Lancor: Two Decades of Self-Management in Motion

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.

Since 2006, Lancor has been steadily deepening this commitment. Today, 115 people co-own and co-manage the cooperative, and over 80% are actively involved in shaping its structure and culture. "We’ve been doing this fornearly 20 years. What’s remarkable is not just that the culture has lasted, but that it’s still evolving," said Ander Butrón, who leads the People and Culture area.

At the heart of Lancor’s system are six autonomous mini-factories, each structured as a customer-line team (ELC). These teams integrate production staff (known as production-line teams, or ELF) and support staff, and are directly responsible for aligning weekly work plans with client needs. To help guide their work, each team includestwo rotating facilitators, one from production and one from support, whose task is not to supervise but to ensure that commitments, information and decision-making flow smoothly across the organisation.

Rather than rely on fixed hierarchies, these facilitators meet regularly to refine their collective role. They share experiences, identify challenges, and adjust their approach together in a process that remains adaptive and open-ended. "We’re not copying a model. We’re discovering what makes sense for us," said Jose Luis Femia, Production Coordinator at Lancor. This commitment to continuous learning is not an exception; it is central to how Lancor evolves.

The customer-line structure reflects a clear strategic choice: to reduce the distance between those who design, produce and deliver products and those who use them. Teams meet weekly to plan production based on real client needs. They track outcomes, analyse causes, and make adjustments without needing managerial intermediaries.The aim is responsiveness, not control, and the result is a tighter connection between production and purpose.

Transparency supports this model at every level. Monthly steering meetings bring together facilitators andrepresentatives from each team to review key performance indicators like service levels, absenteeism and production quality. In addition, all employees, regardless of membership status, are invited to monthly assemblies where they can hear and discuss company-wide financial results, client feedback and upcoming opportunities. Information is shared through multiple channels, including Slack, a custom internal app and printed updates posted throughout the factory. "There’s a strong culture of transparency here," said Femia. "The information is alwaysavailable and shared openly. If someone feels out of the loop, it’s usually a sign that we need to strengthen how we connect, not that the information isn’t there."

Beyond the operational layer, Lancor has built an internal architecture to sustain long-term alignment. The Tractor Team safeguards organisational rhythms, supports transitions and activates collective processes when clarity or momentum is needed. The Medium- and Long-Term Vision Team anticipates change,identifies strategic opportunities and helps the organisation explore its future direction. The Steering Team connects day-to-day decisions with broader goals, ensures coordination among teams and monitors key indicators. These groups do not manage operations directly.Instead, they act as internal guides that help the organisation stay aligned, intentional and resilient over time.

This cultural infrastructure is mirrored by seven transversal teams that work on cross-cutting organisational themes such as equality, infrastructure, training, job rotation and social engagement. More than 80% of the workforceparticipates in at least one of these groups. Their work helps to ensure that self-management is not just a way of organising tasks, but a shared framework for evolving how the company operates and grows.

Each year, the customer-line teams (ELC) and the production-line teams (ELF) come together to reflect, evaluate and propose a set of collective commitments, known as the Common Challenges Plan. These commitments are shared across the organisation and serve as a roadmap for the year ahead, guiding continuous improvement based on real experience and customer needs. "It’s not just a plan," said Butrón. "It’s a way of building a shared horizon."

At the heart of this system is a consent-based approach to decision-making. Teams seek alignment by identifying and resolving objections before proposals move forward. In smaller groups, decisions are typically made with100% consent. In general assemblies, which include broader participation, at least 80% approval is required. This process has helped the cooperative move forward without leaving critical voices behind.

In recent years, the cooperative has refined this model further. To reduce blockages and ensure accountability, it introduced named voting and required objections. "We needed to ensure that objections were constructive and notjust a way of blocking progress," said Femia. "Now people know they have to explain their position, and that builds trust."

This clarity has enabled the organisation to take bold steps. One recent example was the approval of a newsystem for job valuation and salary equity. The process was participatory, and the outcome has been a more transparent, structured and inclusive framework for promotions and role design. "It wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. And we did it together," said Butrón.

The impact of Lancor’s internal evolution is visible in its external performance. In 2024, the cooperative reached arecord turnover of 28 million euros and manufactured more than 50,000 motors and generators. It joined the EU-funded Harmony project on circular economy and expanded its work in the renewable energy and vertical transport sectors.

Lancor’s commitment to social impact is equally strong. Ten percent of annual profits are allocated to socialinitiatives, and the company dedicates two percent of working hours to community projects. A dedicated team coordinates partnerships with local and international NGOs, many of them through the Ner Group.

Meanwhile, the company continues to invest in technology, infrastructure and internal learning. In 2024, it expanded its facilities and strengthened its training programs. These efforts aim not only to enhance efficiency, but to increase adaptability and resilience in a changing industrial environment.

After nearly two decades of self-management, Lancor’s transformation remains in motion. There is no endpoint,only an ongoing process of discovery. The organisation continues to experiment, reflect and adapt, guided by both its purpose and the relationships that support it. "You cannot separate operations from culture," said Butrón. "One feeds the other. A technical meeting still needs trust and a shared purpose."

What has emerged is not a fixed model, but a living system built on mutual responsibility. From weekly planning sessions to consent-based decisions, from transversal teams to strategic foresight groups, each layer reinforcesthe others. This interdependence allows Lancor to meet customer demands with precision while nurturing a strong internal culture.

With every collective commitment and shared milestone, Lancor proves that a high-performance industrialcompany can also be profoundly human. Its experience shows that deep change does not always come from a rupture with the past, but from sustained alignment between values, strategy and daily practice.

As Butrón put it, "Autonomy alone isn’t enough. It has to be paired with professionalism, with care, and with the culture we create together."