The company that I will be using for illustration purposes throughout the Organizational Development course is Aristocrat Leisure Limited (Aristocrat). This company happens to be the parent company of the organization for which I am currently employed by, Video Gaming Technologies (VGT). Aristocrat is a gambling machine manufacturer that was founded over 63 years ago in 1953 by Len Ainsworth in Australia ("About | Aristocrat", 2016). Its first revolutionary product was not released to the public for 3 years after conception when Aristocrat introduced the Clubmaster product that revolutionized the gaming industry. This machine was the first product of its time that offered multiline and scattered payouts. Opportunely, the same year, New South Wales Government legalized the …show more content…
While Aristocrat had seen reasonable growth since its initiation in 1950’s it was not until the 1990’s that significant growth was realized. This evolution along with numerous new-fangled products permitted the company to list on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Aristocrat was extremely successful in Australia and throughout Europe, but until 2000 it had not operated in the world’s largest gaming market, Las Vegas. After the movement into Las Vegas, the company had a difficult remaining competitive as the movement into the market was met with fierce competition. Luckily in the late 2000s, with the assistance of a shift in leadership and the appointment of a new CEO, Aristocrat reinvigorated its operations and began its pursuit to become a top-ranked player in the industry. This reinvented company was fueled by a renewed concentration on research and development and coupled with the strategic acquisitions of Product Madness and Video Game Technologies in 2013 and 2014,