Wave Apps

Challenge

An entrepreneurial spirit driven by purpose, passion, and big ideas is the seed of most early start-ups. However, as these start-ups scale in size and complexity, the speed of growth can quickly dilute the core essence that once drove success. In order to overcome this obstacle, start-ups need to be strategic in their approach to maintain their unique momentum and focus as they mature, grow, and scale.

Wave launched in 2010, with the mission of changing the way small businesses manage their finances. By 2011, they reached a key milestone of more than one hundred thousand customers. However, as a common threat to most start-ups, Wave’s growth was in danger of plateauing as the business became larger and more complex.

As they reached this key inflection point, Wave made some decisions that changed their future trajectory. Firstly, in 2015, they made an investment in their first Chief People Officer to ensure they had an integrated human capital strategy to empower and enable business growth objectives. Secondly, in 2016, Wave’s Leadership Team engaged Lapin International to create an inspiring vision and purpose-driven strategy for growth.

Insight

Lapin’s strategic discovery process revealed key insights that Wave implemented, leading to the unlocking of business potential. As Lapin began their executive team development work, the Wave team learned how to work together more effectively. Through some restructuring and their own personal development, they created an interpersonal chemistry that led to an aligned, cohesive, and empowered team.

Lapin’s unique and proven approach to seamlessly integrate business strategy and values-based leadership profoundly impacted and influenced how business decisions were made at Wave.

In focused workshops, Wave was guided to define their purpose in a sharp and articulate way, rediscover their core values, and more effectively adapt them to its strategic objectives. The Chief People Officer worked with the Executive Team to embed those values into the company’s culture and cascade them throughout the organization. The result of that work had a direct correlation in creating a best-in-class engaged workforce and ensured that all efforts across the organization were aligned to key strategic objectives.

Lapin’s work with the Leadership Team was key to discovering and articulating the organizational purpose. It defined what unique tangible and intangible contributions Wave could make to small business owners.

Through Lapin’s exclusive CEO coaching and 360° assessment with David Lapin, Wave’s CEO, Kirk Simpson, explored and articulated his personal purpose and values and learned how the organization experienced his leadership. Based on these findings, Kirk gained the clarity and alignment he needed to build upon his core foundation as a leader. He overcame the limitations that his own humility at times placed on his organization and developed a healthier balance of confidence, ambition, and humility. With these learnings and insights, Kirk began to lead the company through a purpose-driven strategy for growth, thereby taking Wave to the next level.

Kirk already had the makings of a great leader, and through Lapin’s values-based leadership development program, he unlocked his full potential—all while remaining authentic to himself and to the company that he had built with his co-founder, James Lochrie.