I sometimes describe that as the difference between being "remote" and being "distributed." When you're remote, it means you are distant from _some_ central location. A distributed company has no central location.

You're totally right that being distributed forces a company to develop different skills. Electronic communication becomes primary. You have to work hard to eliminate "privileged" information channels (because they de-privilege everyone else.)

I wasn't too impressed with the level of introspection in the article. It seems to be one of those "CEO's Medium article as marketing" bits.