How to Save the World has been developing the concept of New Collaborative Enterprises , businesses that are totally egalitarian, self-organized, self-managed and founded on principles of members’ happiness and well-being, not growth and shareholders’ profit. Several readers have asked if such enterprises exist, and my answer is ‘to my knowledge, not yet’. This article profiles three companies that come close. Next week I’ll put on my consultant hat and describe how a true NCE might evolve.
Ricardo Semler received brief fame for his book Maverick, about how he transformed his father’s family business in Sao Paulo, Semco S.A. into a totally egalitarian, decentralized, worker-operated company. Now, ten years later he has just finished a sequel, The Seven Day Weekend , that shows he has lost none of his idealism. Key to success is an obsession with employee freedom, and total disregard for growth. Here’s what he’s up to per a recent report in the Guardian:
Sounds a bit like an NCE, doesn’t it?
The Canadian La Siembra Co-op tells their story better than I can:
The company’s small group of shareholders are intimately familiar with the business of the company and devoted to its cause. Arms’-length financing is from financial co-ops and credit unions. Seven minutes from our home on the Oak Ridges Moraine is a manufacturing company with a difference. Husky Injection Molding Systems of Caledon, Ontario is located on a large industrial space completely landscaped with native plant species — no herbicides or pesticides used. President Bob Schad resigned from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce over that group’s opposition to the Kyoto accord, and was an active and effective lobbyist getting Canada to ratify the accord. Schad’s company cafeteria is run by licensed nutritionists and offers only wholesome, healthy foods, and its in-house health club is free to all employees and open 24/7. The company always appears near the top of every listing of Canadian ethical investments, and its emissions are remarkably small for a huge manufacturer, and the largest employer in the area. The company is obsessed with employee safety and health. They have developed their own technologies to reduce materials used in production of containers, and to maximize the use of recycled materials in containers. High-efficiency manufacturing processes and building design minimize waste, noise and energy use. Employees are empowered to identify and create ways to further reduce, reuse and recycle, and minimize the environmental footprint and enhance worker health and safety in this remarkable company. On top of this, Husky has a written Commitment to Society :
One of these initiatives is Environmental Week, a program in our area fully sponsored and funded by Husky where every grade six student spends a week learning about and participating in stream rehabilitation, wetland enhancement and tree planting in and around local school grounds. In a world ravaged by corporate greed, selfishness, dishonesty, worker exploitation and social and environmental neglect, it’s good to know there are companies like these to show the way forward. If you know of others, let me know and I’ll do a sequel. |
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Thank you very much for this blog on NCEs. This is just the kind of info business people need. Many times it?s hard enough just keeping a business afloat never mind sailing off into uncharted using a new management style. Businesses will be more likely to try something new if we can know that new strategies have actually been implemented successfully somewhere.Nice work. Keep it coming.Tom
What do you think of St. Luke’s Communications in London?http://pf.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/stlukes.html
Doug: Great catch. I have a natural skepticism about advertising, but a close colleague works for a big agency, and he’s really countercultural, so I’ll e-mail him the FC article and get his response. Thanks.
This is very encouraging, thanks for posting it.
Another company that seems to be doing what Semco did is July Systems (Santa Clara, CA).