ORS Group

About ORS Group

ORS Group is Austria’s leading provider of analog and digital broadcasting services and a subsidiary of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF. With 280 employees, the company ensures seamless transmission of audio and audiovisual content worldwide via terrestrial, satellite, cable, IP services, and streaming. In 2024, it expanded its global reach by investing in Polish software company Insys Video Technology.

Mission: We support the democratic and cultural diversity of Austrian society by providing easily accessible services.
Website:  https://www.ors.at/

Context

As ORS Group expanded, the complexity of its operations grew. What started as a company focused on terrestrial and satellite transmission soon had to adapt to new technologies (5G broadcast, streaming, etc.), evolving customer expectations, and a more competitive landscape. 

To remain agile and resilient, the company first adopted the Agile methodology, which allowed teams to respond to client needs more quickly. However, as teams grew and functions became more specialized, a lack of organizational clarity emerged. Employees struggled to understand how different teams worked together, roles and responsibilities were unclear, and decision-making processes lacked efficiency.

These issues became even more evident after ORS Group acquired Insys Video Technologies. The marketing department, for example, was scattered across different teams in Austria and Poland, leading to some inefficiencies in coordination. To solve these issues, the company needed a centralized system to document team structures, streamline processes, and ensure seamless collaboration post-merger.

Rather than flattening its hierarchy, ORS Group sought to implement certain elements of Holacracy to enhance transparency and agility within its existing structure. That’s when Austrian consulting firm Fifty1 introduced the team to Talkspirit's governance solution —a perfect fit for bringing clarity, collaboration, and streamlined decision-making without disrupting the company’s organizational structure.

Challenges

• Lack of visibility inro roles and responsibilities: Employees didn’t have a clear understanding of how teams worked together.
• Inefficient decision-making: Meetings lacked structure, and the decision-making process was slow. 
• Post-merger integration challenges: ORS Group needed a way to streamline collaboration between its Austrian and Polish teams.
• Resistance to change: Employees were used to a traditional top-down structure and had to shift their mindset toward a more transparent, role-based approach.

Why Talkspirit

• Greater transparency: Talkspirit allows teams to clearly visualize roles and responsibilities, and understand what’s expected of them and others.
• Agility without losing hierarchy: The platform supports structured decision-making while maintaining a clear chain of command.
• Scalability and flexibility: Talkspirit enables the adaptation of Holacracy principles in a way that fits ORS Group’s needs.
• Compliance with European regulations: As a European solution, Talkspirit fully complies with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and is ISO 27001 certified, ensuring data security and sovereignty.

Implementation Process

• Structuring the organization: ORS Group conducted a two-day workshop with 17 leaders from different business units and support teams. Together, they mapped out key circles, defined their purpose, and assigned accountabilities.
• Iterating on the structure: Circle leads refined their circles’ roles and responsibilities over four weeks. A second workshop was held to finalize definitions. 
• Company-wide launch: The official rollout took place during ORS Group’s annual employee gathering, where all employees were introduced to the platform and assigned their roles. 
• Training and alignment: Employees received training sessions, and a structured alignment process was introduced. Every six months, top management and C-level executives define strategic priorities, and every four weeks, service design meetings ensure alignment across teams.

Key Features Used

• Organization chart: It helps visualize how people work together across departments, beyond traditional reporting lines.

• OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): This goal-setting methodology allows ORS Group to align company-wide goals with operational execution.
• Proposals: Any employee wanting to make a small change in the organization can make a proposal, which people can then vote for asynchronously.
• Meetings: Bigger changes are discussed with management during strategy meetings to make sure everyone is aligned on the decisions that need to be made.

Benefits

• Greater organizational clarity: Employees now have a clear view of roles, responsibilities, and collaboration across the company. This is particularly useful for drafting job descriptions for recruitment, and onboarding new hires.
• Agile decision-making: Decision-making is more efficient, as the organization is now able to approve changes asynchronously or discuss them in meetings (depending on the scale of the change).
• Better meeting structure: Meetings are more structured and involve the right people, making them more effective.
• Enhanced integration post-merger: The platform helped streamline collaboration between Austrian and Polish teams, particularly in the marketing department, which was previously fragmented.
• Adaptability to ORS Group’s structure: The company successfully adopted selected Holacracy principles without strictly following the model, allowing for self-organized circles while maintaining its hierarchy.
• A trusted technology partner: ORS Group has actively contributed feedback to improve the platform, and Talkspirit has implemented many of the requested features.
• Enhancing ORS Group’s impact: By fostering transparency, collaboration, and efficient decision-making, Talkspirit helps ORS Group stay true to its mission. The platform ensures that teams can work together seamlessly, aligning their efforts with the organization’s broader purpose while maintaining agility in an evolving landscape.

In short: ORS Group’s experience demonstrates that a hierarchical organization can still be transparent, agile, and collaborative. It just needs the right tools and support! To learn more about how Talkspirit was implemented at ORS Group, check out this article.

If your organization faces similar challenges and needs a structured yet flexible solution, feel free to contact us!