🤘🏻 Corporate Rebels

🤟 Rebels unite: 2-day summit of world's most progressive companies

Hi Reader, You know what we do by now. We research companies that defy conventional management wisdom. After visiting hundreds of self-managed organizations worldwide, one thing's clear: there's no one-size-fits-all approach. These trailblazers fall into three distinct camps: The accidental rebels: These are the mavericks who stumbled into self-management, fed up with traditional top-down bullshit. They didn't read a book or follow a guru. They just said "fuck it" and forged their own path....

10 days ago • 3 min read

🤟 A list of circa 50 case studies of self-managing organizations

Hi Reader, In about a month, the ZeroDX awards will take place in Qingdao, China. This event—initiated by the Chinese manufacturer Haier, Gary Hamel & Michele Zanini’s MLab, and Thinkers50’s Business Ecosystem Alliance—celebrates the most forward-thinking companies around the globe. Not long ago, they threw down the gauntlet, asking us to nominate companies for these awards. We didn’t just take up the challenge—we ran with it. Together with our community and our colleague Svetla, we dove into...

24 days ago • 4 min read

🤟 The dark side of self-management: struggles, challenges, and pains.

Hi Reader, Working in a self-managed organization is fun, liberating, and extremely rewarding. Both our companies, Corporate Rebels and Krisos, are set up as self-managing teams. No bosses. No hierarchy. Instead, everyone takes initiative within their own roles, leading their areas of the business and involving others where necessary. Most people see why that's a great environment to work in. And if you’ve been following this newsletter for some time, you know we love it. That being said,...

about 1 month ago • 5 min read

🤟 Pioneering Self-Management in Chinese Manufacturing: The Epoch Journey

Hi Reader, Last week, we conducted an exclusive interview for our community members with a group of people from the Chinese self-managed manufacturing company, Epoch. Epoch was established in 1993 by Foad and Ladon Ghalili. It is a high-tech design and manufacturing service company with prototype electronic manufacturing capabilities in California (approximately 20 employees) and high-volume manufacturing services in Dalian, China (approximately 160 employees). During our interview, Foad,...

about 2 months ago • 6 min read

🤟 A database of all self-managing organizations (353 and counting!)

Hi Reader, We’re building something you might like – database of all self-managing organizations in the world. Once we have it, we’ll share it with the world (starting with you through this newsletter). Why are we doing this? A couple of reasons: We believe in the power of highlighting progressive organizations to build proof and show traditional organizations that there’s a better, more engaging way of working available to all. We’ve done it for years with our 'bucket list’ and it’s given a...

2 months ago • 3 min read

🤟 Why You Should Aim for Zero Distance to Customers

Hi Reader, Understanding why customers stop doing business with your company is crucial. Here are the six primary reasons: 1% die 3% move away 5% develop other relationships 9% leave for competitive reasons 14% are dissatisfied with the product 68% feel poorly treated by employees Yes, you read that correctly. A staggering 68% of customers leave because they feel poorly treated by a company’s employees. This insight comes from Kirk Kazanjian’s book Exceeding Customer Expectations, which...

3 months ago • 3 min read

🤟 Seeking the World’s Most Progressive Organizations

Hi Reader, For years, I’ve been studying Haier’s innovative RenDanHeYi management model. We’ve blogged about it extensively, created Academy courses, and even published “Start-up Factory”, a book detailing their unique approach. We’ve also attended their annual forum multiple times. RenDanHeYi Forum 2024 Each year, Haier hosts the exclusive global RenDanHeYi Forum, featuring distinguished speakers like Gary Hamel, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Edmund Phelps, Eric Maskin, Oliver Hart, Bengt Holmstrom,...

3 months ago • 3 min read

🤟 The (often underestimated) power of compounding and consistency

Hi Reader, Today I want to touch upon the power of both consistency and compounding. Both are powerful in and of themselves, but when combined… BOOM! That’s where the true magic happens. Consistency The inspiring Steven Bartlett (worth a follow if you don’t already) shared a powerful page from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, in which he shares a couple of examples of the power of consistency. So simple, and so powerful. The one on reading inspired me to start reading again after a period...

4 months ago • 5 min read

🤟 Avoiding the horrors of hierarchy (a.k.a. how to scale a self-managing organization)

Hi Reader, One of the main challenges of self-managing, flat, or bossless organizations is scaling up without ending up with an unwanted hierarchy. For smaller organizations, it’s relatively easy to work in a self-managed way. Having no functional hierarchy is simply a lot more doable when there are fewer people and less complexity involved. But when scaling an organization to 30, 50, 100, or even more people, many pioneers lose their cool. Consciously or unconsciously, they end up in a...

5 months ago • 4 min read

🏆 EARLY BIRD PROMOTION: Register for the Masterclass by May 31 to secure lifetime(!) access (only 14 spots available)

Hey Reader, We've got a special opportunity for you: An early bird promotion for our most intensive and highest rated learning program. Masterclass 'Running and Scaling Self-Managing Organizations' The 6-week online Masterclass has been completed by 270+ students and is rated with an 4.91 out of 5! It delivers a complete framework for transforming, running, and scaling a self-managing organization. It's the best way to become an expert in bossless organizations. You'll dive into real-life...

5 months ago • 1 min read