Do Something Different has always been a Conscious Business that puts purpose before profit. A new shareholder agreement means that we're now owned by the people who work in the business (plus a few who helped us to get it off the ground in the first place).
We’re called Do Something Different. We don’t want to do business in the same old way. We want to do things differently.
Anyone who has worked with us knows that we work in an open and collaborative style. We’re utterly transparent with everyone on our programmes. We have straightforward working relationships with clients, partners and suppliers. We have a working environment without hierachies. We make sure everyone who works here has a say in where we’re going and what we’re trying to do.
Now, after many months of painfully trying to match these values with the legal obligations of company ownership, we’ve managed to create a new Shareholder Agreement that means that Do Something Different is now owned by the people who care passionately about it.
What are we doing differently?
- No-one can earn more than six times the average salary
- People can take as much holiday as they like and work the hours that suit them. We want working for Do Something Different to be part of a fulfilling and fun life.
- People can work from wherever they want. We have some people based in our offices in Brighton and others working remotely from all over the place.
- We don’t do management in the formal sense. We have to have a Board of Directors because we’re legally bound to, but we run the day-to-day business by people taking responsibility for things they care about and building a team to make it happen.
- Decision-making involves everyone in a group. We make sure everyone comments, especially the quietest ones, before we take action.
- We encourage people to get involved with things that are outside their normal experience because we know the best stuff happens in the discomfort zone.
- We regularly invite experts in from outside to nourish mind, body and soul. Recent events include our regular Monday morning massages, an improv session, laughing yoga , lunch with an octogenarian comedian and a fantastic innovation workshop.
“Make this the best possible job …”
At a recent away day, Ray, one of our founders and de-facto leader said. “I just want each of us to make this the best possible job we can imagine. That doesn’t mean you won’t have to do some boring or tough bits from time to time. But if we each believe in what we’re doing and love making it happen – and we carry on doing things differently – we’ve got a great chance of creating something truly brilliant.”
