The present-day business world creates conditions for the expansion of companies. This process implies not only apparent benefits in terms of profits but also causes a series of complications. They relate to the need to readjust all the elements included in the philosophy behind business activities to the company’s current state in order to satisfy all stakeholders and comply with the world requirements. In the case of Shopify, such expansion is conditional upon the need of their partners for e-commerce solutions allowing them to increase profits (“Company culture,” n.d.). Therefore, in order to propose an alternative strategy for maintaining culture, it is vital to consider specific elements that create a challenge and analyze the pros and cons of strategy implementation.
The Challenge of Company Expansion
The company under consideration, Shopify Inc, is a platform that provides individuals with opportunities to sell their products online. It intends to have a global impact on communities, modern economy, and environment, and such a significant objective implies the necessity to address all issues deriving from its operations (“Company culture,” n.d.). However, in order to perform it, Shopify should be flexible in its capability to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances and ensure the correspondence of its values and mission to the general course. Hence, the principal challenge of the company’s expansion is the need to increase its adaptability and realign its philosophy according to emerging situations.
Alternative Strategy
Since the identified challenge is related to the flexibility of Shopify in all the spheres of its influence, the strategy should be focused on increasing it to provide sustainable development, generally. Therefore, the principal task is to maintain the company’s culture while pursuing emerging goals. It will allow improving its image among stakeholders and, consequently, the overall efficiency of the business. According to the website, Shopify perceive their culture as a “product of strong values and purpose” combined with the focus on people (“Company culture,” n.d.). This wording proves that maintaining culture for the company primarily means demonstrating its philosophy to partners and customers.
Considering the above, the best strategy for Shopify will be the reinforcement of its values and mission, transparency and communication, and hiring the right personnel with respect to the company’s philosophy. The first step will be the evaluation of the efficiency of values and mission stated at the time of the company’s foundation (Smith, 2018). It will help to ensure their understanding by partners and correspondence to the needs of the world. The second step will be the establishment of communication between employees at different levels and other stakeholders allowing to give updates and bringing a sense of belonging (Smith, 2018). The third step will be hiring people whose values correspond to the ones of the company (Smith, 2018). The combination of these actions will maintain the culture of Shopify in the process of expansion.
The designed steps representing the overall strategy can be complemented by other measures ensuring the positive outcome. First, they include the provision of feedback channels, which is crucial for the establishment of open communication (Smith, 2018). Second, it is vital to align the elements of corporate culture to the new environment resulting from the expansion (Smith, 2018). Third, the emphasis on employee satisfaction will increase their adherence to the values (Smith, 2018). In other words, the instruments improving cooperation between all stakeholders of Shopify will help to maintain its culture.
Pros and Cons of the Strategy
The identified strategy implies specific pros and cons, and their consideration would allow eliminating the risks of the negative outcome of its implementation. The principal advantages of the course of actions intended to maintain culture while expanding business are the inclusion of all people involved in the company’s activities and orientation on strengthening the values. The former will allow gaining the support of stakeholders and, therefore, ensuring the sustainable development of Shopify. The latter, in turn, will add to the positive impact of the increased participation by setting the direction for further progress.
The drawbacks of the strategy implementation relate to the possibility of uneven commitment, a limited number of leaders, and unequal opportunities for professional growth. Since the task of Shopify is to create a “place where all people feel they belong,” they also need to find an instrument providing an equitable sense of belonging to them (“Company culture,” n.d.). However, it implies the development of another strategy as it will be challenging to ensure the satisfaction of all participants while having no opportunity to establish a specific degree of equality between them.
Conclusion
In the current situation, it is clear that the expansion of Shopify is an ongoing process accompanied by the challenge of maintaining the company’s culture. In order to do it, the business can use the identified strategy based on three principal and three additional measures. The main steps include the establishment of open communication, realignment of values and mission, and hiring the right employees. They are complemented by the creation of feedback channels, alignment with the environment, and increasing employee satisfaction. The strategy is advantageous in terms of receiving support, but it will be necessary to find a method to promote equality. In this way, its implementation will allow Shopify to maintain its culture.
References
Company culture – Life at Shopify. (n.d.). Shopify. Web.
Smith, D. (2018). How to maintain your company culture while scaling up. Medium. Web.