Ricardo Semler
Ricardo Semler
Ricardo Semleris the CEO and majority owner of Semco Partners, a Brazilian company best known for its radical form of industrial democracy and corporate re-engineering. Under his ownership, revenue has grown from 4 million US dollars in 1982 to 212 million US dollars in 2003 and his innovative business management policies have attracted widespread interest around the world. Time featured him among its Global 100 young leaders profile series published in 1994 while the World Economic Forum also nominated him...
NationalityBrazilian
ProfessionBusinessman
CountryBrazil
I am not interested in...making sure that you (the employee) are here, that you are giving us so many hours a day. We need people who will deliver a final result.
Every one of us has learned how to send emails on Sunday night. But how many of us know how to go a movie on Monday afternoon. You've unbalanced your life without balancing it with someone else.
It is not socialist, as some of our critics contend. It isn't purely capitalist, either. It is a new way. A third way. A more humane, trusting, productive, exhilarating, and, in every sense, rewarding way.
Large, centralized organizations foster alienation like stagnant ponds breed algae.
There are companies which are prepared to change the way they work. They realize that nothing can be based on what used to be, that there is a better way. But, 99 percent of companies are not ready, [they are] caught in an industrial Jurassic Park.
We have absolute trust in our employees. In fact, we are partners with them.
The key to getting work done on time is to stop wearing a watch.
The purpose of work is to make the worker - whether a working stiff or a CEO - feel good about life.
One of the things that is very silly - and I hear from educators all the time - is that schools essentially teach kids to learn. They don't need school for that. Learning is what they do best.
In life, we do not give employees enough leeway. If you look around Semco's office, there are plenty of empty desks. The question is - where are these people? I do not have the slightest idea, but I am not interested.