Srijan gets listed among WorldBlu's Most Democratic Workplaces 2010

Srijan Technologies among the world's “Most Democratic Workplaces”

Srijan Technologies Pvt. Ltd. a New Delhi based web-development company has been selected as one of the world's “Most  Democratic Workplaces” by WorldBlu, an Austin, Texas (USA) based non-profit organization. WorldBlu specializes in issues relating to democracy in the workplace. Srijan has been selected to be part of WorldBlu's 3rd annual list of 40 “Most Democratic Workplaces” released on April 14th, 2009.

Srijan specializes in delivering high end, sophisticated websites to clients around the world. It uses open source technologies such as Drupal, TYPO3, Apache, PHP, MySQL and Linux to make high quality, reliable and engaging websites. Srijan's philosophy is not only to use open source technologies but to have an “open” and democratic workplace.

At Srijan important decisions relating to overall company strategy, organization, employee salaries and promotions are made from the bottom-up. This decision making happens in public meetings involving all employees at Srijan. Any employee is free to call, lead and participate in these public meetings. Decisions requiring detailed analysis happen in groups selected by the employees. After research and internal discussion these groups present their findings to all employees and the final decision is taken by consensus. Focus and goal orientation is high at Srijan because employees are aware of where their company is headed; what's more, they have helped choose that direction. At Srijan, democracy does not imply chaos: Senior management still plays an important role because it brings experience and perspective to the table. The major difference from traditional top-down organizations is that senior management cannot ask people to do something simply because they “said so.” Employees as a whole need to be truly convinced by an idea, direction or initiative. Srijan believes its way of functioning is unique in India where participative management is followed more in theory than in actual practice.

An expanding set of case studies prove that more transparency and democracy is good for every organization. The writings of Ricardo Sembler (celebrated author of “Maverick!” and CEO of Semco) are a famous case in point. The democratic approach has many dividends: the Srijan workplace tends to be remarkably non-political, positive and task focused rather than personality focused. Moreover, Srijan employees consistently describe their organization as “fair.” Srijan practices “democracy at the workplace” not only because its the right thing to do, but it's the profitable thing to do.

WorldBlu reports that this year, non-profit and for-profit organizations from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, India, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Malaysia made the “Most Democratic Workplace” list from industries such as technology, health care, telecommunications, media, manufacturing, aerospace and retail. According to WorldBlu they represent nearly $12 billion (approx Rs. 63,000 crores) in combined annual sales. 

Srijan Technologies was the only company selected from India.

These companies were selected on a basis of a rigorous, anonymous questionnaire filled by employees of the candidate organizations. All Srijan employees were eligible to fill this questionnaire and an overwhelming majority eventually did.

“Nothing has proven the need for a new model of business as definitively as the current economic crisis,” says WorldBlu (www.worldblu.com) Founder and President, Traci Fenton. “The call for transparent, accountable, and decentralized companies is greater than ever, and in the midst of all the economic turmoil these organizations are a bright spot and a reason for hope.”

Srijan's inclusion in this top 40 global list is a great motivator to our employees and validation of our core values. Srijan is proud to be part of this list.

More information

• See Srijan's story published at Worldblu
• Learn more about Srijan at www.srijan.in
• See the top 40 list at worldblu.com
• Worldblu List 2009 - Press Release