Apegee Case Study Analysis
Organizational Behavior
Apigee Case Study Analysis
Overview
This case study is about a company Apigee which has well established itself in the technology
space known as Application Programming Interface (API). API’s have helped in digitization of
business which has in turn resulted in cost saving of marketing and business processes. The
businesses are moving from brick and mortar system to business modes which can work through
smartphones and similar devices. Due to these changing trends, companies have made huge
investments in APIs and would be spending billions in API management. This growing market
has attracted many players in API business such as Mashery, Layer 7 technologies, etc.
Apigee was found in 2004. The company delivered an intelligent API Platform which helped
business accelerate their pace of innovation, share their data and adapt to rapidly changing
market needs. By 2015, the company became a leading player in enabling digital transformation.
Over the years it also diversified into products, consulting and implementation thus offering
credible services to its clients. Also it formed strategic alliance with other companies to fight
competition.
Apigee followed a customer centric approach and worked closely with each of its client. It
offered quick solution and maintained a low response time to meet the client requirements. Very
soon it became a market leader.
Since the company is operating in a high technology market, innovation is essential to survive. In
order to sustain the challenging environment, the company has built a culture of innovation and
learning. They have built a work culture of autonomy, openness, mutual trust and have
empowered their employees. They believe in ‘Magic of People’ and prioritize people over
processes.
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Apigee Case Study Analysis
Issues/Problems
Since the company is successful and growing, maintaining the core values and culture with
growing manpower is a challenge they are foreseeing. The vice president and the managing
director of the company is concerned that the freedom and empowerment could be misused and
result in lower productivity. The current culture has been successful since the employees are
considered mature and responsible but lack of monitoring could also result in loafing and less
ownership. The concern is how Apigee will guard the company against such complacency
Proposed Solutions
In the digital age, the power has shifted from employer to employee. Apigee should follow the
existing culture since that is one of the reasons why innovative people join the company. Also
innovation and freedom go together. Too much monitoring or interference might not work very
well with people who will lose interest in working with the company.
Some of the ways in which existing culture can be maintained in the organization are:
1. Hiring process – The hiring process should be very well designed to select the right kind
of candidates. The HR should focus on people who have some experience of working in
open culture and have some achievements. Currently the company is focusing on hiring
people with 2-3 years’ experience. There people tend to switch more and have less
loyalty. The company should focus on hiring people who are likely to stick to the
company for some time.
2. Create more leaders – If leadership role is given to more people, they will take the
responsibility of maintaining the company culture. They will collaborate with employees
and ensure that the culture is maintained nicely and people do not take advantage of it.
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Apigee Case Study Analysis
3. Well defined ethical policies – Work ethics and morals should be well defined,
implemented and communicated to people regularly. Also the repercussions of deviating
should be clearly communicated.
4. Assimilate new employees into the team quickly – Engaging the new employees can
decrease their uncertainty and help them more rapidly feel part of the organization.
Working with the team will help them understand and follow the culture.
5. Transparency –Providing transparency about how the business is faring lets employees
feel like trusted members of the team and have as much certainty as possible about the
company’s future prospects. Also, if employees don’t know the score, they don’t know
how to improve it.
6. Encourage sharing – To make the new employees connected to each other; encourage
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