We should answer a simple question: "Why companies are built and managed in the way we know?". In this presentation I will give my answer from an historic, scientific and economic perspective, and, at the same, I will try to show why other models are possible. Different organisational models are not only possible, but needed when the current models are causing so much pain in modern companies. We need to reinvent the way company works as well as we must reinvent the definition of career in the 21st century. We have so many tools and the higher amount of technology that we can use to shape the future of our companies. Which is the reason why we are not doing anything about it? Even if the presentation is definitely focused on the Italian market it contains elements and ideas that have a broader ranged of applicability. And, as always, it's not too serious. I used this presentation for my talk at the Better Software 2013 conference in Florence.

1. How often do you ask ‘Why?’

2. Dedicated to FunkyProfessor

3. How often do you ask ‘Why?’

4. Now, back on track!

5. Not within yourself…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fresh_photo

6. but looking for an answer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter

7. Let’s do some user research…

8. Do you work in $big_company?

9. When did you ask ‘Why?’ last time?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djking

10. There was a time when…

11. You asked ‘Why?’ every time!

12. When you were a child.

13. Now, I have a question for you

14. Why you did you stop asking ‘Why?’

15. I will give you a simplistic answer

16. Because a company is regulated by…

17. The 3 principles

18. Blackmail
Threat
Corruption

19. They talk to your ‘crocodile brain’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freetaalen

20. What the hell is a ‘crocodile brain’?

21. Paul D. MacLean

23. Fight or flight?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/murasaki725

25. and there’s one more thing…

26. We want to stay comfy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/consumerfriendly

27. But… headed in opposite directions
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94331264@N00

28. I’ll give you three (basic) examples

29. The reception desk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihclinicalcntr

30. The visitor badge
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccajane

31. Waiting…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08

32. These all speak to your croc brain!

33. They want you to feel uncomfortable
http://www.flickr.com/photos/an_untrained_eye

34. Both employees and guests.

35. Someone said…

36. A company is a place where adults
suffer from childhood traumas.
Walter Fontana

37. But, again, why?

38. We need to enter a time machine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/popculturegeek

39. Sometime around 1700
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnassal

40. There was a huge shift

41. From houses
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enricoq

42. … to the factories
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnassal

43. …and the first theories about
company organisation were born

44. Denis Diderot, France, 1713-1784

45. Dyeing factory, 1751.
Encyclopédie, 1751

46. Adam Smith, Scotland, 1723-1790

47. Henry Ford, U.S., 1863-1947

48. and this was the model.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/west_point

49. Peter Drucker, U.S., 1909-2005

50. http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/utils/getfile/collection/dac/id/3583/filename/4033.pdf

51. This is where companies come from.

52. …and this is why you have a career!

53. Career… interesting etymology!

54. ca·reer
noun
kə-ˈrir
a : speed in a course.
!
b : a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive
achievement in public, professional, or business life.
!
c: a profession for which one trains and which is
undertaken as a permanent calling.

55. Any clue?

56. The Romans, a long time ago.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xavitalleda

57. Reality is…

58. All of this is profoundly broken!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dublingurrier

59. We all became dummies
and copy cats
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foonk

60. and if it’s broken, it’s broken.
Seth Godin

61. This really starts very early…

62. From preschool to 1st grade

63. We need to stand up!

64. New organisational models
are possibile.

65. And the options are infinite!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/insecureproperties

66. Here’s a few examples

67. http://www.morningstarco.com

69. Company Vision:
To create a company in which all team members will
be self-managing professionals, initiating
communications and the coordination of their
activities with fellow colleagues, customers,
suppliers, and fellow industry participants, absent
directives from others.
!
!

71. Handbook for new employees
http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/index.html

73. http://blog.crisp.se/2012/11/14/henrikkniberg/scaling-agile-at-spotify

74. Is all of this new?

75. NO!!!

76. Lorenzo il Magnifico
Giorgio Vasari - Ritratto di Lorenzo il Magnifico - Circa 1534

77. Villaggio Crespi, Crespi d’Adda

78. Adriano Olivetti, Italy, 1901-1960

79. So, which is a winning model?

80. Startups, maybe?

81. maybe…

82. but just because they are
forced to change

83. Why?

84. Three main reasons

85. They are short on money
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05

86. They are on to something new
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marlenek

87. They are small
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50956221@N04

88. Yes, but…

89. They suffer from being stretched
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50956221@N04

90. How should they cope with that?

91. #include
<iostream>
!
class
Company
{
public:
CEO();
CFO();
CTO();
CMO();
private:
void
run_business();
//
As
per
our
model
:-­‐)
};
!
//
constructor
of
CEO
Company::CEO()
{
}
!
//
destructor
of
CEO
Company::~CEO()
{
delete[]
;
//Something
went
wrong
:-­‐)
}

92. My (Personal) Recipe
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ntr23

93. Openness
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loop_oh

94. 1
Atoms and Bits
http://peoplemov.in/

95. 2
Products
http://www.mpetroff.net/archives/2012/09/14/kindle-weather-display/

96. 2
Everywhere you look, there are devices for free
that have everything you need to make anything
do anything.
!
...the world is full of capacious, capable,
disposable junk and it cries out to be used again.
!
Cory Doctorow - Makers - 2009
Is this a moral imperative?

97. 3
Products
Nabaztag - Karotz

98. Education
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismetcalf

99. 1
Coding and Making
http://www.codedojo.com

100. 2
Sharing and Mentoring
http://www.damentors.com

101. 3
Cross Pollination
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vcrown

102. Organisational models
Modern Times - 1936

103. 1
No mahogany tables
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wingatestatearena

104. “De qua!”
L’armata Brancaleone - Speech to the troups - 1966

105. 2
Stay away from the water cooler
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75950411@N02

106. 3
Forget all what you hear
through the grapevine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75950411@N02

107. 4
Stop with GROWTHISM!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhodes

108. 5
Don’t use the word innovation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/masondan

109. A personal story.

110. No BS, please.

111. Ron Finley:Bring your shovel
http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html

112. and finally…

113. ask ‘Why?’!!!

114. Thanks!
http://about.me/alessandro.galetto