I rarely respond to a Dick Mays post, but I'll make an
exception for this post, for several reasons.
First, like geezerfreak I used to know Bill Witherspoon,
and think it's wonderful that he's doing well.
Second, I think it's worth pointing out that the admirable
structure he's come up with for his business is the utter
antithesis of the way that the TM movement is run.
Third, I suggest that the question of where Nabby's holy
crop circles come from is now settled. Bill made them:
In 1990 came a brush with notoriety when Witherspoon
carved the Hindu symbol for the forces of nature into
a dry lakebed in the desert. The design spanned a
square quarter-mile. Aerial photos from a National
Guard reconnaissance plane sparked a panic over aliens.
:-)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickm...@... wrote:
http://www.inc.com/top-workplaces/2010/how-to-build-a-beautiful-company.html
Top Small Cpmpany Workplaces
How to Build a Beautiful Company
Employing open-book management and leadership by consensus, the Sky
Factory's Bill Witherspoon has set out to create the perfect business.
As Told to Leigh Buchanan | Jun 8, 2010
Inc. Newsletter
Andy Ryan
Blue-Sky Thinking Bill Witherspoon's company manufactures high-tech
illusions. Its virtual windows and skylights use backlit images and
high-definition LCDs to replicate clouds drifting across perfect
skies.
Related Articles
* The Sky Factory: Bill Witherspoon
* 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces
* Do You Have a Winning Workplace Culture?
Small Business Success
Inspiring company profiles and best practices for smart business owners
In the early 1970s, Bill Witherspoon lived for months in a school bus
parked in the Oregon desert. A hundred miles from the nearest town,
he spent day after day painting the sky and the clouds. He later sold
his work for tidy sums. Witherspoon would spend the rest of his life
alternating between painting and launching companies. His first
company experimented with new methods of agricultural management. In
1982, he co-founded Westbridge Research Group, a developer of
ecologically friendly agricultural products that boasted Jonas Salk
as a board member. In 1990 came a brush with notoriety when
Witherspoon carved the Hindu symbol for the forces of nature into a
dry lakebed in the desert. The design spanned a square quarter-mile.
Aerial photos from a National Guard reconnaissance plane sparked a
panic over aliens.
During one of his peckish artistic periods, Witherspoon offered to
tear out the ceiling in an orthodontist's office and replace it with
a skyscape made from painted tiles in exchange for braces for his
children. That act of creative barter provided the idea for The Sky
Factory, a $3.9 million, 34-employee company in Fairfield, Iowa. The
business makes backlit images of sea and sky that are installed on
ceilings and walls. Its products are popular in hotels, spas,
restaurants, and hospitals.
When Witherspoon, then 60, launched The Sky Factory in 2002, he
wondered, Was it possible to create a company as beautiful as a work
of art? A beautiful company, in Witherspoon's mind, starts with the
elimination of hierarchies that impede and repress the expression of
people's natural curiosity and creativity. The Sky Factory's
organizational structure is as flat as its creator's beloved desert.
There are no employees, just owners, and everyone cares deeply about
doing what is best for the group.
Both painting and company building start with a blank canvas. In a
painting you create beauty with the addition of each brush stroke. In
a company you create it with the addition of each talented, engaged
person and with each thoughtful act. I thought about how satisfying
it would be to build a beautiful company, and how much better for the
people who work there.
I am an optimist and an idealist. In shaping The Sky Factory, I
started with the assumption that people are naturally curious and
creative. I wanted to craft an environment in which they would act
like entrepreneurs, not like robots. My first decision was to give
people the opportunity to purchase discounted ownership, and 100
percent of employees have participated. The responsibility for
revenue and profit belongs to everyone. From that foundation, I
derived five principles.
1. Share information
As a company of owners, everyone who works here is naturally
motivated to participate in important decisions. To do so, people
have to know everything. All information about The Sky Factory is
right out on the table -- with the exception of HR issues and
salaries. And not to reveal compensation was the decision of the
group.
On Fridays, we have a two-hour meeting. For the first 30 minutes, we
go over all the metrics. In addition to the critical numbers, people
will raise questions about how many
