51 organizations certified as ‘Democratic Workplaces’

WorldBlu, a company that helps organizations embrace workplace democracy, has certified 51 organizations as ‘democratic workplaces’ for 2013.

The 51 organizations are based in a number of countries, including the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Malaysia, Haiti, New Zealand and Singapore.

Companies that have been certified by WorldBlu as democratic include Zappos.com, Menlo Innovations, New Belgium Brewery, DaVita, Groupon Malaysia and The WD-40 Company.

WorldBlu Founder and CEO Traci Fenton said, “People would rather work in freedom-centered rather than fear-based organizations.”

View the complete WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™ 2013 and their unique democratic practices here — http://www.worldblu.com/awardee-profiles/2013.php.

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer bans telecommuting

Despite the increasingly popular trend of working from home and flexible work schedules, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has taken her company a step back towards a rigid and inflexible work environment by banning telecommuting.

Yahoo human resources chief Jackie Reses wrote in a memo that “We need to be working side-by-side,” explaining about the importance of “decisions and insights” that can arise from impromptu meetings.

While we certainly don’t disagree with this, we think that employees should be treated like responsible adults and should be given the discretion to decide for themselves the optimal amount of time they should be physically spending at their office.

According to Mercury News, “Others said they saw hypocrisy by Mayer, who is both a new mother and a wealthy CEO — and who reportedly used her own funds to install a nursery next to her office, according to All Things D, which noted that other employees don’t have that option.”


2012 International Summit of Cooperatives in Quebec City

The 2012 International Summit of Cooperatives will take place on October 8 to 11 in Quebec City, Canada.

The summit will be focusing on cooperative-specific economic and financial issues such as the performance and evolution of the cooperative business model, the role of cooperatives in the global economy, and the global socio-political influence of cooperatives.

According to the International Co-operative Alliance, which is hosting the event, cooperatives employ over 100 million people and provide a source of income for half the world’s population.

The 300 largest cooperatives generate revenues of $1.6 trillion, which is equivalent to the world’s ninth largest economy.


The Equal Dignity Organization

Researcher Rune Kvist Olsen has submitted another research paper in which he introduces “The Equal Dignity Organizational Concept.”

The research paper can be accessed here.


Tom Sutcliffe on pro-democracy uprisings in the workplace

Tom Sutcliffe, a columnist at The Independent, makes an interesting comparison between the dictatorial conditions that people in the Middle East are currently protesting and the similar atmosphere which we westerners willingly work under work each day.

Sutcliffe mentions that “it seems odd that people will endure, within the framework of a firm or an institution, a degree of subjection and speechlessness that would strike them as insufferable at the level of citizenship.”

He concludes by hinting that “office tyrannies” might end up becoming the target of mass uprisings not unlike those that we have been witnessing in the Middle East.

Read the entire column at The Independent


Zynga CEO Mark Pincus on “making everyone the CEO of something”

In an interview with Fast Company, Mark Pincus discussed the meaning of his philosophy of “making everyone the CEO of something.”  Pincus is founder and CEO of Zynga, a popular online gaming company whose products include FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

Here is how the Zynga CEO explained his “making everyone the CEO of something” democratic management philosophy:

When I entered the workforce, I was frustrated. When you’re starting your career, somebody else is “The Man” or “The Woman.” They go into a room and make the decision, not you. You don’t feel empowered. I wanted to break through that. I wanted to push the ownership and decision making to the people who were closest to the features, problems, and opportunities and empower them to go for it, to take risks and make mistakes.

Not everybody has a lot of real management training. One way to get around strong or weak managers is clear lines of ownership. If you have clear goals and people know they own them, it makes up for a lot. No one likes to be given a list of tasks. You want to know what hill you’re supposed to take and the fun is figuring out how.


Apple falters because of Steve Jobs top-down management style

Apple Inc. has been receiving a lot of negative publicity about the iPhone 4’s antenna reception problems following the device’s launch on June 24.

In a surprising development, the Wall Street Journal reported that “Apple engineers were aware of the risks associated with the new antenna design as early as a year ago, but Chief Executive Steve Jobs liked the design so much that Apple went ahead with its development, said another person familiar with the matter.”

Steve Jobs has been described as a cruel and manipulative manager who, as Forbes reported, “periodically reduces subordinates to tears, and fires employees in angry tantrums,” and Apple is known for its top-down, hierarchical structure.

It’s hard to imagine problems like this, which were previously known within the organization but not solved because employees feared or were intimidated by the CEO, occurring at decentralized, democratically-run companies.


Workplace Democracy: the secret to Warren Buffet’s investment success?

One of Warren Buffett’s best-kept investment secrets might be that he practices workplace democracy in managing his subsidiary companies.  Few people may be aware that this innovative management strategy has contributed to the phenomenal success of Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings.

Warren Buffett

Unlike most other conglomerates, whose executives exert tight control over their subsidiary companies and often make the major financial, operational, and strategic decisions their subsidiaries, Berkshire Hathaway apparently entrusts their subsidiaries with a high degree of discretion and with broad decision-making powers.

Berkshire Hathaway’s annual Letter to Shareholders from February 2010 states:

“We tend to let our many subsidiaries operate on their own, without our supervising and monitoring them to any degree. That means we are sometimes late in spotting management problems and that both operating and capital decisions are occasionally made with which Charlie and I would have disagreed had we been consulted. Most of our managers, however, use the independence we grant them magnificently, rewarding our confidence by maintaining an owner-oriented attitude that is invaluable and too seldom found in huge organizations. We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly – or not at all – because of a stifling bureaucracy.”


Professor calls hierarchical, top-down management ‘outdated’

Stanley D. Truskie, a program professor at the Fischler School of Education, Nova Southeastern University, and author of Leadership in High-Performance Organizational Cultures, wrote an opinion in the Miami Herald where he called for a new, “enlightened” style of management.

Truskie recommends the following leadership practices to help companies quickly adapt and stay at the forefront of their industries:

  • Lead from the center.
  • Focus on culture.
  • Implement 3-C planning.
  • Move swiftly.

Truskie argues that “old-style, top-down” management is outdated and that rigid, hierarchical organizations run the risk of falling behind in today’s rapidly changing competitive environment.

Click here to read the entire opinion article.


Owner gives company to employees on 81st birthday

Bob Moore, the owner of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods celebrated his 81st birthday by giving the company that he founded to his employees.  Moore announced the new Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) at an all-company meeting at the headquarters office in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Moore said, “It’s been my dream all along to turn this company over to the employees, and to make that dream a reality on my birthday is just the icing on the cake.  To me, this is the ultimate way to reward employees for their contributions to our ongoing success and growth. We have many loyal and long-time employees who I expect will be joined by many new faces over the years to run the company.”

Operations VP Dennis Vaughn, said, “The partners could have sold this company many times for a lot more money, but to them this company is about so much more than the money. I’m just proud to wear the Bob’s Red Mill logo because anywhere I go in this country people say nice things about the company.”

Bob’s Red Mill, a leading provider of whole grain natural foods, has averaged an annual growth rate of 20%-30% over the past 10 years and in that time their mostly North America distribution has expanded internationally.