Greg Strakosch, founder and CEO of interactive media company TechTarget, hates bureaucracy. So he has created a workplace where his 600 employees are free to come and go as they please. There are no set policies mandating working hours or detailing sick, personal, or vacation days. Employees are free to take as much vacation as they want and to work the hours when they are most productive—even if it’s between midnight and 4 a.m. If you need a day off to take your kid to camp?

No problem. Strakosch says ideas like setting a specific number of sick days “strike me as arbitrary and dumb.”

He trusts his employees to act responsibly.

Strakosch is quick to state that “this isn’t a country club.” A painstaking hiring process is designed to weed out all but the most autonomous. Managers set ambitious quarterly goals, and employees are given plenty of independence to achieve them. However, there is little tolerance for failure. As TechTarget’s website states, there is a 100 percent focus on results. Employees are fired for underachieving.

Moreover, while hours are flexible, employees frequently put in at least 50 hours a week. In addition, regardless of hours worked, employees are required to remain accessible via email, cellphone, instant messaging, or laptop.

Strakosch’s approach seems to be working. TechTarget became a public company in May 2007 with a $100 million IPO and has grown to become the leading online media company for the technology sector. In May 2014, the company was recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work,” the seventh time it has been so recognized.

Questions 

1. What type of organizational structure does TechTarget have?

2. Why does this type of structure work at TechTarget?

3. How transferable is this structure to other organizations?

4. Would you want to work at TechTarget? Why or why not?