Rise and Fall of an Information Technology Outsourcing Program: a qualitative Analysis of a Troubled Corporate Initiative

Flawless execution.
The Icarus culture valued new ideas while also being consensus-
driven. The culture insisted that individuals gain buy-in for their ideas in increments throughout 
their projects. Icarus experienced significant growth for several years leading up to SSP’s 
genesis. Executives pointed to their consensus-driven approach as critical to Icarus’s past 
success: “We’ve been so consensus driven—our foundation of what we’ve done as a growth 
company for so many years and our ability to execute during those growth years was a lot about 
sharing and consensus” (Executive, personal communication, August 24, 2013). As the firm and 
the IT department grew, this approach became more of a decision-making tax than growth 
enabler. One executive described the perfectionism that was prevalent in the company: 
Some of it is the culture of what our current CEO and CIO set with us. The thinking of 
[the CEO is] all about flawless execution. “I want everyone to be onboard with it [any 

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change or new idea] and that we all better be behind it. The customer is always right. 
Everything better be perfect.” In order for everything to be perfect, everyone is constantly 
challenging what else could you be doing better to make it perfect...Not that we are all 
supposed to be yes-men, but we all better be aware of it...If you aren’t ADHD before you 
started working here, you soon will be. (Executive, personal communication, June 21, 
2013) 
This bureaucratic incrementalism toward perfection often delayed projects. Every step forward 
needed to be reviewed by, and receive input from, multiple layers of management and 
committees. Additionally, each subsequent level of management or committee needed to be able 
to represent an excruciating level of detail to the next level upward. In turn, these reviewers felt 
compelled to make some suggestions or requests for changes to the project—likely in an attempt 
to show the value of a particular level of management review. The need to broadly socialize 
ideas and make constant refinements based upon feedback caused some Icarus projects to drift so 
far from their initial intent that they became irrelevant or unrecognizable from their original 
scope.