Corporate Rebels

such as customer satisfaction, billable hours, delivery times, growth, revenue and profit — must be objective and equal, so performance can be measured and compared one-on-one.

Each month the local branches receive an overview on how they are performing, stirring healthy competition. This has proven beneficial for them and for Handelsbanken as a whole

The goal is constant striving for a better score.’’ This competition is transparent

everyone has access to performance figures

To ensure that the local banks function to the best of their abilities, we get access to all relevant information

The role of head office had changed to one of support

Local branches no longer had to abide by the budgets of other departments. The creation of long-term visions, strategic plans and marketing campaigns now fell within their authority. Anything unnecessary went into the bin, and departments that couldn’t accept the changes were disbanded.

consultants at Swedish Centigo

financial advisors of Finext

Imagine if bureaucracy was kept to the absolute minimum with no wasted days of boring, frustrating meetings and no more doing things just because your boss says so. Imagine how much more time you would have to do useful work and keep the client happy. The most extreme scenario: How about running your own start-up together with your team? What would that do for your motivation and involvement? How would you be able to pull this off? For answers, we interrogated many companies that have changed their corporate structure to bring liberty. Instead of the hierarchical pyramid, these pioneers create an environment of flexibility, speed, and involvement. The structure we encounter most often at progressive organisations is the network of teams. We have come across them in all shapes and sizes, and in a host of cultures and industries. We visited the nurses and carers at Dutch Buurtzorg, the builders of Breman, the IT-