Here are some companies which are large and successful, but have either a non-hierarchical management structure, or an unusual pattern of ownership. Not everything profitable is stock market listed with an all-powerful CEO.
- Ocean Spray may at first glance look like a huge top-down Coca-Cola-but-for-juice corporation. But it’s not, it’s a co-operative owned by 650 cranberry farmers.
- Gore & Associates (of GORE-TEX fabric fame) have associates rather than employees. There’s no chain of command, nobody has a job title, there’s no office-ghetto for sales separate from research.When a product group gets too large (above 150?) it splits into two.
- Semco have a democratic management system. Managers are elected by their workers, and everybody has to justify decisions to their peers. There’s a book by CEO Ricardo Semler about it.
Any more?
A friend has pointed me to an article by article by Eric Nehrlich with some more on this subject. North Carolina General Electric jet engine plant has a similar structure to Gore & Associates.