The implementation of new style of relatioships

Abstract

Koldo Saratxaga is a Basque businessman that has a long history of business accomplishments, among them is the creation of new style of relationships (ner). New style of relationships is focused on people, considered the company’s basic pillars who, through communication, knowledge, self-managed groups and share a potential project with confidence, independence, and responsibility (Alvarez Sainz and Apellaniz, 2017). This revolutionary business model aims to lead organizational transformation toward a fundamentally different management model. As will be studied in this dissertation, ner is very different to other business management models in structure, corporate culture and orientation, which is what makes it so unique. New style of relationships was implemented for the first time in 1991 in Irizar, a company on the verge of bankruptcy, that had accumulated losses of 6 million euros, causing a significant lack of liquidity and increasing labor tension within the company (Casadesus-Masanell and Mitchell, 2006). The company started the transformation process and started to grow at a 23.9 per cent compound annual rate over 14 years (Casadesus-Masanell and Mitchell, 2006) and continues to do so nowadays. In this dissertation, I will analyze and explain the concept of new style of relationships, what it is and how Irizar applied it, aiming to answer the research question of how new style of relationships is applied.