ZWL 009: How to run a company without bosses?

Leaders Island Podcast. Z warsztatu lidera.

Episode 9 ,,How to run a company without bosses?’’, Leaders Island Podcast is a conversation with Björn Lundén.
Björn Lundén is the owner of Swedish publishing house Björn Lundén Information AB and Polish subsidiary BL Info Polska Sp. z o.o. He is the author of many marketing, economics, and management books. Rules, bosses and secret salaries are not existing to him and that is why he owns a company for 31 years with 150 employees that are self-managed.
According to Björn, feeling good while working is a effect of not having boss who is causing stress and negative atmosphere in a company. He is proving that without bosses, the company can still be profitable and not in debt. Björn explains that employee salary is not hidden, because if it was people might think there could be something wrong. He also mentions about payment settlement and how it is working in his company. People are being judged on many factors, for example work experience, expertness or simply attitude. Employees and their happiness is important to Björn and that is why every day he is serving a breakfast for his workers. He is not measuring costs of breakfast if it is profitable, but in case of employee satisfaction. The food is prepared in the canteen by employees and he claims that it is better than in Hilton Hotel!
In his company, employees are motivating themselves, because he claims that it is humiliating for him to do that. He doesn’t think that he needs to motivate his employees. He provide health care, pension system and 5 payed hours of sports with colleagues every month. Employees voted for everything that Björn is providing on meetings. Motivation for him is a effect, not a goal.
About the recruitment system Björn said that people who have wrong impression about themselves don’t fit in BL. While interview he is inviting 22 people at the time and he is having an interview with a whole group. He is getting a hundreds of applications because people knows, that working in a BL is a dream. They print all the CVs and label in yellow the ones that they don’t want based on their personal feelings to this person.
More about distinguishing features of this particular company you will find in podcast below.
This podcast answers following questions:
Is it a realistic story to run a company, where all decisions are made by employees themselves?
Is that profitable to run a company with no bosses?
Is it worth to motivate employees?
How to find people who suit to such non-standard company?
What plays a key role in a self-organized company?
Web page link: https://leadersisland.com/podcast-menedzera-lidera/how-to-run-a-company-without-bosses/
Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/iDmy-WmT8Uw
People and pages mentioned in this podcast:
- BJÖRN LUNDÉN Information AB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D65uu9IN2C8
- BJÖRN LUNDÉN Info Polska
https://blinfo.pl/
- A documentary about BJÖRN LUNDÉN: „A LIAR´S VOYAGE”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09xR8mzL2a4