Cyberclick: Pioneers in Digital Marketing and Employee Happiness

The RenDanHeYi model, developed by Haier Group CEO Zhang Ruimin in 2005, is revolutionary management philosophy aimed at transforming traditional hierarchical corporate structures into highly adaptive, customer-centric ecosystems. Rooted in the belief that employees (Ren) and their entrepreneurial capabilities should align with customer needs (Dan) to create value, the model emphasizes individual accountability and dynamic organizational roles (HeYi). By dismantling conventional silos, the RenDanHeYi model fosters a network of autonomous micro-enterprises within the larger corporate entity, transforming the organization into a nimble startup factory.

To develop and share the idea of Zero Distance and its broader management philosophy of RenDanHeYi, Haier hosts an annual forum to celebrate the world's most progressive organizations. This September marks the 8th edition of the forum, taking place in Haier’s hometown, Qingdao, on September 20. Working with the Business Ecosystem Alliance and the Management Lab, the Haier Model Institute will release the inaugural listing of the progressive companies which are putting Zero Distance and related ideas into practice.

These organizations are characterized by:

• 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

For the 2024 inaugural ZeroDX awards, Haier approached us to list 50 self-managed organizations that showcase the principles of RenDanHeYi in how they organise their work. Cyberclick is one of the 50 organisations we listed this year.

Introducing Cyberclick

Established in 1999, Cyberclick is a leading digital marketing agency headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. The firm specializes in a broad range of online marketing services including SEM, SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and content marketing. With a team of about 100 people, Cyberclick is renowned for its innovative approach to capturing potential clients through various digital advertising strategies. Their mission is to optimize customer acquisition costs and enhance the online presence of the brands they work with.

Cyberclick has been reinventing zero distance practices in line with the RenDanHeYi philosophy for over 25 years. They consider themselves 'customer experience freaks' and have gone to great lengths to remove barriers between team members and end users of their services. Autonomy is visible in the lack of top down goals and the right of people to decide what to work on to satisfy the customers and deliver outstanding results. To ensure alignment and co-sharing, the company also has a profit-sharing program, where above a certain profit margin, the profit gets divided among the employees.

Organizational Structure

Cyberclick boasts a dynamic organizational structure that emphasizes flexibility and collaboration. The company operates with a flat hierarchy, encouraging a culture of open communication and teamwork. There are no bosses, no top-down goals and a bare minimum of guardrails to sustain their innovative way of work. Work is performed into small autonomous teams where team size is limited in the range 8 to 16 people maximum. The role of the company founder, David Tomás, is limited to inspiring the team to seek and venture in new directions. Essentially, all decisions are made by the relevant people on the team.

Customer Centricity and Autonomy

Cyberclick is one of the pioneers of online advertising and marketing in Spain. With a track record that goes back to the end of the 90s, they were the first to guarantee results in online advertising and work on generating new leads. Their progressive approach provides freedom for people to experiment and an inspiring peer-to-peer community that drives ever better results for the team and for the clients. In fact two of the three company values (defined by the team) are directly relevant to how the company services its customers: "always find a better way" and "customer experience freaks". Both underline the strive to create the ultimate customer experience and upgrade their offering with every project they undertake.

Internal Culture and Employee Engagement

Cyberclick's internal culture is built on principles of transparency, collaboration, and continuous learning. The company practices what they call "Practical Happiness" which includes regular check-ins to gauge employee satisfaction, implementing flexible working hours, and fostering a culture of trust and autonomy. Cyberclick stands firmly behind the belief that happy employees are more productive and creative, leading to better outcomes for clients.

The company works with 'Open book management'. Everyone gets trained to understand the basics of the financials of the company. This transparency and aligned interest is supplemented by a profit-sharing program, where above a certain profit margin, the profit gets divided among the employees.

To ensure their way of work is sustainable in the long run, the people at Cyberclick learn together and do not shy away from difficult conversations. Besides, they have gone to great lengths to ensure only the right people join the team.

While in most companies the recruitment process ends with the first day of the person at the office, it is fair to say that in Cyberclick, this step is in the very beginning of a lengthy and well-thought out process:

• About 3 out of 4 applicants are invited for a visit to the company

• They are tested by the team and the direct colleagues on: skills, personality, and behavior

• Multiple reference calls are made to previous employers

• Once selected, the applicant starts working for 3 weeks

• After 3 weeks, the team evaluates the new employee. They have a strong focus on the new employee's alignment with the company values. Every team member can use a veto during the evaluation

• After 3 months, there's another evaluation with a similar process

• Once the employee has successfully passed all stages, he has a decision to make. He can choose to (1) take the job, or (2) not take the job and receive a 2-month bonus on top of the salary for the time worked

Conclusion

All in all, Cyberclick walks its talk and strives to constantly reinvent what it means to create "The Happiest Company In The World". Through its flexible organizational structure, customer-centric approach, and people-centric internal culture, Cyberclick is a prime example of RenDanHeYi principles in the digital marketing industry.