Geosoft Inc.: Leading Across Borders

On January 18, 2016, the chief executive officer and chief technology officer of Geosoft Inc. (Geosoft) met in Toronto, Canada, with the company’s executive team and regional directors for a critical three-day strategic planning session. Geosoft was a privately held, employee-owned, mid-sized global company that worked to help earth scientists and explorers make discoveries through innovative data solutions and services. The focus of the meeting—a new technology strategy to protect Geosoft from the impact of a global economic downturn affecting its primary markets—was pivotal to Geosoft’s current and future growth. This new strategy, known within Geosoft as the digital intimacy strategy, would radically change the way the company communicated with its customers. Geosoft’s customers were located in five major geographic regions: Latin America, Africa, Australia (including Asia), Europe, and North America. Rolling out the strategy demanded seamless communication of change to multiple stakeholders in vastly differing cultures across five continents. The new digital intimacy strategy was planned for rollout in September 2016 with implementation in 2017. For the new strategy to work, communication was crucial.

This case is suitable for MBA-level courses in cross-cultural communications, internal communications, change management, and leading technical organizations. After completion of this case, students will be able to do the following: <br><ul><li>Analyze the impact of global operations on corporate strategy, technology, communications, customer intimacy, and employee engagement. <br></li><li>Investigate and analyze the critical success factors in intercultural communications for multinational enterprises that balance corporate and local identity, culture, and values.</li><ul>

• cross-cultural communications, internal communications, change management, leading technical organizations