HR-ON: The Danish Company Turning Self-Management Into a Global Advantage
When Ali E. Cevik founded HR-ON in 2012, he was driven by a conviction that workplaces could be more humane and fulfilling than those he had known growing up. His early experiences between Turkey and Denmark left him with a deep skepticism of rigid hierarchies and inflexible rules. From the beginning, HR-ON was designed as an organization rooted in trust and shared responsibility rather than traditional control.
This blog post is part of 80+ case studies of progressive organizations we created for the ZeroDX awards 2025. 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.
This philosophy took shape in practices that have remained consistent as the company matured. Rather than appointing formal managers, HR-ON relies on small autonomous teams that coordinate their work independently.Each group chooses a coordinator, not to direct others but to facilitate alignment and clarity. The result is a structure that reflects core principles of the RenDanHeYi model, particularly decentralization and distributed ownership of decisions.
Ali has described self-management as more than a strategy. It is the foundation of the company’s identity. Even asHR-ON grew beyond Denmark into Germany, Scandinavia, and Japan, he remained convinced that size is not an excuse for abandoning human-centered practices. In his words, “It is inspiring that Haier managed to turn a huge organization to self-management and make it a success. Whether you are fifty or fifty thousand people, you are still working with people.”
One of HR-ON’s defining characteristics is the way it has eliminated barriers between employees and customers. Unlike most software firms, HR-ON deliberately avoids intermediaries who filter communication. Ali put it simply: “We don’t have these gatekeepers saying, ‘I will write a ticket and deliver it to the next who will get it.’ No. Customers can contact our programmers directly.” This choice embodies RenDanHeYi’s commitment to zero distance to the user and has become a powerful source of motivation and pride across the company.
He shared an example that captures why this approach matters. “The engagement a programmer gets when they press the button that changes something important for a customer—I could never motivate them the same way.” These moments of direct impact connect employees to the value they create and help sustain a culture whereeveryone feels their work matters.
While the absence of hierarchy has enabled faster decisions and deeper customer relationships, it has also demanded clear agreements and mutual accountability. HR-ON’s employees formalized these expectations in 2021 when they co-authored an Employee Manifesto. This document set out their shared values, including trust over supervision, results over hours worked, and collective responsibility over individual status. The manifesto made it plain that there would be no space for those seeking traditional authority over others. In recent years, this clarity led the company to part ways with colleagues who were uncomfortable without conventional career ladders.
Ali explained that these departures, though challenging, strengthened the organization’s maturity and cohesion. Hedescribed it as a moment when intentions were tested against reality. “It is easy to say we are inclusive and responsible together. But when people feel their position is threatened, you see what they really believe. That was the examination for all of us,” he said. For the teams who remained, this period reinforced the importance of clear values and accountability to one another rather than to a boss.
Yet decentralization at HR-ON is not static. The organization is currently preparing a new version of its manifesto that will go further by transferring control of compensation to the teams themselves. Ali believes this shift will help each group take full ownership not only of how work is organized but also of how rewards are shared. He described it as a logical step and noted that the process of designing these changes has been carried out entirely by employees without outside consultants. “When we wrote the first version, it started as a blank document. Everyone had equal access. We want the same approach again,” he said.
At every stage, HR-ON has shown that self-management can be more than an aspiration. By combining opencommunication, direct customer engagement, and a commitment to continuous learning, the company has demonstrated that autonomy and performance are not in conflict. Instead, they can reinforce one another when guided by trust and shared purpose.
As Ali reflected, “Everybody wants to succeed. Nobody is born to fail.” In this conviction, HR-ON has built a workplace that continues to prove the value of organizing work around people, not positions. Its story is a testament to what becomes possible when an organization commits fully to the principles of self-management and stays close to those it exists to serve.
