We have driven a 10x increase in our enterprise value in just 24 months from deploying Organizational Physics. We are now the leader in one of the fastest growing markets in digital commerce.
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Orium (formerly Myplanet) was founded by Jason Cottrell in 2009 as a custom software development and systems integration firm focused on the next wave of digital commerce. Their specialty is in complex and at-scale commerce, as well as novel commercial models. They pioneered their approach with brands like Apple, New Balance and Warner Music. In 2022, the company received the MACH Award, Best Retail Transformation, which is the definitive award ceremony in its market category. According to Jason, “Digital commerce is changing. It looks less and less like a buy button and a shopping cart. Think subscription services, add-on features in your connected car, consumable experiences on a cruise line, or micro-transactions on your Apple Watch. The world is changing and brands are increasingly pressured to support not one but multiple commercial models.”
While Orium has now deployed digital commerce infrastructure that processes billions of dollars in transaction volume, their journey required a significant reinvention of the business. When I first met Jason, he was losing sleep over both the pending challenges and the untapped potential in front of him. Let’s hear from Jason in his own words
There’s always been a core theme about our business: helping our customers navigate a wave of change that is sweeping the industry. When we first started the business, we focused on the adoption of open-source software and usercentered design. In more recent years we have doubled down on a core competency around how modern, high-volume, digital commerce systems are being built called “composable commerce.”
We were growing, but I was worried. I could see our core business at the time was approaching maturity. Growth had come easily but that was about to change.
As well as the market shifting, I knew we were losing our ability to change and adapt. Since our earliest, most ambitious and innovative days as a company, I have noticed a shift in culture. With all systems reinforcing the status quo, we had become entrenched in our core business.
In reading some of Lex’s blog posts I was beginning to make sense of why some of these challenges were occurring
Our business today has been completely reinvented and reinvigorated. We are now the leader in one of the fastest growing markets in digital commerce, we have rebooted our culture © Organizational Physics Inc. All rights reserved. 3 and leadership team into a growth mode, and in doing so we have driven a 10x increase in our enterprise value in just 24 months.
I’m personally energized by our current leadership team. We’re aligned. We’re making decisions and moving fast. We’re challenging each other in a constructive way. They’re empowered, they know their domains, and they have established a strong rapport with each other.
When we began the process, I was focused on symptoms of an underlying condition. Give me the quick fix, Lex! Truly optimizing for growth required a much more extended commitment to reorganizing teams, starting and stopping initiatives, adding and removing team members, and having the tough conversations needed to get our team on the same page.
Working with Lex is also an introspective exercise. It required me to be honest about where I was a part of the problem: where I wasn’t using my talents, and where I was stifling my team, and where I was avoiding tough conversations that needed to be had.
Can I say “all of them?”
We’ve kept each of the core principles in use for years now.
If I had to choose just one, the strategy map was critical for our organization. It allowed us to get a shared consciousness amongst our leadership that our existing business was slowing, and that we needed to reinvent.
PSIU is a close second. That ratio of Stabilizing and Unifying had accumulated in our organization © Organizational Physics Inc. All rights reserved. 4 over the years, and that was stifling our ability to grow. Only by returning to a market focus, changing the ratio towards majority Producing and Innovating (which often required changing team members or their status in the organization), we were able to enter a new growth market in a committed way. The PSIU assessment has been so valuable because it really has been one of the best predictors I’ve seen of how someone will perform in a role, and whether a role as designed will serve its purpose in the organization.
This case study was originally published in the book Designed to Scale by Lex Sisney.
© Organizational Physics Inc. All rights reserved.
Let’s build your high-performance organization together.
Organizational Physics® empowers CEOs and leadership teams to scale with clarity and confidence. By applying universal principles and proven frameworks, we help organizations improve internal performance, accelerate growth, and build resilient structures for the long term.
© Copyright Organizational Physics Inc.