Case study Easinvest is a Melbourne-based software company that has undergone rapid growth in recent years. Its main business is software development, creating products that significantly enhance the efficiency of financial institutions and assist with managing the back end functions of their investments. Michael and Travis, two colleagues who worked together in financial services before deciding to strike out on their own, founded Easinvest in 2012. Within two to three years, the company grew from its initial team of five to thirty-five employees and opened small sales offices in London and New York. This was a pleasant surprise to Michael and Travis; they wanted Easinvest to be profitable in five years and they had achieved this milestone by the end of the third year. Now in their fourth year of operation and being so successful to date, they are aiming higher.

Due to Easinvest’s growing client base in North America, Michael and Travis have decided to move the headquarters from Melbourne to New York. Not only will this allow Easinvest to be closer to their current clients and a favourable banking climate, it will signal to future clients and investors that Easinvest is ‘world class.’ Indeed, Michael and Travis feel that the move will mean that Easinvest can grow at a rate that will allow them to launch an IPO within three years or at the very least, make them extremely attractive for a lucrative acquisition.
With this in mind, Michael and Travis have appointed an external independent Board of Directors to oversee the company. One of the Board’s first major decisions was to recommend moving all major backend functions to Asia; customer service, bookkeeping and technical support will be delivered from a dedicated office in Bangalore and all quality assurance will be managed from Shanghai. To do this, Easinvest will create two new offices in India and China rather than simply outsource backend functions. This will increase the number of offices to five and necessitates a change in organisational structure to a matrix structure with global virtual teams; needless to say, the organisational culture will also need to change. To oversee the set-up of the new offices and hire local employees, two long-term employees will be sent to India and China for at least a year and a half. This is in addition to most of the top executives relocating to New York.

However not everything will change. Innovation and development will remain in Melbourne given the past successes. The Board has also supported the management decision to retain the core values of Easinvest, values about which Michael and Travis are particularly passionate.

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