Proekspert: a bossless organization

Company culture is a defining feature of a company. Culture determines the feeling people go to work with. Culture sets the tone of communication between people. It establishes the mood and attitude they take home with them in the evening.

Why is it important to align culture in a company?

The answer is simple: People will get a common understanding of why, how and what we do in the company. If the culture conveys we care about ourselves and others, then this is how we will think and act. But if the company would, for example, always value money and efficiency first, then we would end up with a totally different company. The company would run its business based mainly on financial analytics, a lot of Excel tables, and not think of the people or the actual value produced.

Rethink your role description

Proekspert’s culture is far from the traditional hierarchical approach. We have no managers who make decisions for others. Our people may also carry a variety of roles and responsibilities at one time. We want our employees to fully realize their talent and potential, and to achieve that we sometimes work quite differently than other companies. For example: If you want to change roles, grow in another direction, initiate a podcast series, enter a new business, or pitch for a potential product, then agree on this with others, make sure it’s beneficial for the company – then you are allowed to do it. 

This culture does not mean that everyone will move around, initiate, and change all the time. When you’ve committed yourself to something, it is expected that you will finish it. We are a company, where creating value is important, and without execution, value is not created.

How do we describe our culture now?

Our culture is currently described through governance principles. We arrived at these principles after telling stories to each other and generalizing the essence of these stories into commonly understandable values and principles. It made sense to divide them into four connected groups. For each group, several principles describe the group in more detail.

Proekspert governance principles

We are all human beings

• I take care of my mental and physical health. I know my limits.
• I am open and honest.
• We believe that people around us are driven by good intentions.

We create value

• My attitude towards work is that of a craftsman.
• We grow and progress consciously and by experimenting.
• We do our work with passion, joy, and humor.
• We are heading in a clear direction.
• We create meaningful value.
• Our mindset is solution-oriented.

We are a community

• We act consciously to support and encourage others in our team and in our community.
• We all have a common cause.
• We care about Proekspert.
• We operate on similar principles in every cell of Proekspert.

I am the leader

• I am the leader; I take responsibility.
• I am responsible to, and for, my team.
• I discuss my decisions with people who are directly influenced by them.

Company culture is constantly evolving 

Culture is never completely ready or finished. It grows and changes with us. There are times when some principles and cultural aspects require more emphasis. It is important to bring the culture into our everyday lives. Culture is a way of working and a way of living. It is an attitude to embrace, not one to temporarily adopt. Also, constant evaluation needs to take place when bringing a culture to life – life is changing and so are we.

Thinking of joining us? See Proekspert open positions here.