Collective Decision-Making: Our Advantage Or Achilles’ Heel?

Too many voices, the lack of direction and chaos from too many owners, will this be our Achilles’ heel? In theory, collective decision-making sounds great. Everyone would have a say. Everyone would be given a chance to vote for decisions. However in actual practice, would it work?

In business, important business decisions are generally made by CEOs or business owners. Business owners may allow his/her managers or employees to give ideas, suggestions or submit proposals, at the end of the day, business owners will have the final say.

In Gogme, co-owners and employees are encouraged to give ideas and suggestions. The final decisions are concluded through the time-honored vote system. The convenience of internet voting will allow Gogme to retrieve results in a fast and timely manner.

The essential element of a vote system is that it is perceived as fair. But fair, doesn’t mean that the decision is great. More often than not, you do not know if the decision is great until it is implemented. Do CEOs and individual business owners made better decisions? With their vast experience and great business acumen, we are sure that they have their share of great decisions and poor ones. If the community is given the information and decision-making tools, we are optimistic that the decisions made would not be that off the mark. Even if the decisions produce unsatisfactory results, the risks are highly diversified; co-owners can learn from these mistakes and not repeat them in their future personal ventures.

Though our final objective is to allow co-owners to run the company over the internet collectively, it will be implemented in phases. Co-owners are encouraged to vote for decisions in business planning, marketing, employment and other business activities. If resources permit, we will invite business experts to give advice on certain business issues. If co-owners are unable to vote within a certain time frame, they can proxy their vote to another co-owner, to a selected group of co-owners or business experts.

During the first few years, where co-owners own the business entity through nominee ownership, Gogme may veto decisions that increase its exposure to liabilities and business risks. You may consider this as the autonomous phase.

When the business turns profitable, co-owners can opt for direct ownership. Gogme will assist co-owners to register their ownership directly with the country’s business registrar. This will start the independent phase. By then, the collective decision-making framework will be finalized.

Co-owners are encouraged to participate in the creation of the collective decision-making framework. This framework will be used to set the rules for co-owners’ decision-making and employees’ decision-making. The framework will be constantly refined and tested before the independent phase.

As co-owners are miles apart from the physical running of business activities, the selection of capable and trustworthy employees is of utmost importance. Gogme will provide an interim management team before the selection of the best individuals from all over world to work in the Globally Owned Globally Managed Enterprise. Employees will be given the chance to make minor business decisions on daily business activities in accordance to the decision-making framework.

The move to web-based collective decision making systems has precipitated an enhanced ability to gather useful information from individuals as well as aggregate this information using scalable techniques for a variety of outcomes. If we continue to refine and enhance the decision-making framework, we may be able to create a sustainable and profitable business entity thus rewarding individual co-owners with profits, franchise opportunities and invaluable business knowledge.