How Business EQ Accelerated Leadership in a Global SaaS Company
Chargebee, an 8 year-old startup has transformed from a Chennai-centric organisation with 250 employees, into a global Unicorn (startup worth more than $1 billion) with more than 1200 employees.
The founders of Chargebee recognised that their leadership team was going to be challenged when hitting their targets, and in 2019 piloted a comprehensive Leadership Development Programme with 14 individuals to transform and support the leadership of the company.
The Challenges
Chargebee faced numerous challenges during its rapid growth phase, in which the leadership team expanded significantly from 17 to more than 40 members.
Balancing operational delivery with strategic thinking was recognised as critical to their success in the longer term.
The company had also recognised they would need to be able to quickly adapt their senior management team leadership styles to reflect the ongoing changes while simultaneously maintaining its strong company culture and integrating newly recruited teams who had never met in person.
In 2019 Chargebee had instigated a ‘work from anywhere’ approach prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which, along with the rapid global expansion led to cultural challenges such as:
1. Communication Styles: Leaders from some regions tended to use indirect communication to maintain harmony, while leaders from other regions preferred a more direct approach.
2. Decision-Making Processes: The preference for consensus and hierarchical approval in some regions clashed with the emphasis on speed and individual accountability in others.
3. Approach to Authority and Hierarchy: Differences in respect for hierarchical structures versus egalitarian approaches led to differences, especially in cross-cultural team interactions.
Chargebee has offices in North Bethesda and Salt Lake City in the USA, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Chennai and Bengaluru in India and more recently has opened offices in Sydney Australia and Dublin. Chargebee rapidily expanding global footprint further highlighted the importance of developing leaders capable of managing cultural differences and fostering cross-cultural collaboration to enable them to raise performance in a changing global workforce.
Developing SAAS Leadership
Malcolm Nicholson an EBW Certified Partner and highly experienced leadership coach was bought in to support the development of leadership at Chargebee. Using a mixture of targeted coaching and workshops, he used the EBW Leadership Reports to build leaders’ Business EQ and specifically their cultural awareness of the impact they have on others who were from different regions to themselves.
Malcolm’s Approach
Initially, Malcolm worked with the senior leadership team but was later asked to focus on leaders below the CXO level. The programme, which was originally planned as a hybrid of virtual and face-to-face sessions, transitioned to fully virtual individual coaching sessions during the pandemic.
In 2022, Malcolm began implementing and using the results from EBW Business EQ Assessments before launching a comprehensive leadership coaching programme in 2024 under a new Chief People Officer.
Online coaching sessions were conducted every 1-2 months with a renewed focus on using Business EQ Compass to improve personal development.
Business EQ Breakthroughs
With the use of EBW Assessments, Chargebee’s leaders developed greater Business Emotional Intelligence and an understanding of their personal "success formula." The focus of leadership development shifted from "what" to "who" with improved remote leadership skills, including "digital body language."
To give this some context; much is known about complex business environments. Less is known about how to be successful leaders in such environments whilst constantly dealing with uncertainty, ambiguity, complexity and paradox. The process of enabling leaders to focus on their Business EQ enables leaders to think in new ways about their careers, sustained high performance and maximising their potential.
This Business EQ approach enabled leaders to move from an individual contributor mindset to strategic leadership thinking, emphasising leading oneself to lead others and the organisation.
Cross-cultural appreciation and the ability to manage paradoxes and complexity was also seen to improved significantly.
One leader, for instance, saw their “Influence” score on the EBW assessment increase from 1 to 6 within a year, which led to a promotion.
Tangible Results
When Malcolm started working with Chargebee, they had already raised $18 million in Series C funding. With his leadership programme, he was able to equip the leadership teams at Chargebee with the Business EQ skills and tools to navigate exponential growth and organisational change:
2019: Chargebee raised $14 million in Series D funding.
2020: Chargebee raised $55 million in Series F funding in October, valuing the company at around $500 million.
2021: Chargebee raised $125 million in Series G funding, which valued the company at $1.4 billion, making it a Unicorn (startup valued at more than $1 billion).
2022: Chargebee raised $250 million in Series H funding, valuing the company at $3.5 billion.
2023-2024: Information about Chargebee’s valuation for these years is not publicly available, but the company continued to focus on small and medium (SMB) and mid-market businesses, maintaining a high growth trajectory.
At every step, Chargebee’s leadership capacity increased to match organisational growth.
Cross-cultural leadership in their global remote work environment improved as the individuals gained an in-depth understanding of Business EQ.
The development of individual leadership styles moved away from a “one-size-fits-all" approach. Enhanced Business Emotional Intelligence among the leaders led to better interpersonal and professional relationships.
Leadership Appreciation
Feedback from Chargebee employees and leadership team highlighted the positive impact of Malcolm’s EBW Leadership Programmes and coaching:
“Malcolm has been working with Chargebee for 5 years and so has a unique insight into the changes the business has been through during that time. He is consequently able to incorporate Chargebee’s unique culture into his conversations. Looking at a leader as part of an eco-system, the concentric circles of their impact and influence include:- leading self, leading department, leading Chargebee as well as, partners & customers. This of course has the added overlay of complexity from geographical and regional cultures. (Europe, consisting of multiple countries, cultures and languages are more adept at navigating these differences). Consequently new insights and approaches from a leader may have far reaching and difficult to quantify outcomes. The perspectives brought by the EBW are an important input to this awareness.
As a company we are intensely aware of the need for individuality when developing leaders and Malcolm has continued to garner positive anecdotal feedback ratings from our leaders.”
“Great. No, awesome. I don’t know what you are doing, man, but keep doing it. Awesome.”
“I have been meaning to say this for a while, but having Malcolm as a coach has been the best thing to happen to me in the past 9 months. His sessions are always productive, intense, and I always have a lot of takeaways at the end of these sessions. It helps tremendously to openly share my thoughts, inhibitions, and concerns without having to worry about the repercussions. I am glad [our company] is affording us a coach of his calibre - Thank you!”
The Verdict: Business EQ is necessary for leadership growth
This case study demonstrates the crucial role of Business Emotional Intelligence in scaling leadership capacity during periods of rapid growth. By partnering with experienced EBW Certified Partner, Chargebee was able to develop leaders with Business Emotional Intelligence who are capable of navigating complex business environments. The EBW Business EQ Assessment provided data-driven insights that formed the foundation for the organisation’s leadership development programmes. This approach enabled Chargebee’s leaders to enhance their self-awareness, cross-cultural appreciation, and ability to manage paradoxes, which are crucial skills in today's global business landscape.
The case underscores how Business EQ can drive both individual career progression and organisational success. It highlights the importance of continuous leadership development, especially in fast-growing companies where the skills that led to initial success may not be sufficient for future challenges.
