Step inside a typical software company and you're almost certain to view a twenty-first-century sweatshop. Workers crammed into cubicles churn out a seemingly endless stream of computer code. Fueled by pizza, caffeine, and adrenaline, these high-tech laborers often toil into the late hours of the night. Forget vacations. In fact, anyone who requests a few days off is likely to join the ranks of the unemployed.

That's why the conversation taking place at Motek, a small software firm in Beverly Hills, seems so strange. Amanda Solari, the firm's marketing coordinator, is receiving a scolding from her boss, founder and CEO Ann S. Price, for taking only a three-week vacation in Italy, England, and France last year. Price recommends taking at least five weeks off. "I have had many talks with Amanda about why she isn't taking five weeks off," Price says. "It's impossible to function at maximum productivity without at least a month away."

Is this a PR stunt or the latest business-management gimmick? Hardly. Price offers her employees a $5,000-a-year travel benefit - for flights, tours, cruises, you name it - but only if they take at least a three-week paid vacation. She gives employees another two weeks off for paid holidays throughout the year and leases luxury automobiles for any employee who has worked at the company for at least 10 years. Then there's the fact that Price sends employees home at five p.m. sans laptop and locks the doors on the weekend.

Is this the best place to work in the entire world?

PRICE HAS MORPHED an innovative - some say revolutionary - approach to business with the most generous benefits package anyone could ever fathom. The result is a company that's changing the way employees, customers, and others think … and conduct business. "Our goal is to change the world and make it a better place," Price exhorts. "We don't want to be just another cottage industry."

Even more remarkable is the fact that the provider of warehouse automation software isn't going broke chasing down Utopia. Motek (which means "sweetheart" in Hebrew) boasts a client list that resembles a who's who of industry: General Electric, Southern Company, Borden, Heinz, Unocal, and ConAgra, to name just a few. More importantly, the 23-person firm is profitable and growing, with annual revenues between $5 million and $6 million. Says Price: "It's wrong to view the benefits as a cost; they're part of what makes us so incredibly productive and successful."

Motek's offices on San Vicente Boulevard are the perfect metaphor for a company that's the antithesis of Silicon Valley thinking and Beverly Hills flash. An unassuming white stucco facade with black metal staircases cradles the Motek nerve center. Inside, rows of desks line a cavernous room, and workers quietly tap away at their computers. Back in a far corner sits Price - visible and accessible to all.

This egalitarian view of the world isn't an accident. Price, who served in the Israeli army and later lived on a kibbutz, has extended the concept to the business world. With stints at a Jewish community center and General Electric Consulting, she has just enough business grounding to stay in orbit. Yet her ideas seem to defy gravity, and they have steadily evolved since she started Motek in 1989. "Ann takes the people-­centered part of growing a company to the nth degree. It's part of her soul," says Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and a mentor for Price.

THE FOUNDATION FOR Motek is its software, Priya, which helps mid- to large-size companies manage their warehouses more effectively. Simply put, Priya allows an organization - and employees loading pallets and shipping goods - to know where everything and everybody is at any given moment. Such capabilities make it possible to manage internal logistics with the timing and precision of a ballet. "A company is able to optimize processes and maximize efficiency," Price explains.

But it's Motek's business processes and how it interacts with customers that set the firm apart. Price's business philosophy - which has been dubbed "kibbutz capitalism" - is enough to make most executives squirm. For starters, everyone at Motek - from executives to the receptionist - knows how much everyone else earns, and they can view the firm's balance sheet at any time. In fact, Price makes sure that they understand how to understand corporate finances. Employees also vote on strategic decisions, including raises. "By sharing data, we share power," Price explains.

It's no idle rhetoric. Consider that every Motek employee has a designated backup available to provide cover while they're out of the office. The only requirement is to check with the backup to make sure he or she is around before the employee leaves. This, says Price, ensures that "we're focused on the process rather than on the person." Employees also know when an employee isn't able to keep up with the workload. The result? Price offers a financial reward to employees who ask for help in order to stay on schedule. "The goal is to get the work done, not establish a star system," she says.

Of course, it's one thing to conjure up a cutting-edge culture and quite another to thrive amid relentless daily pressures. But Price hasn't overlooked this aspect, either. While other companies talk about collaboration, Motek lives it. The company keeps a single to-do list (Price calls it a Malaika, which is the Swahili word for "angel" or "sweetheart") so that everyone is on the same page about priorities and the state of various projects. Anyone can enter an item, including customers and vendors. The list can include everything from ordering ink cartridges to customizing a specific function for a customer. Motek divvies up the tasks at meetings - and teams don't pay any attention to who entered particular items.

The way Price sees it, the company's success is a direct result of the money it invests in employees and of its commitment to developing a business structure that fosters knowledge-sharing and mutual goal-­setting. What's more, "It's amazing what a rejuvenated person brings back to the office, not just in terms of great new ideas but also in terms of enthusiasm and desire," she explains. "The software industry's idea that employees are entirely replaceable is absurd." In fact, she believes it is precisely because of long hours and poor working conditions that today's software is so buggy and behind schedule.

Motek's employees are certainly loyal. Eighty percent of the technical team has been with the company for at least 10 years, compared to an industry average employment span of 18 months. All this despite the fact that only the firm's CIO and sales manager draw salaries above $70,000 - and some employees earn $40,000 a year. Says Sujung Kim, a former music-industry executive who serves as the firm's support director: "Motek is a breath of fresh air. This is the first time I've been able to have a life while growing professionally."

YET, THE GLUE that holds the entire system together - what Price describes as the "secret sauce" - is Motek's ability to extend its culture and practices to business partners. By sharing data and building software that allows its customers to do likewise, it is able to drive success from the boardroom to the warehouse floor. "It's about sharing core values and creating synergy by working together," observes Nelson Longenecker, vice president of Business Innovation at Four Seasons Produce, an Ephrata, Pennsylvania, full-service distributor of fruits and vegetables to supermarkets and restaurants.

Price doesn't cut any corners when it comes to bonding with customers. She designates individuals - from top executives to line workers - heroes for their roles in effecting change at a company that uses Motek's software. Then she sends out a professional photographer who shoots for Fortune magazine - at somewhere between $8,000 and $15,000 a shoot - to snap their photo, which she then posts on the Motek website. There, you can read all about the person's achievements and how they were able to deliver superior results.

The company's relationship with customers is so tight that it sometimes defies logic. Consider: When one of the firm's customers required a minor adjustment to the software, Motek immediately put it near the top of its Malaika. Shortly thereafter, the customer fixed the software on his own. "They told us it was an easy fix, it was a fun and useful project for the programmer, and they felt that we had more important things to work on," Price explains. "If this philosophy exists only within the four walls of our company, then it's a fad. When it extends to customers, it's a commitment to changing business and society."

Motek has the awards to validate its approach. The firm has captured a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 award, a Working Woman Entrepreneurial Excellence award, and a Computerworld Smithsonian award nomination. More importantly, it has the numbers to demonstrate that it's possible to create an outstanding work environment and offer unheard-of benefits while outmaneuvering the competition. In 2005, Motek's revenue per employee topped $217,000. Competing firms' revenue typically ranges from $150,000 to $200,000.

For Price, the endgame isn't to earn money at any cost. And it isn't about ruling the software industry. No, Price has bigger ambitions: She hopes to change the world. Already, she's helped two women land positions on the board of directors at major companies, created an undeniably loyal legion of customers and employees, and proven that the right environment can fuel greater productivity and profits than most business leaders could ever imagine.

Concludes Price: "This isn't about being nice and pampering employees. It's about creating a business that produces maximum results and changes thinking."