Our business has undergone evolutionary change over the years as Zenitech took actions to pre-empt market movements. In 2024, a significant decision was taken to significantly amend the way we operate, at a time when we were rapidly growing across four different countries. Despite our consistent financial success, we realised that if we wanted to maintain a sustained excellent level of customer service as we scaled, we had to be able to adapt to the increasing demands being placed upon us.
We remain loyal to our strategic ambition to be an international business focused upon meeting the current and evolving technology services needs of our customers. But, to do that, we needed to internationalise our talent management and streamline our operations. This was the spark to ignite a transformation journey which has resulted in us becoming a more agile business, capable of unlocking even more exceptional value for our clients.
We are very proud of this achievement. Below, we share the story of how we made it happen. We hope it inspires anyone who is about to embark on a transformation journey of their own.
Why change was needed
Our transformation journey began in the post-Covid era. The global economy had just suffered a traumatic event and working cultures were rapidly evolving. While this was a turbulent time for many businesses, it was also a period of digital transformation which saw demand for Zenitech’s services grow.
With the business landscape shifting, new opportunities were being created and companies were looking to reshape their operations and commercial offerings. This led to a high volume of requests from customers who wanted to embrace emerging technologies and implement solutions that would deliver positive business outcomes.
As a result, our workforce began to expand quickly – growing to more than 500 employees across the UK, Lithuania, Romania, and Hungary. We had reached a point where, if we wanted to maintain a consistent level of service, organisational change was necessary.
We had to ensure that the company didn’t become siloed and our customers could speak to the most appropriate engineering experts, wherever they sat within the business. We needed to create a more international operation.
Zenitech’s success has been built upon expert technology conversations. This is what allows us to develop a deeper understanding of what our customers are trying to achieve and be on the same page as them, ensuring that the solutions we deliver have the desired business impact. This is what makes us special. And, this is what we needed to protect as we grew.
So, at the end of 2020, we took the decision to seek investment and undergo transformational change.
Steps on the transformation journey
Aligning the global business
During our foundational years, Zenitech developed strong regional centres under the guidance of our local leadership teams. This was necessary to build our foundations in those early days. But as we matured as an organisation, we knew we needed to evolve.
We wanted an international approach that would provide our customers, candidates and our zenitech community with a consistent experience across the business, and create an organisational structure that would provide our employees with clear progression paths. To do this, we needed to create cohesion across our offices by aligning our people and adopting universal governance processes.
We also needed to reform our organisational structure to create streamlined workflows that would reduce duplication of effort. This would also make it easier to bring the right subject matter experts to the surface, regardless of their location – enabling us to facilitate those in-depth expert conversations.
This led to a thorough review of existing operations that resulted in the harmonisation of role descriptions, seniority scales and ways of working. It removed the distinctions between different regions and aligned the internal employee experience.
Bringing expertise to the surface
In addition to creating an international structure, we also wanted to introduce mechanisms that allowed us to quickly bring knowledge and expertise to the fore. This included making it easier to access specific skill-sets, share industry insights and support customers. These three objectives would be achieved through the introduction of our Technology Office, new Competency Centres and the creation of a new Commercial team.
The Technology Office
We created a global Technology Office that sits at the top of the organisation directing applied research and development (R&D). Under the leadership of Ruxandra Banici, formerly the head of our Romanian office, the Technology Office provides a test lab function that serves as an incubator for new innovations. Working in cooperation with external partners, including the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, it is currently evaluating 18 specific applications of next generation technology in various fields of business.
This functionality has helped to place Zenitech at the leading edge of industry developments. It is also enabling us to develop a deeper understanding of emerging technologies, helping us to advise our clients on ideal use cases and allowing us to develop proof of concepts and turn ideas into reality, faster.
Competency Centres
We introduced Competency Centres under the leadership of Laimonas Krivickas, formerly the head of the Lithuanian office. Responsible for technical implementations, these centres ensure that our customers’ solutions are delivered with future ready capabilities. With teams no longer operating in regional siloes, this competency-based structure makes it easier to assign work based on skillset and technical experience, to learn and align from other locations (share best practices, and learn lessons globally), and resolve technology-based problems sooner.
This has also helped to consolidate our core areas of strength and made it easier to identify talent within the organisation. It is helping us to develop personal growth programmes with the creation of new career paths and opportunities. As the foundation of the Competency Centres we established centralised “delivery operations” function, ensuring operational excellence and data integrity, leading to better data-driven decisions on process, talent, etc.
The Commercial Team
To communicate how the business delivers projects and supports customers, we launched a new front office and appointed experienced sales professional Natalie Miller to lead the team. Functioning internationally, this team has provided the business with a commercial focus that is helping to sustain growth and meet the demands of new and existing customers, wherever they are located.
This new commercial approach was reinforced by the appointment of new CEO, Sam Kingston. With a strong track record in transforming businesses, Sam’s expertise has renewed focus on our core strengths and helped to drive revenues.
Rolling out our vision
Although we had a target operating model in mind, we were conscious that the roll out of the new structure would need to be carefully considered from a workforce perspective. Communication would be key in this.
We wanted to provide a clear vision that our teams could rally behind, but we also wanted to leave some flexibility in our roadmap to incorporate employee input. A structural revamp could not just be imposed upon our workforce. We have always adopted a people first approach at Zenitech and, as this transformation was going to be a journey shared by all, everyone needed to feel included in the process.
We were also conscious that our working environments have always encouraged curiosity and a collaborative approach to problem solving – and we didn’t want to break that spirit and compromise our culture as we went through the change. As such, we asked our people to influence the shape of the transformation, by directly sharing thoughts and feedback or by anonymously voicing any concerns they may have.
This helped to maintain trust, but it also provided our leadership team with regular reality checks. They were able to gauge whether changes were being accepted and this led to subtle alterations in the approach we took.
A new Zenitech
Zenitech has evolved into an international business capable of responding quickly to our customers’ needs and delivering transformative business outcomes.
The creation of the Technology Office is enabling breakthrough thinking, often providing answers where other technology companies have faltered. Our customers are free to reimagine what’s possible, as we can test their concepts and turn them into tangible solutions.
Our Competency Centres are providing our clients with access to expertise and delivering solutions that are built to last. They have made it easier to discuss market trends with clients, prepare them for next-generation technologies and build roadmaps that will futureproof their businesses.
Our new front office function is also helping us to meet the needs of new and existing customers wherever they are in the world. We’ve done all of this while maintaining our culture, our curiosity and our willingness to find the right answers. We’ve put our business in the best position for growth, while retaining what makes us special.
If you would like to know more about who we are and how we are delivering for our customers get in contact with us info@zenitech.co.uk
