St. Lukes and the alternative approach to building a people business

Last week I read and finished an interesting business book.

Entitled “Experiment at Work: Explosions and Experiences at the Most Frightening Company on Earth“, the book is written by Andy Law, one of the founders of UK advertising agency St. Lukes [Warning: Horrendous Flash Website – one of the worst!].

Andy challenges the reader to look beyond traditional company culture and approaches to Human Resources, to a braver world where staff are appreciated and recognized as the key business resource.

He uses St. Lukes as a example, where amongst other things all the staff are not staff but co-owners (all with shares in the firm), no one has a dedicated computer, instead each account has a work area, where the company is constantly look and challenging for change.

That last paragraph does no justice to St. Luke’s, their approach is completely and fundamentally different to traditional companies.

It’s an interesting read.  I always think it’s a good thing to challenge your perceptions.  Though I did find the book raising more questions than answers, but maybe that was the point….