratized hiring using behavioral science. They turned to behavior- based interviews with key questions asking about one's commitment to the core values. Moreover, the manager was only one piece of the hiring puzzle. All team members had an equal vote in the hiring process as well, and they were all involved in interviewing. This change was the first step in changing the culture; it acted as a gatekeeper to the kinds of people let into the organization in the first place. The next area for change was the performance management system. Up to this point, there was no transparency in how employees were evaluated and developed. MX provided feedback, promotions, and salary decisions in a consistent manner, to ensure MX stayed true to its roots of meritocracy. MX also wrote everyone's performance reviews (including the executive team). Next, they hired Brandon Woolf, who had worked at Google for 9 years as the Chief People Officer. Brandon helped put together a transparent OKR (objectives and key results) system that aligned with the MX values. OKRs represent a framework for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes. OKRs were first popularized at Google, where this approach to management and goal-setting became central to Google's culture. In fact, Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet and co-founder of Google, credited OKRs with helping Google achieve 10x growth. Brandon worked with the executive team to develop unique OKRs for MX that fit and aligned with the company's core values. Brandon also teamed up with a business intelligence company to dashboard these objectives and key results on a continuous basis throughout the company, making the values embedded in everything people do at MX. Even with all of this, the lasting power of this cultural shift would be put to the test soon. Going Forward MX is in a current hyper-growth stage, and the company has considered moving across the Pond to Dublin, Ireland, where they can better service European financial sector clients and access highly-skilled tech workers. However, Dublin represents a different cultural context from the United States. Could the more organic structure that relied on its core values in how people are hired, developed, and managed, be used in Ireland? And how do you maintain the strong corporate culture amidst this rapid growth in a different country culture like Ireland? Nate was a bit worried about this. "I think the strength of our realigned culture will be put to a true test in the next year as we try to globally expand," Nate commented. "I wonder what else we need to do to make sure this culture will stick across the Pond?" Case Discussion Questions Which type of international strategy should MX pursue in Ireland? 2. Based on your proposed strategy, which types of human capital will matter most for MX's office in Ireland? 3. As the head of HR, how does Brandon help MX develop the needed human capital for its Ireland operations? Source: Based on personal interviews by Shad Morris with Nate Gardner, Brandon Woolf, and Ryan Caldwell. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE ANSWERS ARE RIGHT AND THOROUGH! I CAN'T FAIL THIS ASSIGNMENT. PLEASE HELP!! I DON'T INTEND ON COPYING WORK. JUST MAKE SURE ITS CORRECT AND PRETTY LONG!