Introduction
This page brings together companies, NGOs and public institutions that have integrated major transformations while preserving a strong cultural foundation – a living illustration of the SecureChange promise: “Change without weakening – Evolve without losing yourself.” entreprise inspirantes
But before looking for inspiration, let’s face what often fails
We’ve all seen these stories.
The startup that wanted to change the world, but no longer recognizes what it has become.
It scaled too fast, hired in all directions, added structure that clashed with its founding culture.
Its founders end up asking themselves: “What’s the point of succeeding if we lost everything that made us who we were?”
The IT department of a large corporation or hospital that fails its digital transformation.
Cutting-edge technology was rolled out… but product mastery, coherence, and trust on the ground were lost.
Teams working in silos, critical expertise diluted, tensions growing — and in the end: more tools, but less value.
The municipality or mid-sized company that pours significant resources into an “agile” or “digital” transformation.
Consultants, slides, buzzwords.
But on the ground, little changes. Practices are copied and pasted, disconnected from context, and teams withdraw: “Just another passing fad…”
The association or citizen movement, built around a clear public mission, that falters when trying to scale or respond to new societal expectations.
Internal divisions emerge, the structure weakens, generational gaps widen — and sometimes, the project unravels.
Not because people stopped caring, but because there was no shared compass, no clear framework for evolving.
And then there are those entire organizations — companies, NGOs, public teams — that seem solid…
until the day their inspiring leader leaves.
The one who “held it all together”, often invisibly.
And suddenly, it all falls apart: everything was implicit, nothing was distributed.
Charisma had replaced culture. Loyalty had replaced alignment.
What these failures have in common
In each of these cases, the problem wasn’t a lack of strategy or resources.
It was the lack of clear, shared reference points.
It was the absence of visible, embodied, and transferable invariants.
When nothing is explicit, everything becomes fragile.
When everything relies on one person, nothing lasts.
When we copy without understanding, we change without evolving.
SecureChange offers a practical alternative to these scenarios
Not a model to copy,
But a compass to clarify what we want to preserve,
Points of vigilance to navigate without losing ourselves,
Shared leadership to hold things together,
And a culture equipped to endure.
Liberated enterprises / distributed leadership
Morning Star
Self-management, no formal hierarchy; total autonomy around a clear mission.
FAVI
French automotive foundry; horizontal governance inspired by Le guide du patron paresseux (J.-F. Zobrist).
Buurtzorg
Dutch home-care network; fully self-organised nursing teams, now replicated across Europe.
Patagonia
Mission-driven company; strong environmental values, shared governance, radical transparency.
Harley-Davidson
Cultural turnaround led by Richard Teerlink, rebuilding on a shared values base.
Valve
Video-game studio; stigmergic governance, no formal hierarchy.
WL Gore & Associates (Gore-Tex)
Self-managed teams, organic structure fostering innovation.
Semco
Brazilian industrial group with participative management and high employee involvement.
Poult
French biscuit maker; horizontal governance and team autonomy.
Holacracy / Sociocracy / shared governance
Zappos
Formal adoption of Holacracy; clear roles, high transparency.
Davidson (France)
IT consultancy run with Sociocracy 3.0; open and distributed governance.
Fitzii
Canadian SME, 100 % Holacracy; full empowerment.
Encode.org
“For-purpose” organisations combining Holacracy and organic governance.
EvoSwitch
Dutch data-centres using Sociocracy 3.0; consent-based decisions.
Agile cultural transformation / organisational learning
Spotify
Tribes / Squads model (Spotify Engineering Culture); autonomy and continuous learning.
Haier (China)
Rendanheyi model: autonomous micro-enterprises, living-system governance.
ING (Netherlands)
Enterprise-wide agility with strong cultural ownership.
AXA (Europe)
Internal design-agile programmes focused on culture and engagement.
GitLab
Public GitLab Handbook; extreme transparency of processes and culture.
Basecamp
Shape Up product approach, strong autonomy culture.
Netflix
Culture Deck then No Rules Rules: “freedom & responsibility”, radical transparency.
Microsoft
“Growth mindset” shift under Satya Nadella; open-source embrace, cloud/AI pivot.
Nvidia
Pivot from gaming GPUs to AI; continuous innovation and high resilience.
International NGOs and associations
Amnesty International
Digital mobilisation while preserving independence and human-rights focus.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Modern humanitarian logistics and digital tools, keeping neutrality and independence.
WWF
Shift to multi-stakeholder science-based partnerships, maintaining militant DNA.
Wikimedia Foundation / Wikipedia
Distributed community governance, digital stigmergy, neutral and free access.
Public administrations and institutions
BBC
Digital transformation (BBC Sounds, iPlayer) while maintaining public-service mission and editorial rigour.
Scandinavian public broadcasters (DR, SVT…)
Digital-first strategy with cultural diversity and independence.
Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)
Mass digitisation (Gallica), balancing heritage preservation and open access.
Musée du Louvre
Global digital outreach (e.g. Louvre Abu Dhabi) while upholding scientific and artistic standards.
Council of Europe / European Court of Human Rights
Technology integration for transparency, still championing fundamental rights.
Bio-inspired / stigmergic cases (cross-category)
Already listed above, but emblematic of living-system and emergence logic:
Haier • Valve • Patagonia • Buurtzorg • Wikipedia
Conclusion
SecureChange does not ask organisations to copy these examples.
It draws inspiration from what makes them strong:
- Preservation of an explicit cultural core,
- Adaptation to deep and recurrent transformations,
- Conscious navigation of tensions and emergence of solutions,
- Leadership that protects and gives meaning.
This diversity of cases demonstrates that it is indeed possible to change without weakening, and evolve without losing oneself — whatever the size or nature of the organisation.