Nineteen years and just getting started

Last November, I attended my first Employee Ownership conference. One of the standout presentations came from John Lewis. After extensive work to understand what employee ownership meant to their team, they defined their “partner difference” in one simple line: “We all own it.”

It’s a clever line because it balances rights and responsibilities, positioning ownership as something you both benefit from and actively contribute to. What impressed me most was how mindful they were about helping their team understand ownership. They recognised that it isn’t automatic - it needs day-to-day explanation, reinforcement and demonstration.

They also focused on sufficient rather than maximum profit, encouraging decisions to be made with long-term impact in mind rather than short-term gain. A principle that has always guided us at Zoonou.

The wider conference reinforced that employee ownership really is a journey. Businesses and delegates shared openly about what had worked, what hadn’t, and what they were still figuring out. A common theme was the desire to build stronger and fairer workplaces.

Ownership in action

2025 was a real test of what ownership means in practice. Like much of the tech sector, we experienced a period of slower demand and shifting priorities across the market. We could have responded with short-term measures focused purely on protecting margins. Instead, we chose to protect our people. We paused hiring and focused on supporting the team we’d built.

It affected our margins, but as co-owners, we believed that safeguarding the people who drive our business forward mattered more than optimising our returns. Ownership isn’t about taking the easiest path - it’s about making the right choices, even when they’re hard. By staying true to that, we finished 2025 strongly, with a particularly positive Q4.

As demand has picked up in 2026, we’re hiring across multiple roles again, building on the foundations we chose to protect.

What hasn’t changed – and what comes next

For all the structural changes employee ownership has brought, what’s special about Zoonou hasn’t changed. We’re not a huge company, and we don’t aspire to be the biggest. Instead, we care about the quality of our work, about doing things properly, and getting the best possible outcomes for our clients - a commitment that led us to co-create a Client Charter to formalise how we show up and deliver value in every engagement.

We’re mindful of our team and our impact on others - and that’s always been one of our biggest differentiators. Employee ownership didn’t create our culture, but it has strengthened it. As co-owners, we’re sharing more with each other - ideas, challenges, and responsibility - creating a stronger sense that the direction we take and the standards we uphold now belong to us all.

Seeding the next chapter

Employee ownership wasn’t our initial destination, but it has become a new start line - a direction set out in our co-founders’ Letter of Wishes for Zoonou, rooted in intention and shared purpose. We’re still learning how to do it well - creating “moments of proof” to reinforce shared ownership and empowering decision-making while balancing commercial needs with social responsibility.

But that’s the point. Ownership is active, participatory, and requires engagement. As John Lewis put it, “We all own it.” Employee ownership isn’t just a governance structure - it’s a collaborative mindset.

As we head into our twentieth year, the seeds of that mindset feel firmly planted. We’re independent, values-led, resilient, and growing together.

It’s a very strong place to be - and an exciting one!

About Zoonou

Zoonou is a UK-based software testing company. We’re a B Corp and 100% employee owned. We put people and purpose at the heart of everything we do - curious, creative, and collaborative. Want to join us? Check out our careers page.