Book Review: Maverick by Ricardo Semler
Published first in 1993, this books depicts the changes happening at Semco, the company Ricardo Semler took over from his father in 1980 to turn it in a much studied place to work at.
Here is the chronology of what happened and if you want to know more then you should read the book as it is both highly stimulating as well as amusing.
1980 Ricardo took over the company and fired most of the (old) executive staff
he hired a new CEO who worked at different companies like Sharp and Xerox. The company was transformed in a highly managed entity with tight controls, reports and manuals.
he hired a new sales manager and they spent a lot of time trying to get their hands on cash to save the company.
1983 they went out to buy a company for $500000 at the end doubling their workforce
in comes Clovis Bojikian, ex school teacher and idealist who was to be crucial to the changes about to happen at Semco
more controls come, tougher management and a lot of people start becoming unhappy
Ricardo continuously faints and has other health problems and after a visit to a special clinic is diagnosed with the highest level of stress the doctor has ever seen at a 25 year old. He needed to change.
he starts leaving at 7 no matter what, delegates a lot and tries to remove corporate oppressions. first by removing the security checks with the idea of treating people as adults, which was not easy.
dress codes are removed
factory committes are started (members cannot be sacked while on the committee and one year afterwards) and decisions deferred to workers/committees
weekly meetings are started where decisions are taken that a “manager” does not feel comfortable to do alone
threw the operational manual out in exchange of common sense (if you need a hotel on a business trip, take whichever you think is right)
had workers decide on a new plant location
had top people set their own salaries and have them public
had profit sharing across everyone
started having a rule that memos can only be one page with the conclusion as the subject
and this list goes on and on. A very insightful read.
“As I tell our people constantly: we’ve all learned how to answer email on Sundays, but none of us has learned to go to the movies on Monday afternoon. Until we learn that, we are email slaves harnessed to the wicked ways of the Profit and Loss Master.” — Ricardo Semler, Maverick