**     One thing that happens not only in the music industry but almost everywhere is that companies lose track of what they originally set out to do. And it has to do with company culture.**

     I have always been fascinated by how company culture is implemented, how it shapes the company as a whole and how it affects people’s happiness. I come from a family business background and always looked with a weary eye at what was going on there. My granddad built an indoor furniture and decoration business that’s still going strong today. It was particularly big in the 70ies, 80ies and 90ies and there are amazing stories going around in the family of how he built the company from scratch. It’s genuinely impressive.

     He was a great salesman and was very shrewd when it came to trading but what’s great in trading doesn’t translate well into personnel management and being able to listen to their needs. He loved walking into the store and seeing people starting to work just a little faster. Talking to them was another matter entirely.

     I always felt that the people working for you are your most valuable assets. Not the money you have, the real estate a company owns or even the brand image you build. No, the people willing to trade their time and brainpower for money are the assets you should care for most. I didn’t have the framework to confirm this…

     …until now! It’s fascinating. It’s called Teal Organisations and is described in Frederic Laloux’s book Reinventing Organisations. In short: It imagines a place without hierarchy, where you get to determine your salary and working hours, and you get all the freedom to pursue your gut feeling to be your best self, where everyone listens to each other and meetings are actually kept to a minimum. Where the CEO is the space holder for employees’ visions and he has time to be creative. And still making great financial progress. Imagine!

     I am not a big fan of how we are running companies right now and the way we do capitalism in general makes me cry sometimes but this gives me hope. Hope that one day a company will be valued not on how much money it can provide to shareholders but on how many people it is able to make happy. Not just provide a basic income but real happiness and meaning to a person’s life. That should be all of us. Not just the happy few.

     The examples are there and they are doing way better than their traditional counterparts. It’s a no-brainer but it takes a big leap for companies to go through with it. And I haven’t been able to find an example in the music industry. I guess that says something about the industry and also about how novel this way of organising business still is.

*     If you’re interested in knowing more, I am starting a project soon with Sajni Lakhani from Kholo.co to help companies implement this beautiful strategy. So reach out if you want to know more and let’s connect.*