When we think "Brazil," most of us picture samba, vibrant carnivals, and yellow-clad football legends dancing with the ball. So a book on Semco - a little-known company with an unconventional work culture - feels like the odd man out in Brazil’s colorful parade. But Ricardo Semler’s Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace is here to shake up more than just our perceptions of Brazil; it redefines the workplace itself.Imagine a company where employees write their own rulebook, no reception desk greets you, and workers decide when, where, and how much they work - all on their terms. Sounds wild? That’s Semco for you. And in Maverick, Semler, the bold chief behind the revolution, gives us a backstage tour of this unique “anything goes” corporate culture.
“A company where traditional corporate dogma was being discarded and unpredictability was a way of life,” Semler writes in Chapter 13, and that one line captures the spirit of Semco. The story begins with Semler taking over his father’s company - a rather lifeless, demotivated place - and his mission to breathe life into it. His remedy? Dump all the corporate nonsense. No more rigid hierarchies or tedious policies. Instead, Semler installs a culture where the business runs on simplicity, common sense, and a philosophy that could almost be mistaken for socialism - Eastern European style, or as he calls it, “Nonsenseskaya.”
Semler’s narrative is a refreshing take on business, proving you don’t need a deskful of management theories from Peters, Porters, or Kanters to run a successful company. Just a willingness to throw out the rulebook and trust people to run things their way.
If you’re curious about the nuts and bolts of managing a business - or about how radically a workplace can operate - Maverick is a breezy, mind-bending read that’s as colorful and unpredictable as the samba itself.
4 comments:
I have read this book and liked it!
One of the boldest things to from Ricardo's side is to eliminate the security checks. That requires a lot of courage and trust!
Thanks for review! I have to read this book!
The book sounds interesting, hv not been able to read though, but after this review will surely do it
Hi,
I read the book some years back and always wondered, "how tough is it to implement these in companies?". Listed companies will mostly not go the Semco way but private companies can try. I've read of one entrepreneur in India (from Gujarat) who has religiously used Semco's principles in his company and is paying good dividends.
A related area of note is what I call the 'positivity bias' - a situation where the memory reproduces more goodness than negativity items. With all due respect to Ricardo Semler, it is possible that the book talks more about the goodness of his management principle rather than the downside of it. This is akin to any person who writes his resume and only puts down his successes and never his failures. We have to account for this bias before implementing it in our companies.
Regards
Shankar
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