Viisi: Transforming Financial Services with a Holacratic Approach

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. Viisi is one of the 50 organisations we listed this year.

Introducing Viisi

Viisi, established in 2010 in the Netherlands, is a pioneering company in the financial services industry, specifically in mortgage advisory. Founded by Frank Tukker, Hendrik Schakel, Hergen Dutrieux and Tom van der Lubbe. Viisi's core mission is to revolutionise the financial advisory landscape by making it more sustainable, long-term oriented, and customer-centric. The company employs over 30 people and prides itself on delivering independent and personalised mortgage advice, leveraging the expertise of highly educated advisors. Viisi operates with a strong commitment to its purpose: to make financial advice more ethical and aligned with the greater good of society.

Viisi is a true pioneer - in the way they reinvent financial services, but also in their unique organisational structure. The decentralised management system, the autonomy placed in the hands of individual mortgage advisors, as well as the care they've taken to ensure top-of-market remuneration for their team, are all in line with the core principles behind the RenDanHeYi management philosophy.

Organisational Structure

Viisi stands out in the financial services industry due to its decentralized management system that emphasizes self-organization and distributed authority . Viisi has built its own model which was inspired by sociocracy, holacracy, the republican citystates like Amsterdam, Venice and the Hanse cities and Switzerland and operates through self-managing teams known as "circles," where roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, yet flexible. There are no managers; instead, each team member, referred to as a "Viisionair," has the leadership or autonomy in various roles that align with their strengths and the company's goals. The classical management role is reduced to a role of coordinative responsibility which rotates among the team members. This structure allows for dynamic adjustments and continuous innovation, fostering a culture of autonomy and accountability where decisions are made collaboratively and roles evolve organically to meet emerging needs​.

Leadership within the circles is based on the principle of Primus Inter Pares, a Latin phrase meaning 'first among equals', dating from its use in Ancient Greece, the Roman Senate, merchant cities and partnership structures like in consultancy firms, investment banks, law firms and of medical doctors. It has historically been used as an honorary title for someone who is formally equal to others in their group but is granted unofficial respect. The same happens at Viisi.

Just as in countries, in which states or provinces have a lot of independence, circles or teams at Viisi are also self-governing, and each has elected delegates who are regularly rotated and are linked to the national level. In fact, each circle must fulfil two fundamental delegation roles responsible for coordination matters: the role of the so-called Lead Link, and the role of the Rep Link. People in the Lead Link role are responsible for work within their circle. People in the Rep Link role represent their circle to other circles.

Customer Centricity

Viisi places a high emphasis on zero distance to customers, ensuring that the advisors, who interact directly with clients, have substantial autonomy to make decisions. This people-first approach is embedded in the company's operations, which means that advisors are empowered to decide what is the best for the client, a tailor made mortgage solutions to the individual needs without bureaucratic delays. The self-organising nature of the teams means that those who understand the client's needs best are the ones making crucial decisions, enhancing responsiveness and customer satisfaction. This decentralised decision-making process not only accelerates service delivery but also builds stronger, trust-based relationships with clients​.

At Viisi, the internal culture is built around the belief that happy employees lead to happy customers and happy customers lead to a profitable company and happy shareholders. Clients are also the ultimate beneficiaries of the progressive structure and operating model of Viisi - the company is consistently ranked high (9.8 out of 10) as a healthy organisation which results in a superior service to customers.

Internal Culture

One of the outstanding features of the culture at Viisi is a radical focus on transparency. This is manifested in the fact that everything at Viisi is public unless it could be harmful to the company or employees. Viisi is not only transparent internally, but aims to be transparent to the external world as far as possible.

Two examples: first, the fractal organisation structure is publicly accessible on the internet by anyone (see here https://app.glassfrog.com/orga...). Anyone can see what circles and roles there are. You can even see who is fulfilling them.

Second, salaries at Viisi have been transparent since 2016. They started this process by making salaries transparent internally—for everyone. Then followed rounds of discussion in which employees were allowed to explain what they thought would be a fair salary for themselves and discuss 'How do our salaries relate to each other?', and 'How can we best distribute salaries fairly to everyone?'.

The result of these discussions was a salary model based on external benchmarks for every team. An internal rule is salaries of all employees at Viisi should be among the top 25% and the salary of everyone is automatically increased every year to guarantee this. Viisi also banned bonuses for individual performance —something unique in the financial sector. The rationale behind it is simple - the goal is for people to focus on collaboration as the team outperforms the individual. In the team everybody picks up roles that fit them best, but feel psychologically safe to ask for help, discuss options or risks.

In the words of co-founder Tom van der Lubbe:

"To me the most interesting conclusion of this journey of the last ten years is, that science since long has studied those topics and is pretty clear about what works and what is counterproductive, but the stunning thing is, that in general companies still do the opposite of what one should do from a scientific point of view. On the other hand, we know that in our societies we act in the same irresponsible short term egoistic way. See environmental issues as only one example."

Conclusion

Viisi’s innovative approach to organisational structure and customer service sets it apart in the financial services industry. By prioritising employee well-being, decentralising decision-making, and maintaining a strong commitment to ethical practices, Viisi exemplifies how companies can achieve both business success and positive social impact. It has crafted its own path to radical reinvention of their industry and the design of their organisation. In the process they have embedded key practices in line with RenDanHeTi, which makes them a prime candidate for the ZeroDX awards.