There's a fantasy in the corporate world, and Zappos is a perfect example of it. The fantasy is the idea of the "family" company, of the non-mercenary employee, of the company full of wholly intrinsically motivated people who just want to work together and make something great and that's the reason they get up in the morning and go to work.

There's some truth to that at every company, but ultimately money and ownership matters. And it's delusional to think that employees do, or should, feel unbridled affection for their employers. The only way that ever makes any sense in big companies is when every employee is not only hugely empowered but also has a substantially stake in the company.

Using "revolutionary" new forms of management like "flat" or "holocracy" or what-have-you aren't going to magically transform a company into something entirely different. At the end of the day there are people who can fire anyone and people who can't, there are people who live in mansions and drive luxury cars and people who don't. The only way to have an actual co-op is to, you guessed it, legally be a co-op. You can't just play make pretend.