Workers Paradise
Worker's Paradise
(Retyped for clarity - Taken from Report on Business Magazine December 1993)
Richard Semler, 34, was given control of the Brazilian conglomerate Semco by his Austrian-born father 13 years ago. Since that time, sales have increased six fold and profits have jumped by 500%. Semler expects that in 1993, Semco, which is debt free, will earn about $4 million on sales of some $40 million. The firm has nearly 300 workers, with another 200 or so running "satellite" businesses that operate as subcontractors to Semco, and were set with its help. The Portuguese-language edition of Maverick, Semler’s account of the unorthodox management practices he has experimented with at Semco, has sold almost half a million copies. The English-language edition, from which this article is adapted, is published this fall by Warner Books.
Finally, a firm where the boss has taken a back seat and lets workers make the big decisions. Can the managerial experiment of a maverick Brazilian conglomerate serve as a model of genuine empowerment in northern climes?
Every Wednesday Afternoon, dozens of men and women file through the front gate on their way to a third floor meeting room at Semco, the company I lead in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The guard at the entrance has been expecting them. For years now, executives form some of the biggest and best-known companies in the world, IBM, Siemens, Mercedes-Benz and Yahsica among them, have been making an unlikely pilgrimage to our non-descript industrial complex on the outskirts of the city. Semco manufacturers an impressively varied roster of products, including pumps that can empty an oil tanker in a night, dishwashers capable of scrubbing 4100 plates an hour, mixer that blends everything from fuel to bubble gum, and entire biscuit factories, with 6000 separate components and 36 kilometers of wiring. But it’s not what Semco makes that has executives and management experts the world over waiting months for a chance to tour our
(Retyped for clarity - Taken from Report on Business Magazine December 1993)
Richard Semler, 34, was given control of the Brazilian conglomerate Semco by his Austrian-born father 13 years ago. Since that time, sales have increased six fold and profits have jumped by 500%. Semler expects that in 1993, Semco, which is debt free, will earn about $4 million on sales of some $40 million. The firm has nearly 300 workers, with another 200 or so running "satellite" businesses that operate as subcontractors to Semco, and were set with its help. The Portuguese-language edition of Maverick, Semler’s account of the unorthodox management practices he has experimented with at Semco, has sold almost half a million copies. The English-language edition, from which this article is adapted, is published this fall by Warner Books.
Finally, a firm where the boss has taken a back seat and lets workers make the big decisions. Can the managerial experiment of a maverick Brazilian conglomerate serve as a model of genuine empowerment in northern climes?
Every Wednesday Afternoon, dozens of men and women file through the front gate on their way to a third floor meeting room at Semco, the company I lead in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The guard at the entrance has been expecting them. For years now, executives form some of the biggest and best-known companies in the world, IBM, Siemens, Mercedes-Benz and Yahsica among them, have been making an unlikely pilgrimage to our non-descript industrial complex on the outskirts of the city. Semco manufacturers an impressively varied roster of products, including pumps that can empty an oil tanker in a night, dishwashers capable of scrubbing 4100 plates an hour, mixer that blends everything from fuel to bubble gum, and entire biscuit factories, with 6000 separate components and 36 kilometers of wiring. But it’s not what Semco makes that has executives and management experts the world over waiting months for a chance to tour our