Why this model works (for us)

The model below is something we learned from the folk at Crisp and having reflected upon it, we realise it suits us perfectly. It’s how we’ve been working for years now, we just hadn’t visualised it. We’ve modified the Crisp version to suit us, but it is essentially, how they’ve articulated their formula.

It’s around five years now since we started and against the backdrop of our real world experience, it works :)

WhyItWorks

The key thing is the two loops - positive feedback cycles that keep getting stronger and stronger.

Positive feedback loops

Left loop:

  1. Competent and motivated Members do a better job, which leads to happy clients.
  2. Happy clients give us a good reputation.
  3. Good reputation increases our motivation further and attracts competent people to Organa.
  4. GOTO 1.

Right loop:

  1. Competent and motivated Members do a better job, which leads to happy customers.
  2. More and happier customers leads to higher profit.
  3. Higher profit means people can afford to spend time learning new things (instead of trying to make every hour billable), and feel safe doing so.
  4. Taking time to learn, explore and improve together makes us more motivated and more competent.
  5. GOTO 1.

Measure and manage motivation. Profit is a side effect

The key point is that we focus on keeping ourselves and our clients happy; we don’t focus on profit or growth. Good reputation and profit are simply side effects of keeping ourselves and our clients happy.

Hire amazing people, or don’t hire at all

Recruitment is crucial - the model only works as long as we are super-picky about who we bring in. If we start getting below-par Members, the positive loops above could easily turn into negative loops (bad Members => disappointed clients => bad reputation => the best Members leave => etc).

This makes for a slow-growth model but we’re OK, in fact happy, with that.

See Recruiting for more.