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[...] and Galicia doesn't want to miss the boat of new technologies
and here's an example:
Igalia is a Free Software company with offices in Corunna and Pontevedra
with a turnover of more than 1.5 million euros.
Their success lies in being different. Here's why.
Igalia opens its doors to its innovative world.
An innovation that is present in its products
but also in its very structure and decoration of the workplace.
This is the cover letter of a different project
started 8 years ago by a group of graduates in Computer Science
with two key concepts in mind: making business with Free Software
and a flat corporate structure in which all members take decisions of every kind.
[...] from that point we defined concepts such as
"same responsibility, same salary"
[Xavier Castanho: web area coordinator]
we defined a flat structure, [Xavier Castanho: web area coordinator]
stated that we wanted Igalia to work on Free Software
and from there the business project that we have now was born
We have a process for all people that enter the company [Juan Jose Sanchez: desktop/mobile area coordinator]
to progressively become part of it up to the point of becoming a partner [Juan Jose Sanchez: desktop/mobile area coordinator]
-just like the initial founders- and from the second year onwards people take part
in the main organ that we have, which is the assembly.
The assembly is a whole day meeting every two months,
where we all get together in a big meeting room
and debate about the strategy of the company
and, besides that, we also use technologies -obviously, because that's what we work on-
everyday to complement those meetings with mailing lists, coordination tools, ...
that allow us to take decisions in an agile way.
Breaking the cliche that says that Free Software has no cost,
they found in it a big market opportunity.
Based on the knowledge of platforms such as Linux they develop their own platforms
and products for big international companies,
coordinated in two areas devoted to web and mobile devices.
Products that allowed them, after 8 years, to increase the staff up to 40 people
and have a turnover of more than 1.5 million euros [ Both offices are connected through a camera ]
of which a 70% comes from foreign companies. [ Both offices are connected through a camera ]
There lies another key of their success: internationalisation.
We met people from other parts of the world,
and we found that they fitted very well in the project, so they joined.
Some of them moved here:
we have here people from Mexico, from Cuba, from Portugal, ...
but in other cases we decided to be flexible and they're working from abroad.
There's for example the case of two people working from Helsinki right now.
We are working towards a complete internationalisation.
For example, we have set an English language deadline in the company,
that is: all documents, internal e-mails... are in English
and in a year or two even the assemblies [They also cooperate with social NGOs]
-in which we decide everything about the company- [They also cooperate with social NGOs]
are going to be in English as well. [They also cooperate with social NGOs]
Igalia wants to keep growing and consolidating this model
where it's possible to live on Free Software and with a different company structure
that is already being used as a reference for other Galician companies.