1. http://www.OP4.com
- Special Tam -
Pier Paolo Bosco | Arianna Calabretta | Giacomo Carozza | Michela Cipollone
Gian Marco D’Urso | Elio Giannitelli | Hesham Mahmoud | Michele Massacesi
2. Main Facts
The Vision: to be the premier youth-oriented site in North-America, with
proprietary content as a cornerstone.
3 sections:
# Expression: forum “censured”
# Entertainment: reviews created by staff and users
# Empowerment: self-help and motivational pieces made by
staff
2 key strtegies
# Using LI as a medium of Endorsement
# High quality articles dued to “censure” and staff editing.
3. Main Facts
# Stuart Saunders: iPresident, Co-Funder and Director of
Aggregation. Leadership Innovation is the largest youth-oriented
leadership firm in North America (10M of students reached per year in
Canada and USA). He spends 30/40h per week on OP4.com project,
runs OP4.com London and Ontario offices and teamleader of the chat
moderation team.
# Ray Matthews: Co-Funder and iCEO.
Balance Fashion multinational funder. Responsible for the vision of OP4.
com. From “no” to “yes”
# Tom Pressello: Co-Funder, bCEO and CFO.
31 years old. Strategic planning and Corporate finance consultant.
Master BA. Ex Vice-president of a pharmaceutical company.
4. Main Facts
The moderation team was composed by highschool students.
OP4.com offices were split between London and Vancouver.
Meatthews team:
# Sam Reynolds: “Content Queen”, her team: Dana, Libby and
Jessica
# Ian Hayashi: web admin.
# Spring Munsel: senior designer (Java, html and flash).
# Marketing Team
# Dana Starritt: senior editor.
Young writers were hired with internships.
HR Culture: No taboo, everyone comfy, lack of training.
5. Main Facts
HR Culture: No taboo, everyone comfy, lack of training. New employes
had to learn by observing and there were no so many formal meetings.
“Plants” and “postcards”.
Only positive feedback through public recognitions.
Everyone can suggest new ideas or projects.
Mistakes are considered a way to learn.
Stock options are available at a very low price for employes
“Code Samurai” approach.
The NextBigGoal is getting Profitability while maintaining firm’s culture.
To achieve the first goal each business unit would have to generate its
own revenue stream.
For the second one Matthews asked to review the vision.
6. How would you characteriza the
organizational culter at OP4.com?
The OP4.com has not a typical organizational structure: There aren’t
the typical and fixed functional units but five senior management figures
each one administrating and coordinating a specific micro area inside
the company(such as the «Contentent Director» or the «Webmaster»
they were able to choose their own title).
All the «Senior» were internally specialized in a particular task,
instead the TMT overseas the general operation and coordinate an
internal and external team to provide and defend the firm’s leadership.
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7. How would you characteriza the
organizational culter at OP4.com?
The logo is " EVERYTHING KEEP AWAY FROM MONEY AND
PROFITABILITY, IT WILL SUCCESS "
the characters of the organization culture:
1- social aim not profitability aim;
2- Integration : working as team work to achieve the same aim;
3- Limited employees : just 20 employees , however working in high
efficiency more than 50 employees;
4- No promotion , more responsibility : no malice , just a wide area
for evolution;
5- Specialization : each one responsible for a specific task , however
sharing opinion.
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8. How was this culture
developed and maintained?
This culture was developed and maintained by the five seniors and founders of the
company; this kind of culture was the basis of the organizational structure and it was
maintained by some fundamentals of which it was founded the company that were:
a) NO profitability so nobody was also interested in trying to change the structure
b) it was a small company (20 persone) so it was easy to have everything under
control by the seniors
c) there was a young spirit inside the company and there was a Dynamic way of
seeing the job; this last point can emerge specially in the selection of the staffers (they
were chosen by their dynamism and not at all by their skills);
Although there was transparency in the work so, even if each person was responsible
in a specific task, there was always a sharing of ideas
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9. What role, if any, does OP4.com’s culture play
in the organization’s effectivenes? I part...
We have two roles associated in organization's effectiveness , throw
the entity's culture , both of them has been created by Mattew:
1- Mattew's approaches for hiring :
A- Employees ages which are closely to site user's ages.
B- Specialization , fit person in fit job position.
C- Locating employees by using his network of contacts.
D- Offering university internship to find younger writers to
reach the age demographic he needed.
E- Looking for employees have vision synchronizes with the
other colleague's visions.
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10. What role, if any, does OP4.com’s culture play
in the organization’s effectivenes?… II part
2- He used a smart and professional managerial method :
A- Team work , he urges his team to share visions.
B- Flexibility , and trust allowed to create an innovation
atmosphere.
C- Social life inside the entity which rise the level of activity.
D- Praise , reward and enforcement instead of punishment.
E- He used simple practical ways to build the idea and concept in
employee's minds instead of orders and training.
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11. How should Matthews and Saunders manage
the transitions to a new organizational design?
- They already have behind several competitors and maintaining a
healthy, stimulating and ?particular? environment to work within is
crucial to attire the best professionals and creative around.
- At the same time, each team member Matthew chose revealed to be a
perfect piece of the OP4 puzzle: they developed together a strong team,
and carried ever increasing responsibilities through the years; now it is
time to leave them the possibility to create their own divisions, choose
their future team members in the same way Matthew chose them, and
lead their group the same way Matthew lead them to success.
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12. How should Matthews and Saunders manage
the transitions to a new organizational design?
- Saunders and Matthews should come out the duality between their role
in OP4 and their own firms (motivational agency, Balance Fashion). In
the case they choose to maintain a formal representative position in
OP4, the possibility of bringing on more experienced managers to guide
the company throughout upcoming major changes (as already
anticipated by Saunders) must be taken into consideration.
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