Democratic Local Firm Honored

By Yekaterina Dranitsyna

Staff Writer

Published: March 27, 2007 (Issue # 1257)

Thirty-four companies were victorious in the ‘Worldwide Award for the Most Democratic Workplaces’ sponsored by WorldBlu, Inc., a Washington-based organization specializing in organizational democracy. The premier list was published earlier this month and, in something of a surprise, included a St. Petersburg-based company.

From the U.S., Canada, Netherlands and Russia, the selected businesses and non-profit organizations represent industries such as technology, telecoms, media, manufacturing and retail with combined annual sales of about $3 billion.

“Democratic organizations operate on freedom, not fear. Greedy, me-first, command and control business models are officially old school. These organizations represent the new school of business design,” said Traci Fenton, WorldBlu founder and CEO.

Private companies, non-profit associations and governmental bodies that employed over five people and had been operating for over three years could apply for the award. Employees completed a survey evaluating their organization’s application of ten democratic principles such as decentralization, accountability, choice and integrity on a leadership level, individual level and systems and processes level.

The “WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces” is a list, not a ranking. In the future organizations will be honored for the length of time they stay on the list.

“Democratic companies understand that the future of business is less about pomp and more about participation, less about titles and more about meaning, and less about fiefdoms and more about being equal in order to be competitive in this new, democratic age. This is the beginning of a movement,” Fenton said.

At Linden Lab, maker of Second Life, a popular online virtual world, key financial data is openly shared in real-time on giant flat-screen TVs. Employees are encouraged to choose their work rather than be told by someone else what to do.

Great Harvest Bread Company calls their model a “freedom franchise” because it “nurtures creativity, excellence and a true sense of ownership.” The Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra based in New York is completely ‘conductorless,’ rotating leadership amongst orchestra members.

At Continuum, a design consultancy in Boston with offices in Milan and Seoul, they have “open town forums” once a month. At Equal Exchange, the employee-owners elect their Board of Directors and hold six of the nine seats. GE Aviation’s Durham Engine Facility is structured horizontally, with just one plant manager for 260 employees.

“We try to stay away from hierarchy and instead share information, and promote communication and common goals across all levels and departments in the company. Hierarchy just gets in the way when you’re running a fast-paced, growing company,” said Seth Goldman, founder and CEO of Bethesda, Maryland based Honest Tea.

“To ensure our organization is a world-class working environment, we focus on employee engagement through our open-office concept to create alignment and trust with our employees. We know that our steady growth and customer satisfaction relies on our ability to carry out these democratic processes,” said Brian Scudamore, founder and CEO of the $158 million junk removal company 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

At Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a democratic workplace impacts the bottom-line. “Most people want to be a part of something greater than themselves, to contribute positively to the world around them, and we’ve always worked to give them that opportunity,” said Ari Weinzweig, CEO.

“By involving as many people as possible in what we do at every level of work, we’re convinced that we get better results on all three of our bottom-lines — the quality of our food is better, our service is better, and our financial results are better as well,” Weinzweig said.

Managers believe that democratic organizations are more likely to succeed in attracting and retaining top talent, boosting innovation and harnessing the full potential of the next generation workforce.

“At Guayaki we are pioneering a new business model that demands creative solutions and we find that through democratic practices we bring our whole selves to the process and that elevates the quality of our decisions,” said Chris Mann, CEO of Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products in Sebastopol, California.

Ann Price, founder and CEO of the software firm Motek in Beverly Hills, California agrees. “It’s an incredibly fierce advantage,” she said.

A notable stand-out on the list is i-Free, a company based in St. Petersburg. Managers of the mobile content and services provider with millions of subscribers in Russia, India, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Brazil saw the award as a logical result of i-Free’s corporate culture and policies, aimed at building the strongest professional team in the industry.

“We owe our success and solid market stature to our human, intellectual capital. We have built a strong team of professionals, each a peerless expert in their field. We all share the same values, most notably, mutual respect and equal opportunity for all,” said i-Free general director Kirill Gorynia.

i-Free employs over 250 people in its offices in six countries. The company’s organizational development and HR department is committed to fostering a favorable work environment conducive to the individual initiative and professional growth of each employee.

i-Free core values are personal initiative and growth, individual freedom, trust, responsibility, mutual respect and encouragement. These values govern relations between employees, nurturing a positive internal climate and benefiting many business processes.

“Because we all share these values, we can freely exchange information inside the company, promptly react to any technological change, develop and implement cutting edge ideas,” said Alexander Kubaneishvili, head of the department for organizational development and HR at i-Free.

WorldBlu identified the following organizations as the most democratic workplaces in the world for 2007:

1. 1-800-Got-Junk? – Vancouver, Canada

2. AIESEC International – Rotterdam, Netherlands

3. Axiom News – Peterborough, Canada

4. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. – San Francisco, California

5. BetterWorld Telecom – Reston, Virginia

6. Beyond Borders – Norristown, Pennsylvania

7. Collective Copies – Florence, Massachusetts

8. Continuum – West Newton, Massachusetts

9. Dancing Deer Baking Company – Boston, Massachusetts

10. Equal Exchange – West Bridgewater, Massachusetts

11. FBS Data Systems – Fargo, North Dakota

12. GE Aviation – Durham Engine Facility – Durham, North Carolina

13. Great Harvest Bread Company – Dillon, Montana

14. Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products, Inc. – Sebastolpol, California

15. Honest Tea – Bethesda, Maryland

16. i-Free – St. Petersburg, Russia

17. KI – Green Bay, Wisconsin

18. Linden Lab – San Francisco, California

19. Motek – Beverly Hills, California

20. New Belgium Brewing Company – Fort Collins, Colorado

21. Orpheus Chamber Orchestra – New York City, New York

22. Rite-Solutions – Middletown, Rhode Island

23. Roche Salon – Washington, DC

24. Sedgebrook – Lincolnshire, Illinois

25. South Mountain Company, Inc. – West Tisbury, Massachusetts

26. SRC Holdings Corporation – Springfield, Missouri

27. TakingITGlobal – Toronto, Canada

28. Ternary Software – Exton, Pennsylvania

29. The Do LaB Event Creations – Los Angeles, California

30. The Russell Family Foundation – Gig Harbor, Washington

31. Threadless – Chicago, Illinois

32. Union Cab of Madison Cooperative – Madison, Wisconsin

33. Zaadz – Topanga, California

34. Zingerman’s Community of Businesses – Ann Arbor, Michigan