Managing without management

For the past 6 weeks I have been working at a new company - hence the lack of updates on this blog.

My previous employer - Answers.com - was big into management and SEO.

My current employer - Hyperlync - does not believe in either.

Their site is all but non-existant - and most pages are carefully spider-proofed. They generate revenue by creating products that people actually use, and they have no need to be in Google's index. Those people who need their products know where to find them.

This means that we never hear - and really don't care - about Google events and other tragedies that affect SEO-driven companies. What a relief.

They also don't believe in management. The 3 founders all work for a living; 2 of them write code the 3rd does the sales & marketing.

There are no status reports and nobody looking over your shoulder. As soon as a product is sold, the relevant employees are informed and each does his part to make it ship.

Since there are no teams, you cannot rely (or hide behind) your teammates or superior to get the job done.

While this may sound like a startup, it's not - and they are already profitable; so much so that we each got the latest version Kindle to celebrate Chanuka / 2012.

There is one Project Manager, but she mainly does product-management; deciding on the look-&-feel. She does almost no coordinating, scheduling or running around.

More on management-less companies in future posts.

- Danny
P.S. So what do I do? I went back to 1995; doing setups. This time on Linux, Mac, Windows and Androids.