Luscii / Omron
A Japanese conglomerate bought a holacracy company and, two years on, has not dismantled it - the founder left anyway
Luscii, an Amsterdam remote-monitoring company, has run on holacracy since 2018: no managers, more than 200 roles for about 100 people, peer-based employment reviews, a four-day week. Omron Healthcare bought all of it in April 2024, knowing what it bought. In September 2026 the roles and circles are still there. So is a new Omron manager, a global rebranding and the departure of the founder.
Last reviewed: 16 September 2026
Why this status
The acquisition and the continuing holacracy are documented; the evidence that Omron leaves it alone comes almost entirely from Luscii's own people and the Corporate Rebels network. Small, young, and now founder-less.
What makes it a Beta case
- Holacracy since foundation in 2018: no CEO in the operating sense but a lead link, governance and tactical meetings, roles instead of jobs (232 roles for 60 people in 2021), tool GlassFrog. The job page says "no managers, just clear roles" and "everything is allowed unless explicitly forbidden".
- Peer-based employment reviews: three reviewers decide on continued employment; relational agreements instead of policies; a four-day week at full pay since 2021.
- Ownership: spun out of FocusCura in 2019 with Omron as strategic partner (about 31.5%); wholly owned by Omron Healthcare since 5 April 2024, price undisclosed; the founder chose Omron explicitly over private equity.
- Business: platform used by about 85% of Dutch hospitals (own figure), more than 75,000 NHS patients, eleven countries; globally rebranded as "OMRON Connect Pro", the Luscii name kept in the Netherlands and the UK.
What is documented
- Omron's own acquisition release names Luscii's "award-winning holacracy culture" - the buyer knew and advertised what it bought (April 2024).
- Holacracy visibly in operation in 2025-26: job adverts, co-founder Joris Janssen's posts (GlassFrog, role autonomy, engagement 89%, seven years without a resignation until mid-2026), a Japanese delegation's visit report after the Corporate Rebels Summit in November 2025 ("zero resignations attributed to the acquisition").
- Growth under Omron: staff up about 30% in twelve months to more than 100 (July 2026); UK expansion with 15 integrated care boards and 20 trusts (May 2026); German pilot with Novartis (December 2025).
- Corporate Rebels (January 2026): Omron "isn't just tolerating" the model.
Where it cracks
- Founder Daan Dohmen left the CEO role in April 2026 after 25 years in healthcare and now runs a defence-training company; no public announcement of a successor. An Omron manager describes his own "strategic leadership role at Luscii".
- Janssen himself (July 2026): Luscii is "more embedded in OMRON than ever before" and he worried "our culture was diluting". The product is being folded into Omron's global brand.
- Every source on the organisation is Luscii staff, the Corporate Rebels network (Luscii is a member of their Dutch Rebel Cell) or Corporate Rebels-linked visitors. No independent reporting on the organisation after the deal.
- Omron is not a self-organisation pioneer: Corporate Rebels cite founder Kazuma Tateishi's 1983 speech on the "big business syndrome", but the company of 28,000 is a conventional Kyoto conglomerate running a restructuring programme. Buying Luscii is its only visible contact with self-organisation.
- Holacracy's own record is mixed - Zappos and Medium abandoned it - and a 100-person unit inside a 28,000-person group has not yet been through a budget round that went against it.
Verdict
Luscii matters because it tests the question every founder of a self-organised company asks: what happens when a corporation buys us? The answer after two and a half years is "nothing visible yet", which is genuinely unusual. But the founder has gone, the integration is deepening, and nobody outside the movement has checked. Cite it as an open experiment, not as a result.
For a talk
Luscii is the rare case of a corporation buying a boss-less company and not adding bosses - two years in, with the founder gone and every witness on the inside.
Sources
- Omron Healthcare acquires Luscii (press release) (2024-04-05)
- Luscii: About us (holacracy, ~100 people, four-day week) (2026)
- Luscii: Jobs (no managers, just clear roles) (2026)
- Joris Janssen: 89% (more embedded in OMRON than ever) (2026-07-08)
- Net Protections: visit to Luscii and Omron Europe after the Corporate Rebels Summit (2025-12)
- Corporate Rebels: Why 2026 might be a turning point (Omron/Luscii) (2026-01-01)
- Corporate Rebels: Corporate bureaucracy has a cure (Tateishi) (2026-08-24)
- Corporate Rebels: Holacracy - disadvantages and criticism (2026-06-29)
- VNO-NCW: Deze ondernemer wil dat al zijn medewerkers gelukkig zijn (lead link, no CEO) (2021-05-20)
- Omron: OMRON Connect Pro built on Luscii (2026)
Read next
- Deciding without a boss (Library)
- Roles instead of positions (Library)
- The schools compared (Library)