Beyond Budgeting Case Study Snohetta (Norway)

1. Snøhetta
International Center for
Outperformance

2. Snøhetta
“Hierarchies have to so something with control needs and rule dependencies.
Who needs and demands this, is better kept in another company.”
The Snøhetta-way
„Maybe the secret of our success is, that we only hire people who can share secrets.
Who is not able to, will soon here be frustrated”
“Financial incentives contrary are very dangerous, create envy and dispute and cannot replace the time
advance, which haves a company in which everyone is good situated with everyone.”
Actually it is easy to let architects work like this, because that's the way they
want to have and need to be creative.”
Ole Gustavsen, MD Snøhetta
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Case Study..........................................................................................................................3
About Snøhetta.................................................................................................................................................3
Highlights of Snøhetta's management model...................................................................................................4
Resources.........................................................................................................................................................5
License.............................................................................................................................................................5
Version 1.0: May 2009

3. Introduction to the Case Study
Snøhetta in Oslo, Norway may be a small Beyond Budgeting pioneer (and also a Management Innovator),
but does feature besides well-known worldwide architectural projects (e.g. the National September 11
Memorial and Museum in New York) an interesting leadership model which recalls the bazaar model of the
open source software movement (e.g. Linux, Wikipedia). For some people it may be unimaginable, but well-
known worldwide architectural projects like the Oslo Opera House, the National September 11 Memorial and
Museum, and the new library of Alexandria were designed without any work directions, but with “natural
leadership” and voluntary.
The Snøhetta case was recently on 26th April 2009 discovered by us, but not all Beyond Budgeting principles
have been completely researched. Currently confirmed are customers, organization, autonomy,
responsibility, and rewards. It is the first Norwegian pioneer case known to us. Sandsvær Sparebank may
also be a second pioneer from Norway applying some principles, but no public material is available on this
case. Currently Norway is the country with the largest organizations worldwide transforming to Beyond
Budgeting. The three cases are: Sparebank 1 Gruppen, Statoilhydro and Telenor.
With reference to the evolution pathway, Snøhetta maintained the alternative model since its foundation in
1989.
About Snøhetta
Snøhetta is an integrated landscape, interior and architectural practice located in Oslo, Norway. Founded in
1989 it has now about 60 employees and expanded with an 6-employee office to New York. The workforce is
very international and about one third of the employees are from abroad. Worldwide reference projects from
Snøhetta are e.g. the Oslo Opera House, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York,
the Norwegian embassy in Berlin (Germany), the new Alexandria Library in Egypt, the Sheik Zayed
Museum in Abu Dhabi, the King Abdulaziz Center For Knowledge and Culture in Dhahran and the Museum
of Modern Arts in Warsaw (Poland). The name Snøhetta is itself a snowy hilltop of the Dovre Mountains, one
of the most mysterious places of the Nordic legend world. Since its foundations it has received several
leading architectural rewards (s. a. http://www.snoarc.no/#/about/information/69/).

4. Highlights of Snøhetta's management model
Organization
Snøhetta's cell structure is project based. When Snøhetta acquires a new
project, as the Managing Director Ole Gustavsen points it out “like by
themselves” new project teams are created, by team members who are interest
in this project and responsibility is also handed “fully automatic” to members
who are trusted by others. As Gustavsen describes it in his own words
Snøhetta's “natural leadership” style “only functions, only because everyone in
general has the possibility to become a leader with the acknowledgment of the
others.” Equality, freedom and own initiative are central to the Snøhetta way.
When e.g. a group photo shoot takes place for a picture to be placed besides a competitor picture (showing
only the main architect) and the photographer tries to zoom only single employees, nearly all Snøhetta
employees quickly complain about not showing all their colleagues.
Autonomy & Responsibility
Usually the single cells are fully autonomous at Snøhetta. Unusual for the architectural industry, the owners
do not intervene in the final designs. The Snøhetta owners are responsible for acquiring new projects, and
discuss within an weekly meeting (the “resource meeting”) together with the Managing Director the
development of the projects and keep an eye on the financials.
Rewards
At Snøhetta no individual success charge does exist. At the end of the year the profit is shared with all
employees.
Recruiting
Unlike other architectural offices it hires only permanent employees and provides no project or time-limited
contracts. Snøhetta receives ten applications a day despite its wages are lower than the competitors'. In
numberless interviews Snøhetta has learned that the longer the distance from the applicant's homeland is,
the more the applicants disagree with its non-hierarchical structure.

5. Resources
• Presentation slides: “Presentation and case on Beyond Budgeting in London April 29th 2009 by
Sigurd Aune CFO SpareBank 1 Gruppen” (accessed 14th May 2009):
http://www.slideshare.net/SpareBank1/presentation-on-beyond-budgeting-in-london-april-29th-2009-
by-sigurd-aunecfo
• Bjarte, Bogsnes: “Implementing Beyond Budgeting. Unlocking the performance potential.” John
Wiley & Sons, 2009
• Rønning, Håkon Mathias; Ervik, Andreas Lysne: “Implementering av beyond budgeting : en kvalitativ
studie av Handelsbanken, StatoilHydro og Telenor sin implementering av beyond budgeting”
(accessed 14th May 2009): http://hdl.handle.net/2330/1970
• Snøhetta's homepage (accessed 14th May 2009): http://www.snoarc.no/
• Hannemann, Matthias: “Norwegian Psycho” in BrandEins 02/06
• Cell structure picture: Beyond Budgeting Transformation Network (BBTN): www.bbtn.org
• Front Cover Picture (Oslo Opera House): Creative Commons 2.0 BY NC ND: by Svein M.:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sveinmagne/3490365457/
License
This paper except all logos and the front cover pictures is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA
License. Credit: quot;International Center for Outperformance (www.intco.org)quot; within the reference list