Inside Vivobarefoot: Embracing Regeneration in Products and Organization
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. Vivobarefoot is one of the 50 organisations we listed this year.
Introducing Vivobarefoot
Vivobarefoot is a company dedicated to producing minimalist footwear that promotes natural health, movement and regenerative principles. In the world of sustainable footwear, Vivobarefoot stands out not only for its innovative products but also for its pioneering approach to organizational structure and culture. Inspired by the principles of living systems, regenerative organizations, autonomy, ownership, and radical transparency, Vivobarefoot has created a dynamic and engaging workplace that allows employees to thrive.
Founded back in 2012 by two seventh-generation cobblers, Galahad and Asher Clark, Vivobarefoot is based on one simple insight - barefoot footwear is regenerative to human & planetary health. The company has grown rapidly, driven by a strong commitment to environmental responsibility and innovation and today employs more than 150 people and turns over nearly £90 million.
Vivobarefoot has created an ecosystem of teams and partnerships in its quest to develop a truly regenerative business. Its organizational design is driven by autonomy, decentralized decision-making, transparency and continuous improvement - all closely aligned with the RenDanHeYi management philosophy.
Organizational Structure
The organizational structure of Vivobarefoot is designed to be flatter, deeply interconnected and highly flexible. This structure emphasizes self-management and distributed leadership, allowing teams to operate with a high degree of autonomy. Rather than adhering to a traditional hierarchical ‘management’ model, Vivobarefoot employs a network of interconnected teams they call ‘circles’, each responsible for different aspects of the business, with leaders at every level. This decentralized approach enables quick decision-making and fosters a sense of ownership among employees.
The Circle-Based Model
At the heart of Vivobarefoot’s structure is the circle-based model, inspired by sociocratic principles. Each circle is a semi-autonomous team with a clear purpose aligned with the company’s overarching mission. For instance, there are Home Circles (the team you mostly ‘live’ in) focused on product development, marketing, regeneration/sustainability, and customer service, and Project Circles with specific cross-functional missions like fairness & transparency of pay (their ‘Evolution Council’), a network of internal ‘Regenerative Coaches’, Circular Footwear, Hybrid Working. Each circle operates independently but collaborates closely with other circles to achieve common goals.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Sponsor & Purpose Guardian: Ensures the circle’s activities align with its purpose and are responsible for overall budget.
Lead: Key project owner. Guides meetings, comms and decision-making processes.
Project Team: Actively engaged in progressing the project with their key skills & capabilities.
Challengers & Collaborators: Provides critical input, skills and feedback to ensure continuous improvement and cross functional alignment.
These roles can rotate among team members to encourage diverse perspectives and shared leadership.
Serving Customers
Vivbarefoot’s approach to clients is deeply rooted in transparency and authenticity. The company aims to build long-term relationships with customers by providing not only high-quality regenerative products that give back more than they take away, but also a meaningful brand experience. This is achieved through several key strategies:
Customer Education: Vivobarefoot invests heavily in educating customers about the benefits of minimalist footwear, sustainable practices and natural health principles. This includes detailed product information, a varied bouquet of educational content on their website, active engagement on social media platforms, and in-store education & programs. Find the library of their online courses here as an example.
Feedback Loops: Customer feedback is integral to product development. Vivbarefoot actively seeks and incorporates customer insights to refine their products and services continually. In fact, they take a group of external ambassadors to their Nature Home in the woods in Sussex 4 times a year to proactively gather input and feedback on their product lines and overall brand direction. They even camp overnight together once a year!
Sustainable Practices: Emphasizing their commitment to the environment, Vivobarefoot ensures transparency in their manufacturing processes, sourcing of materials, and overall environmental impact. They have developed their own framework which they call the VMatrix to measure their progress towards improving the way they make, sell and recycle our products. This has helped them track their progress towards their regenerative goals - and they plan to make it open source once they have created a workable software tool out of it.
Internal Culture
The internal culture at VivoBarefoot (they call this ‘living barefoot’) is characterized by a high degree of adult-adult autonomy and ownership, where everyone is a leader. Employees are encouraged to take initiative and are given the freedom to experiment and innovate within as well as beyond their roles. This culture of taking off their masks, building trust and fostering empowerment is facilitated by:
Decentralized Decision-Making: Decisions are made at the team level, allowing those closest to the issue to have the most influence. This reduces bottlenecks and increases the speed and effectiveness of tactical adjustments and solutions.
Transparent Communication: Regular meetings and open communication channels ensure that everyone is informed and aligned with the company’s goals, and understand why. Weekly all-hands meetings provide updates on key performance indicators and strategic objectives, monthly ‘Barefoot Bulletin’ gives news and updates from across the organizations, and quarterly ‘Field Circles’ allow anyone to meet with the CEO (‘chief ‘ecosystem officer’) to discuss anything and feedback.
Continuous Learning: The company promotes a culture of continuous improvement through regular training sessions, workshops, and opportunities for professional development. Many of these are done at their Nature Home, in an ancient woodland in Sussex, helping the team understand regenerative wisdom, and how it applies to Vivobarefoot and the way it operates. Employees are encouraged to learn new skills and apply them in their work with a £1000 annual allowance to use freely to develop in their careers. They also get a further £1000 annually to spend on natural health and personal interests and hobbies, helping with work-life balance.
Vivobarefoot strives to develop a coaching culture, a way of ‘showing up’ in a mature, supportive and adult-to-adult manner, modeling in their own way the concept of regenerative leadership. They have created their own coaching program where they have trained a cohort of internal coaches to help each individual at Vivobarefoot to go on their own unique transformative journey in their own right, and become the best version of themselves that ripple far wider than their role at Vivobarefoot.
Compensation at VivoBarefoot is designed to reflect the values of fairness and transparency. The company uses a transparent salary model where pay scales are openly shared and discussed. Salaries are not decided by ‘managers’ but individuals work with their leads to put a proposal together to their internally voted-in ‘Evolution Council’ which is a cross functional team with full salary transparency. This council decides who should get salary increases and openly communicates their decisions to the whole business on a bi-annual basis.
In a hybrid working world, Vivobarefoot makes sure they bring the whole company together, including staff, ambassadors, and international distributors and partners in nature four times a year to connect as a human-centered community and align on the strategic direction. They also share natural health principles and run workshops to help Vivobarefoot’s employees and wider partners to live their mission and values. A conscious Vivo festival they call ‘Vivo Connect’.
Vivobarefooot also runs workshops and immersions for external CEO’s and business leaders to help inspire them to do, think and be different and adopt regenerative principles. Vivoabrefoot has been featured as a world leader in future-fit and regenerative organizations, with case studies featured in Regenerators, Center for Regenerative Leaders (Denmark), Axa Climate’s Butterfly School (France), and B For God Leaders (Amsterdam), amongst others.
Conclusion
In a way, VivoBarefoot is striving to achieve one and the same goal with its products and approach to organizational design - seeking to reject the status quo and courageously define a new way of being, and thriving, by embedding sustainability and regenerative practices across the organization, and beyond. Its dedication to a more agile, open and flowing way of working is closely aligned with the RenDanHeYi philosophy of small autonomous teams driving innovation for their end users. It’s a truly special and unique organization that is making rich and meaningful waves towards a better and brighter future.
