The best company in the world is the best one for you.

The best company in the world is the best one for you.

This is the closing line of the film by Linda and Alexander Szombath. The two of them worked on it for five years, alongside work and family, entirely self-funded, with around 100 hours of material from three companies: Buurtzorg in the Netherlands, FREITAG in Zurich and foryouandyourcustomers in several countries. 160 guests came to the premiere, invited as part of the «Sensemaking & Decisiontaking» series run by the Chair of Organisational Psychology at the University of St. Gallen. On the panel afterwards sat Jos de Blok, founder of Buurtzorg, who had travelled from the Netherlands for the evening, Patrick Mollet (entrepreneur and investor), and Linda and Alex Szombath themselves; Pascal Dulex moderated. Sitting there for us was Jonathan Möller, who founded the company in 2010 together with Stephan Müller and Robert Josef Stadler.

Three things we take away from this evening:

It Starts with Who

Linda and Alex embarked on this adventure because they wanted to create something meaningful, not because someone else decided for them. This should be possible within companies, too. It starts with who, with you. Make good use of your working time. And if you are in a company where that isn't possible, you might be in the wrong one.

The future belongs to small teams.

Small teams can accomplish almost anything, especially in the age of AI. The film shows what that looks like for us: cells with a maximum of 25 people, no headquarters, "each cell is like a small company," and accountability sits directly within the cell. It shows that we set no targets and no strategy, and explains why: "Without targets and without a strategy, we can align ourselves much better with the customer." It showcases our wage transparency and features a cell CEO returning from maternity leave who asks about the team first, not the numbers.

Human being and economic doing.

Buurtzorg operates with care teams without any team leads at all; at our company, every cell consciously has a lead. This is not a contradiction. It is not about becoming identical, but about finding your own way. We can sum ours up in a single sentence: foryouandyourcustomers combines human being and economic doing. People should be able to thrive with us, while at the same time each cell manages its own numbers and carries full responsibility for them. With us, you cannot have one without the other.

The thinking behind this was written down by Robert Josef Stadler, one of our three founders: first in German in the book «Unternehmensphilosophie und Kunst», later revised and in English as «Paid Work and the Meaning of Life». It also explains why there is art on the walls of our offices. The book can be ordered directly from me or from Jonathan Möller.

Thank you, Linda and Alex, for five years of staying with it, and for a film that sells nothing and shows a great deal. If you would like to know why we work the way we do, and why there is art on the walls of our offices: The book «Paid Work and the Meaning of Life» can be ordered from me or from Jonathan directly.