How to manage a growing workforce effectively

Nearly every software company has a strategy focused on growth. But this growth often brings internal challenges that few companies are prepared for, says Benoit Grangé, Chief Technology and Product Officer (CTPO) for Omada Identity, a GRO Capital portfolio company.

Omada Identity is one of the world’s fastest-growing identity governance and administration (IGA) solution providers. As part of his role at the company, Benoit is responsible for ensuring that growth is managed successfully. His approach is based on a simple principle: Look after the people and you will get results. 

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“Companies often address growth by adding people to the team so they can deliver bigger projects, faster,” he says. “But this isn’t as easy as it sounds. When you add one person to a team, you can just add them, and they will most likely fit in. But when you add 10 people or more, things begin to spiral. Reporting lines get longer, responsibilities become split, and communication becomes harder. You can’t justadd people and hope they will fit in. Instead, you have to create the right environment for these people to succeed.”

Growing rapidly in the software market

Omada Identity has been delivering IGA solutions for over 20 years. Put simply, IGA is a framework of policies and technologies that ensure the right users have access to the correct technology and resources across the organization – and it plays a key role in that organization’s productivity, security, risk management and compliance.

Now, with backing from GRO Capital, Omada Identity is rapidly expanding to take an ever-larger slice of the market. In the last two years, the company has doubled investment in its engineering department. But, while Omada Identity’s market share continues to grow, the internal organization has now reached an important consolidation point, as Benoit explains.

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“Organizations can’t keep growing rapidly without internal alignment. You move from 30 to 100 people, then from 100 to 500. At each step, you need to realign the organization to address the new challenges. At the same time, you need to adjust your management setup to ensure you have a management team in place that can handle the larger scale.”

How to create the environment for a successful team

For Benoit, this last pointis extremely important. Most companies, he says, add new people but rarely invest enough in management. This is a mistake. The managers are the ones who care for the teams, and they need training and assistance to do it well. If they don’t get this, the team will begin to underdeliver, and pressure will build.

"At Omada Identity, we’re very focused on creating the conditions for success. We want our managers to engage with people as much as possible – both inside and beyond their own teams. Because if they don’t, silos can grow. I request my managers to be visible, to move away from the desk and talk to people. I also organize dinners with managers from other teams, so they can share experiences and better understand the requirements in different departments,” Benoit says.

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At the same time, the organization must be very clear about what each team is trying to achieve and why. Benoit wants his employees to understand and engage with their individual goals, as well as the goals of the team and the company. To do this, he creates an open forum for information exchange, in which anyone can ask questions and express their ideas. But Benoit is always very clear on the decision-making process, as it ensures realistic expectations.

“I listen to people and welcome their ideas. But the final decision is mine,” he says.

Find out more about Omada Identity: https://omadaidentity.com/