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Charles Handy was, for many years, a professor at the London Business School. He is now an independent writer and broadcaster. He describes himself, these days, as a social philosopher.

São Paulo, Brazil São Paulo, Brazil Episode 11: Ricardo Semler

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Ricardo Semler, author and business manager, is celebrated as a role model of a Chief Executive who breaks all the traditional rules and succeeds, massively.



Semler eliminated what he called 'corporate oppression" from his company, Semco: time clocks, dress codes, security procedures, privileged office spaces and perks, they all went. There were to be no receptionists or secretaries.



He set up 'factory committees' to run the plants, in an attempt to get more worker involvement and Semler guaranteed that no-one could be fired while serving on the committees or for at least a year afterwards.



Ricardo then introduced profit-sharing schemes for all the workers. The thought that they could directly influence their own pay encouraged the committees to look for savings and to question any procedures or layers of management that didn't seem to add value.



Managers were hired and fired by their own employees. More than that, the units were now inventing new businesses for themselves. And so Semco grew, entirely due to the initiatives of its workers.



The workers have unrestricted access to all corporate records and are taught how to read financial reports; they set their own wages and their own production quotas.



When the number of people in a Semco unit hits the 100 to 200 mark it is split in two, like it or not.



Semler lists six principles that guide his always experimental company:



1. don't increase business size unnecessarily

2. never stop being a start-up

3. don't be a nanny to your workers

4. let talent find its place

5. make decisions quickly and openly

6. partner promiscuously, you can't do it all yourself.



In our next talk we meet someone very different. He has been called the world's most successful business academic. He is Michael Porter. Read Ricardo Semler's biography

Some useful business words: celebrated

well-known, famous



role model

a person whose behaviour is copied or is likely to be copied by others



breaks all the rules

somebody or something which goes against an accepted principle which says how things are to be done



time clocks

machines which record when a worker arrives for work and punches his card



dress codes

rules which tell workers what to wear on the workplace



security procedures

a set of actions necessary to protect an organization or its employees against violence, lawbreaking etc.



perks

extra items given by a company to workers in addition to their salaries (such as company cars, private health insurance etc.)



plants

large factories



worker involvement

action or direct connection on the part of the workers with something



fired

dimissed from a job



profit-sharing schemes

arrangements where workers get a share of the profits of the company they work for



hired

employed, given a job



unrestricted access

to be able to obtain, reach, see something without limits



production quotas

fixed amount of products which should be produced



a start-up

a new company just beginning to do business



nanny

a woman employed to take care of children in a family



partner promiscuously

to share business with lots of different people or organizations

Links:

BBC World Business

Business Words in the News

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