Lancor: Leading from the bottom up

Lancor is a cooperative with 89 employees and 76 years of history. The company started off as a family business and is now specialised in the production of elevation machinery and wind generators, with a large additional portfolio of innovation and development projects. 

In 2005, the business was in a moment of crisis when Koldo Saratxaga from NER Group met with them and offered a transition towards a model of self-organization. In a leap of faith the employees decided with near unanimity to embrace the NER group model. In 2013 the cooperative Lancor 2000 S.COOP was founded. 

This was a radical change for the organization. The team had experienced many tensions and mistrust in the past: managers had committed to a workload that workers in the workshop didn’t feel was realistic. The change was challenging for former leaders who had held their positions for many years. Also for the workers, who struggled as they suddenly had to coordinate work themselves in their teams. 

“Most of us who coordinate have started in the workshop, like me. We got the opportunity from our coworkers to be coordinators.”

recalls Javier Dosuna, General Coordinator at Lancor

Javier Dosuna, Lancor

Today, Lancor has worked for over 10 years with a ratio of 99.5% in-time delivery, something that few manufacturing companies ever achieve. When the cooperative started the transformation, the business was depending on 4 clients, a situation that created a great risk for the business. Today the team has managed to widen the client and product portfolio. 

“We have won the trust of people through absolute and total transparency. Every month we meet and all information is shared with relation to finance, client situation etc. and we make decisions around investments where everyone can contribute and is represented.”

comments Javier Dosuna

From a situation of 450k Euros of loss in 2005 the company became profitable in 2006 and generated a €1M profit in 2018 (with a turnover of around €20M) with almost the same number of employees. 

“The NER Group model is flexible but never the same, so we have adapted it to our needs. We are what we want to be and work as a combined entity that makes decisions about its development.”

adds Javier Dosuna, General Coordinator at Lancor

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NER Group is an association in which diverse organizations, united by a shared organizational model, approach and culture that fosters self-organization, share experiences, synergies and knowledge. The group represents nearly 2,700 employees with an annual turnover of approximately €400 million. 

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