The virtues of the virtual organization

Purpose – This paper attempts to conceptually clarify and examine success factors for the establishment and subsequent sale of a successful small virtual organization, Millennium3, in the financial services sector in Australia.Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the concept of a virtual organization, outlines some distinct characteristics of virtual organizations and provides some historical and current background to Millennium3 (M3). It then provides a descriptive evaluation of outcomes from semi‐structured interviews with all M3 executives and, based on those interviews and organizational structure, examines its overall performance.Findings – The following values describe how M3 conducts business: lifelong learning; teaching by example; interdependence; customer intimacy; all relationships founded on a win/win basis; and respect and courtesy.Originality/value – The paper concludes with some critical success factors for M3 and gives the reader an idea how a corporation successfully works as...