The Permissionless Corporation

Digital technologies are pushing decision-making ability to the edges of the organization, allowing businesses to adopt structures that are flatter and more reconfigurable than those they have traditionally used. When AI and other software make information transparent to all authorized decision-makers on the front lines, directly and without managerial filters, it unleashes their creative and collaborative potential instead of trapping them in endless reporting and coordination loops. It can help to create, in other words, a “permissionless corporation.”

The authors contend that companies with three or four layers, faster problem-solving, and a permissionless mindset will outcompete traditional players. But making the transformation to such a structure will require companies to completely rethink how people work; it’s not enough to streamline a process here or there or take out one layer of traditional structure.

Using real-world examples, the authors detail how companies need to pay painstaking attention to performance metrics, ensure that information gets to the front line, communicate the context in which decisions are made, and leverage multifunctional teams.