A Lasting Difference: The Clarasys Way

This blog post is part of 50+ case studies of self-managing organizations we created for the 2024 inaugural ZeroDX awards. These organizations embody the principles of RenDanHeYi in their work structures:

• Zero Distance to customer: Decision what to build is based on insights from the marketplace

• Autonomy: Small teams with full decision-making autonomy enable speed in execution

• Shared Rewards: Everyone in the micro-enterprise participates in its financial success.

Introducing Clarasys

Clarasys, established in 2011, is an employee-owned management consultancy firm that operates globally with its headquarters in London. Specializing in customer experience, employee experience improvement, digital transformation, and operating model design, Clarasys serves industries such as healthcare, financial services, public sector, and more. With a team of over 200 professionals, Clarasys is committed to making a lasting impact on the way people work, live, and grow.

Clarasys's purpose is to be an organization that "makes a lasting difference to the way people work, live, and grow." As a flat-hierarchical company owned by employees, Clarasys is ultimately driven by the passions, goals, and development of its people. The firm operates based on a joint set of nine shared values, making it a truly employee-centered organization.

Innovative Organizational Structure: The Power of Autonomy

Clarasys prides itself on its unique organizational structure that emphasizes decentralization and empowerment. The company operates with a relatively flat hierarchy, promoting a team-of-teams organizational structure that is not based on hierarchy or levels but focuses on having the right cross-functional skillsets within a team for it to be autonomous.

This setup encourages collaboration across all levels of the business, allowing for rapid decision-making and a high degree of employee autonomy. To empower autonomy and distributed decision-making, Clarasys has established an ‘advice process’ to guide employees on how to get the right input from across the business before making decisions. This includes a rotating, representative body of employees who can provide rapid feedback on ideas from a cross-section of employees.

Autonomy is also built into the way Clarasys manages career progression. Every individual has their own designated coach, who is different from their project line manager and helps to support their professional development by acting as a coach, mentor, and well-being support. Individuals are entrusted to drive their development and are supported in doing so via established internal development frameworks, weekly 1-2-1 coaching sessions, and both quarterly and 6-weekly reviews.

To support autonomy and for everyone to act like an owner, Clarasys has a limited number of traditional policies/processes, such as holidays or expenses. Instead, it operates a ‘red-faced’ policy, where everything is transparent, and it’s up to the individuals to decide what they feel is the right decision. Employees also draft their own pay case each year, where people are empowered to put forward what they think is fair.

Customer Centricity

At Clarasys, customer centricity is at the core of everything they do. The company operates with a “zero distance” model, meaning the gap between employees and clients is minimized. Multi-disciplinary teams are formed around clients, giving them the flexibility to make decisions quickly and customize solutions to meet the unique needs of each customer. This deep client relationship ensures high customer satisfaction (CSAT), as regular feedback is integrated into service delivery.

Clarasys’s doer-seller model eliminates traditional sales teams. Instead, the employees who sell the services are also responsible for delivering them, ensuring that customer needs are prioritized over financial incentives. This approach fosters a transparent, customer-first culture.

Shared Rewards: Aligning Employee Goals with Business Success

As an employee-owned consultancy, Clarasys distributes profit based on tenure rather than role or performance. This system strengthens the alignment between individual efforts and the company’s success. Employees receive shared rewards, such as quarterly profit-sharing, which incentivizes collaboration and collective achievement rather than competition.

Company Culture: Psychological Safety and Continuous Improvement

Clarasys is committed to creating a culture of psychological safety, where feedback is encouraged and employees feel empowered to share their ideas and mistakes. One unique initiative is the “F*ck up championship,” where employees publicly share lessons learned from recent failures. This initiative helps to reduce the stigma around mistakes, fostering a learning environment.

Transparency is another cornerstone of Clarasys’s culture. Employees have access to live company-wide financial data, and regular Q&A sessions with leadership keep everyone aligned with the company’s goals and performance.

The company also prioritizes employee well-being with wellness programs, flexible working arrangements, and personal growth initiatives. Through tailored training programs like the “Clarasys Code,” employees are equipped with the emotional intelligence skills necessary to thrive in the company’s unique work environment.

Conclusion

Clarasys’s employee-driven approach to management consultancy has proven to be highly successful, with the company consistently recognized as one of the top 10 companies to work for in the UK. The combination of decentralization, autonomy, customer-centricity, and a focus on employee well-being ensures that Clarasys is not just a consultancy, but a forward-thinking organization that values its people and creates lasting impact.