Vitsœ: Building a Company That Lasts by Breaking the Rules | Mark Adams

Most companies chase growth by selling more things to more people, faster. Mark Adams has spent nearly 40 years proving there is another way. As Director of Vitsœ, he runs the company with one mission: to help people live better with less that lasts longer. In this episode, Dart talks to Mark about why Vitsœ resists conventional business rules, how it builds longevity and trust into everything it makes, and what it means to design a company that could outlive its founders.

Mark Adams has led Vitsœ, the British furniture company known for its long partnership with Dieter Rams, since 1985. He has shaped it into a quiet revolution against planned obsolescence and short-term thinking. Rejecting titles, hierarchies, and corporate clichés, he has built a company where design, culture, and ethics operate as one system, showing that a business guided by principles rather than profit can thrive for generations.

In this episode, Dart and Mark discuss:
- Why Vitsœ rejects CEOs, boards, and traditional hierarchies
- How longevity gets built into culture
- Why Vitsœ recruits for character before skill
- Why Vitsœ’s customers keep coming back
- Raising over £8 million directly from customers
- What “love” in customer emails really means
- How Dieter Rams’ design philosophy guides Vitsœ’s decisions
- Why design is really about systems, not things
- What it takes to build a company designed to last
- And other topics…

Mark Adams is the Director of Vitsœ, the British design company best known for its long partnership with Dieter Rams and its modular furniture that grows with people’s lives. After encountering the 606 shelving system in 1985, Mark established Vitsœ UK in 1986 to bring Rams’s designs to a wider audience. He later succeeded Niels Vitsœ as Managing Director in 1993 and has led the company ever since with a quiet but radical vision: to build a business grounded in longevity, sufficiency, and trust. Mark believes companies should exist to help people live better with less, and he has spent nearly four decades proving that principle through every part of Vitsœ’s work, from design to manufacturing to culture.

Resources Mentioned:
Vitsœ: https://www.vitsoe.com/us
Good to Great, by Jim Collins: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996
Built to Last, by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras: https://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-Essentials/dp/0060516402

Connect with Mark:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markekadams/ 

Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.