🤘🏻 Corporate Rebels

🤟 We met the legend. Then we met the one who made him one.

It was hot, loud, and late in São Paulo. We had just arrived, jet-lagged and buzzing with questions, about to meet one of the most iconic figures in the world of radical work design. The restaurant was sharp—white tablecloths, waiters with straight backs, and Ricardo Semler at the center of it all. He spoke with fire. Ideas about trust, freedom, decentralization, democracy at work. His vision was bold, clean, and intoxicating. But it wasn’t until later—hours later, in a quiet living room...

2 days ago • 3 min read

🤟 Inside our masterclass: Building organizations without the B.S.

Hi Reader, One of my highlights every year? The 6-week masterclasses we run a few times annually. In each masterclass, we guide a cohort of about 30 practitioners through how to move their organizations beyond hierarchy. It’s a deep dive into progressive organizational design—topped off with hands-on work transforming their own organizations. No more layers of bureaucracy, no more sluggish decision-making, no more command-and-control nonsense. Just real tools for building better ways of...

16 days ago • 4 min read

🤟 Start a movement they said. It will be fun they said.

Ever since we ditched our corporate jobs and kicked off Corporate Rebels, we’ve been on a mission: end the frustration and inefficiencies of traditional management. We knew (or let’s be honest, hoped) to turn Corporate Rebels into a global movement. And “movement” is the word we used from day one. But truth is, we weren’t a movement. Not yet. We were a team of workplace geeks with a big audience. Powerful? Sure. But not nearly as powerful as a true movement can be. So, 14 months ago, with...

30 days ago • 4 min read

🤟 What Career Growth Looks Like in Self-Managing Organizations

Hi Reader, One of the most common questions I hear in self-managing organizations is: "How do you grow your career when there’s no hierarchy?" For many, career progression means climbing the corporate ladder—getting a promotion, earning a new title, managing a bigger team. But what happens when there’s no boss to promote you? This month in our Corporate Rebels Community, we’re exploring career growth in self-managing organizations. It’s a hot topic in our Masterclass on Running and Scaling...

about 1 month ago • 5 min read

🤟 The trap of organizational complexity (and how to escape it)

Hi Reader, I've seen it happen countless times. A growing organization reaches about 50 people and suddenly things start to fall apart. Communication breaks down. Decision-making slows to a crawl. Politics emerge. And the entrepreneurial spirit that fueled early growth? Gone. Most leaders respond by adding more control. More managers. More coordination meetings. More reporting. They do exactly what they shouldn't. Last month, I talked to a 120-person manufacturing company in Germany that was...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read

🤟 A 6-Step Playbook to Self-Management (When You’re Not the Owner)

Hi Reader, In Pim’s latest newsletter, he shared how we bought and transformed Indaero into a self-managing company. But what if you’re not the owner? What if you’re the transformation agent or consultant leading the charge? How do you make it work when you don’t have the power to make unilateral decisions? For the past month, I’ve been deep in the mechanics of self-management transformations, analyzing Q&A sessions from our Masterclass cohorts with Jabi Salcedo from the consulting team K2K....

2 months ago • 6 min read

🤟 Step-by-Step: How We Unbossed the Company We Bought (and Doubled Profits)

Hi Reader, It was one of those simmering hot days in July 2023 in Seville, Spain. But the sweat pouring out of our pores wasn’t only due to the oven-like temperatures. It was a big day for us. We were about to sign the contract to acquire our first company, Indaero, an aerospace manufacturing and engineering company—through our impact fund, Krisos. And this wasn’t just any acquisition. We were about to completely transform the way this company operated. Dunia, our transformation lead, put it...

3 months ago • 6 min read

🤟 Exploring Profit-Sharing and Beyond

Hi Reader, II’ve just returned from a weekend at the Kelso Workshop at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. This annual symposium brings together researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts to dive deep into various forms of employee ownership, including workers’ cooperatives and profit-sharing plans. The event was thought-provoking, leaving me with plenty to reflect on—and I’d love to share some of it with you. Employee Ownership: A Key to Engagement? At the event, employee ownership and...

3 months ago • 3 min read

🤟 Freedom at Work: Scary, Messy, and Totally Worth It

Hi Reader, I’ve been reading Erich Fromm’s Escape from Freedom (published in 1941!), and it’s been lighting up my brain like fireworks. His ideas about freedom—how we respond to it, why it’s terrifying, and how we turn it into a force for growth—hit hard. Especially when you think about the challenges of running a self-managing organization. Here’s the deal Fromm says people respond to freedom in two ways. They either: Escape freedom—cling to structure, rules, and someone to tell them what to...

4 months ago • 4 min read

🤟 100 rebels, 50 companies, 15 countries, 1 bullring: A movement takes shape

Hi Reader, It was a crisp November morning in one of Seville's most iconic locations exactly two weeks ago. Inside a historic bullring – a place where tradition has reigned for centuries – a different kind of revolution was brewing. One hundred people. Fifty companies. Fifteen countries. All gathered not to witness the spectacle of bulls and matadors, but to challenge something equally entrenched in our culture: traditional management. The irony of our location wasn't lost on us. An arena...

5 months ago • 4 min read