What if Anita Roddick had known this before she went to the stock market?

At Seeking the Obvious we have put out two things that truly matter to us: our mission *Value Change for Survival* and our vision *A Market with a Human Face*. But words are easy. What makes the difference is the structure behind them.

That is why we want to talk about the Companization model.

Hans Hassle started the first Companization with Plantagon. Not many people understand how deep that actually goes. This is not a company with nice values on the wall. It is a completely different architecture for how a business relates to power, profit and purpose.

If you as an entrepreneur seriously want to live up to a mission and vision, not just talk about it, the Companization model gives you three concrete things.

1. A mandate to always put ethics first

In a normal company the purpose is simple: earn as much money as possible. In a Companization the owners give the leadership a mandate to always prioritize the ethical framework. This is not a poster on the wall. It is built into the ownership itself, through a non-profit association that holds 10% of the shares, appoints half the board, and operates under the same ethical framework as the company. The association is fully independent with its own board and its own purpose. It is not there to serve the company. It is there to guard it.

2. Long-term capital from people who believe in you

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, learned this the hard way. She went to the stock market on the advice of others and later called it the biggest mistake she ever made. Once listed, she was no longer measured by the jobs she created or the communities she served, only by profit. That changed everything.

In a private meeting with Hans Hassle and Oren Lyons, after she had already sold The Body Shop to L'Oréal, Roddick reflected on the Companization model and said that had she known this structure existed, she would never have gone to the stock market.

The alternative is your members. Anyone who believes in the idea can join, not just entrepreneurs. The membership fee is 100 Swedish kronor a year. That is an intentionally low threshold because this is about building a community of believers, not a club for the privileged. Members get first priority when it comes to work and assignments, and their ideas are captured through a shared forum. They are not passive investors. They are part of something.

To show what this can look like in practice, we developed the 7 Generation Share. A real share, worth 1,000 Swedish kronor, that came with a 10-year membership and was designed to be passed down through seven generations, growing in real value over time. Our goal was 100,000 members, 100 million kronor in long-term capital from people who believed. We didn't reach that goal. But remember, this was the first time anyone had ever tried it. No one before had fundamentally challenged the purpose and structure of a limited company in this way.

3. A support club who get it, that we are building together**

The structure for a network of like-minded people as well as entrepreneurs is there from day one. But a network only becomes powerful when people join it. That is why we are reaching out. We are looking for entrepreneurs who think the same way, who want to support each other, share experiences and help fund new Companizations as they start up. This is not networking for the sake of networking. It is solidarity with a structure. And it grows stronger with every person who steps in.

The world does not lack good intentions among entrepreneurs. What is missing are structures that protect those intentions when it really counts.

The Companization model is that structure.

Get in touch if this stirs something in you.

Hans Hassle — hans.hassle@seekingtheobvious.com

Owe Pettersson — owe.pettersson@seekingtheobvious.com

Seeking the Obvious

Value Change for Survival | A Market with a Human Face