From Maverick, 1993, by Ricardo Semler.
Semco is more than novel programs or procedures.
What is important is our open-mindedness, our trust in our employees and distrust of dogma.
We are neither socialist nor purely capitalist, but we take the best of these failed systems and others to reorganise work so that collective thinking does not overpower individualistic flights of grandeur; that leadership does not get lost in an endless search for consensus; that people are free to work as they like, when they like; that bosses don’t have to be parents and workers don’t act like children.
At the heart of our bold experiment is a truth so simple it would be silly if it wasn’t so rarely recognised. A company should trust its destiny to its employees.
No, Semco isn’t a model, with programs to be followed with precision, so many recipes for participation, productivity, and profits. Semco is an invitation.
I hope our story will cause other companies to reconsider themselves, and their employees.
To forget socialism, capitalism, just-in-time deliveries, salary surveys, and the rest of it, and to concentrate on building organisations that accomplish that most difficult of challenges: to make people look forward to coming to work in the morning.
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