Pentagram 07, a short film by Hillman Curtis
This famous design studio is a good example of how an organization can harbor creativity in the face of growth by becoming an organic platform. From what I can tell, Pentagram is a type of post-bureaucracy in which even the partners are designers.
Of all the companies I’ve worked for, the structure closest to this belonged to a $70 million revenue pharmacy. The lack of oversight might be why we were raided (albeit unsuccessfully) by sixty FBI agents, but even when the compliance department was overhauled there was still more trust than I’ve seen anywhere else.
The conventional corporate ladder prevents progress because everyone is threatened by ideas from below and resentful of ideas from above. Change can still be enacted in spite of the hierarchy, but usually it would take far less effort and time to build one’s ideas into an entirely new company.
