Sounds Crazy, Let's Go!

More than ten years ago, Jorn van der Schaaf had two wouldn’t it be a good idea to engage technical students to develop innovative solutions for companies and wouldn’t it make sense if the organization itself worked in an innovative, self-managing and experimental manner? The answer to those ideas became Ivy Global. Ivy has since grown to become a company of over 150 employees, winning several awards as one of the fastest growing organizations in the Netherlands. Erik de Jong joined the company very early on and in his book, Sounds Crazy, Let’s Go! he describes a journey of experimentation with methods of self-management, decision-making, transparency, feedback, strategy, long-term goals, growth and profit sharing. Today, Ivy is an organization where employees can determine their own working hours, vacation days, salary and where the CEO is able to take a year-long sabbatical, knowing he leaves the company in good hands. This is the book that Ivy could have used at the start, but the experiences, insights and personal reflections are now available for managers, entrepreneurs and companies that want to experiment with their salary model and self-management. “The book’s strength lies, not in selling a perfect model but in its candor about what worked, what failed and what had to be let go. Insightful, practical and often funny, it gives others the courage to try new ideas and ask—and to keep asking—what organizational freedom is for and what it demands of us. Sounds mad? Perhaps, but certainly worth reading!” – Otti Vogt, Co-Founder Global Society for Good Leadership “Erik reveals something that is rarely described with such honesty; that self-management doesn’t start by developing a perfect system but with the decision to focus on the people.” – Joost Minnaar, Corporate Rebels “An organization is never finished, which is a good thing! That is why experimenting is the best thing an organization can do.” – Luuk Willems, Co-founder Semco Style Institute