Zingerman's Version of Anarchy

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Ego
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Zingerman's Version of Anarchy

Post by Ego »

An interesting way to build a community.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2016/04/06/z ... s-strategy

7Wannabe5
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Re: Zingerman's Version of Anarchy

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

My people! My 1988 wedding was catered by Zingerman's. Probably 1/4 of my college friends worked for them at one time or another. I once rode through Hell at midnight on the back of a motorcycle driven by one of their employees (burned my leg on the tailpipe leaving perma-scar reminder of event.-lol) Borders used to be like that too before it went super-sized corporate and then collapsed. The individual whose face comes up when you search Craigslist (definite INTJ) ) was part of my gang at that time too, along with boy destined to be honcho at Tower Records.

jacob
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Re: Zingerman's Version of Anarchy

Post by jacob »

Yeah, the relationships must be substantially more integrated in this company (and whoever it interacts with) compared to other companies. His methods remind me of Kaizen and Hourensou. Of course overintegration might be a problem in itself. Japanese tend to self-identify according to their business of lifelong employment in the same way that Brazillians supposedly self-identify by football team, and Americans self-identify by their primary source of income. On an even bigger scale it leads to Keiretsu which seems to be deeply connected to the stagnancy of the Japanese economy.

There may be such a thing as too much interdependence---there's a point where the system itself becomes dependent on the coherence of the interdependence of its constituents. *BOOM!*

PS: William Deming who studied and popularized these concepts in the US was quite the renaissance man.

plantingourpennies
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Re: Zingerman's Version of Anarchy

Post by plantingourpennies »

@Ego: I'd never heard of these guys before, thanks!

I've been interested in Open Book Management for a while, and would be curious to know exactly how much financial information is shared with different levels of management and front line workers. Gross, Net, full P/L statements, compensation, etc?

More OBM stuff: http://greatgame.com/about/the-origin-o ... anagement/

theanimal
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Re: Zingerman's Version of Anarchy

Post by theanimal »

It seems Semco, Richard Semler's company also operates on anarchic principles.

See: viewtopic.php?t=5980 and http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Day-Weekend ... ay+weekend

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