A medium-size financial services consulting firm, Phillips Financial Services, has been experiencing some workplace culture issues. The founder / CEO, Nick Phillips, has just doubled his staff to 50 over the past six months despite the company only starting 18 months ago. The company is growing perhaps too rapidly and staff are stressed, morale is low, and there bullying is evident (older vs younger; male vs female; etc.).
He has a very multicultural staff representing a variety of cultures and religions. Although most of the staff are Australian born, other countries represented are India, the UK, Brazil, USA, New Zealand, China and South Africa. The staff comprises of 65% men and 35% women. The age range is between 23 and 68 years of age; the Founder/CEO is 42. Other key things to know about the company:
• This is Nick’s first company. There is no Board of Directors; Nick is the sole owner/shareholder and he makes all the decisions.
The services they offer are (1) Accounting & Tax, (2) Business Advisory, and (3) Self-Management Super Funds.
• Nick aspires his company to be similar to EFS Strategic, PWC, Deloitte, and KPMG in the next few years but knows he needs to create the right culture to see his vision come to fruition.
• He has two other key people on his team: Marketing Manager, Chief Financial Officer. Beyond that there has not been any formalized organizational structure.
Nick personally promotes diversity, yet he is finding some of his staff are not as open-minded. He has five disabled staff members and many cultural mixes within his organizational teams.
