“The digital world is extremely complex. Everything we do is about making it easier for our customers to find their way through this maze”, explains Gerhard Andrey, Co-founder of Liip. Since its launch in 2007, the web development agency has gone from strength to strength. It now employs more than 150 people, and is a leading provider on the Swiss market. With a whole clutch of prestigious awards to its name (such as the “Best of Swiss Web” Awards and the “Meilleurs du Web”, the industry’s Oscars), Liip has built up a solid network of customers that include Migros, Swiss Railways and Swisscom. Liip also worked closely with the IT team of Raiffeisen Bank on the development of a new intuitive banking platform for its increasingly mobile customers. For example, customers can now settle bills simply by scanning the reference number on their remittance slip using the camera on their mobile device; the application does the rest. Also, PhotoTAN technology provides a secure log-in, thereby doing away with additional devices, passwords and verification text messages.

Agile and hierarchy-free

“Digitization is all-consuming and not only changes companies’ practices in terms of technology, but also transforms how they operate”, notes Gerhard Andrey, Co-Founder of Liip. “Mastering the complexities of the digital world requires a rapid and flexible response. In our industry, an approach exists that fits the bill exactly: Agility.” Today, Liip has a project turnaround time of only a few weeks, a timeframe that would have been inconceivable a decade ago. “One of the obstacles to a company’s agility is its pyramid structure. It’s not surprising that it was an IT specialist who came up with the concept of holacracy”, he continues. For those unfamiliar with this idea, holacracy is a system that is built around collective intelligence and a flat hierarchy. Liip is currently one of only a handful of firms of this size in Switzerland to have adopted this organizational structure. “We don’t have any bosses. Every single Liip employee can enact change within the company, and teams are free to organize themselves however they choose.”

→ www.liip.ch