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Scrums, Sprints, Spikes and Poker: Agility in a Bulgarian Software Company - Case Solution

Lucia Miree and John Galletly | Harvard Business Review ( W12802 ) | March 12, 2012 (Revision: 2023-09-22)
Abstract:

Telerik is a Bulgarian software company based in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company has offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany. It is one of Microsoft's top providers of user interface (UI). The company is a major player that was recognized internationally for its exceptional products, services, and organization. However, in 2012, Telerik needs to find the best way to deal with their growth as a company and to keep up with the fast, growing pace in the tech industry. The three alternatives are for Telerik are (1) to grow as fast as possible, while maintaining its foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria; (2) to grow as quickly as possible, but moving the headquarters away from Sofia; or (3) to restrain growth and cherry-pick the products.

Case Questions Answered

  • Can the organizational culture and the agile development process scale to 4,000 employees? To 40,000?
  • How will international expansion affect organizational culture and communication?
  • Can Telerik sustain its human capital strategy as it reaches the limit of its available employee pools? What may be the effect of a deteriorating human capital position on communication and collaboration capability?
  • On the basis of the above, choose one of the strategies below:Telerik should grow as fast as possible while maintaining its Sofiya base;Telerik should grow as fast as possible and become a multinational corporation, eventually moving its headquarters away from Sofiya;Telerik should restrain its growth and cherry-pick its products to become a high-end software supplier for the Microsoft platform (at least in the short term).

Scrums, Sprints, Spikes, and Poker: Agility in a Bulgarian Software

Company Case Study Overview

Telerik is a Bulgarian Software Company and one of Microsoft’s top providers of user interfaces. The company is a major player that was recognized internationally for its exceptional products, services, and organization. However, in 2012, Telerik needed to find the best way to deal with its growth as a company and to keep up with the fast, growing pace in the tech industry.

The three alternatives for Telerik are (1) to grow as fast as possible while maintaining its foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria; (2) to grow as quickly as possible but move the headquarters away from Sofia; or (3) to restrain growth and cherry-pick the products.

The criteria of company culture, profitability, efficiency, and ease of implementation will be used to evaluate each alternative.

The first alternative is that Telerik should grow as fast as possible while maintaining its Sofia base.

The first advantage is that the core founders will continue to have reasonable control of the company culture because they set the unique rules and management in the company based on the culture of their company in Bulgaria. Therefore, the company will be able to retain the company culture while growing exponentially.

Another advantage is that not relocating will allow the company to allocate more resources toward research and development to continue growing. The ease of implementation is effortless, as there is no need to move.

The third advantage is that the company will either preserve or increase employee loyalty and satisfaction because the company is staying true to its roots; thus, the company culture is positive and will not decline.

However, the first disadvantage is that the growth will eventually stall because Telerik is currently looking for options to expand and meet up with the tech industry’s demands. If Telerik continues to do what they are now doing, they will eventually not be able to progress at their current speed.

The second disadvantage is that Sofia, Bulgaria, is not a tech capital. Telerik is one of the major success stories in Bulgaria. Thus, profitability could go down because Telerik will lose out on potential deals with other companies that are located in more populated areas of the world.

The last disadvantage is that being located in Sofia, Bulgaria, will lead to human capital restraints because Telerik will have a limited available employee pool of top workers to work for them compared to other parts of the world, which could lead to a decrease in profitability.

The second alternative is for Telerik to grow as fast as possible and become a multinational corporation, eventually moving its headquarters away from Sofia.

The first advantage is that there will be a more extensive brand awareness, which will build up the company’s image. This will invite other companies to work with Telerik, which will generate more profit.

Another advantage is that the center of a major company will be located in a larger city, which will make it…

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