BEACHWOOD, Ohio — Growing Kalypso was relatively easy in the early years. It is not hard to double in size year after year when the base is small and the network of friends and colleagues to recruit from is large. As the business grew and networks were exhausted, it was time for Kalypso to explore inorganic growth options.
One of Kalypso’s core values is a passion for personal development. “Making that real meant hiring people that genuinely care about the success of their colleagues,” says George Young, CEO of Kalypso. “And since we believe in the development of the whole person, not just the consulting side, we settled on “characters with character” as our diversity statement. Interesting people that foster a healthy lack of respect for hierarchy and positional authority are more fun to work with. We hired against this profile and the organization developed like magic.”
Kalypso’s values became the basis for its growth strategy – creating a unique culture that is attractive to professionals looking for a platform for personal and professional growth. The strategy seemed to be working as the firm quickly passed the one hundred consultant mark. What wasn’t expected was that the firm would also become an attractive home for groups of professionals and other consulting organizations.
In the past six months Kalypso has merged with two new firms, Integware and DataSquare. Both companies were good at what they did, but were under sized to meet the demands of their client base. Faced with scaling on their own or joining forces with another organization, they chose to merge their operations with Kalypso’s.
“Keeping up rates of growth in the 30 – 40 percent per year range is difficult. The demand is there, but the base is now larger and the pace of hiring must keep up,” said Bill Poston, managing partner of Kalypso. “We will continue to supplement our aggressive recruiting processes with an inorganic growth strategy aimed at providing a good home to groups of extraordinary professionals that are looking for a fun, flexible and rewarding place to build a career.”
The Kalypso Difference is based on people. There are good business models, good cultures, and good people. Kalypso has all three – and a growing number of individuals and organizations agree. Kalypso will continue to be an attractive home for talent whether it shows up on campus, out of industry, from a competitor, or as a part of another firm that wants to join. Growth creates opportunity for growth.