Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace

An inspiring account of a maverick CEO who turned his family's aging business into a success story that paved the way for other companies. The extraordinary true story of thirty-four-year-old CEO Ricardo Semler and the rebirth of his family owned Brazilian manufacturing company, Semco is a chronicle of corporate change—a change so vast and successful that Semco has been visited by over 400 corporate representatives from around the world who want to see it in action. In 1980, twenty-one-year-old Ricardo Semler took over the reins of the company his father founded and built. Ricardo proceeded to break every rule of doing business, firing an entire echelon of upper level managers. Once he opened the floodgates to change, Semler never—even when he was tempted to—closed them again. Semler's management system allows employees to work at home, study and discuss the company's financial statements, make corporate decisions, take over the cafeteria kitchen, start their own business with company assets, and redesign the products Semco builds and how they are built. The result: in ten years of constant experimentation—a time period in which Brazil's economy faltered—Semco has achieved a growth rate of 600%! In chronicling Semco's inner revolution, Semler shows how his radical ideas and strategies, as well as his nuts and bolts specifics, can be applied to any company anywhere. Read more