Maverick
Summary
Semler took over his father's Brazilian manufacturing company Semco at twenty-one and dismantled its hierarchy and controls over the following decade. The book documents what he did and what happened.
The practices are extreme and specific. Employees set their own salaries with the figures published internally. Workers elected their managers and evaluated them twice yearly with the results published. There were no fixed working hours, no dress code, no organisation chart, and no formal statement of company objectives. Financial statements were published to all employees, and the company ran courses so that workers could read them. Employees decided factory locations, the layout of their own workspaces and the colour of the walls. Business unit sizes were capped at around one hundred and fifty people, above which units were split. Profit sharing was distributed by the employees themselves at rates they determined.
Semler describes the transition, including the initial firing of most of the senior managers, the resistance encountered and the periods when the approach produced disorder. The results he reports include substantial revenue growth and near-zero turnover through a period of Brazilian hyperinflation and economic crisis.
The evidence is entirely Semler's own account and the financial claims have not been independently verified. Semco was a mid-sized manufacturer in a specific market and the model has rarely been replicated successfully, which Semler acknowledges. The company's later trajectory is less documented than its transformation. The demonstration that the controls most companies treat as necessary can be removed without collapse is the book's contribution.
Key takeaways 8
- Employees at Semco set their own salaries with the figures published internally, which produced fewer distortions than the previous system.
- Workers elected their managers and evaluated them twice yearly with results published, which changed what managers optimised for.
- Publishing complete financial statements to all employees required teaching them to read the statements, which the company funded.
- Business units were capped at around one hundred and fifty people and split above that size, on the argument that larger units stop functioning.
- Fixed hours, dress codes, organisation charts and formal objectives were all removed without the predicted collapse.
- Employees determined factory locations and workspace layouts, which produced decisions management would not have made.
- Profit sharing was distributed by employees at rates they determined rather than by a formula management set.
- The evidence is entirely the author's own account, the financial claims are unverified, and the model has rarely been replicated.
Who should read it
Executives who want a documented case of removing controls that most organisations treat as necessary, from a single unverified account.
About Ricardo Semler
Former chief executive of the Brazilian manufacturer Semco, where he removed most management controls and let staff set pay and hours.
Maverick documents what happened at Semco when workers elected their own managers, read the full financial statements and set their own salaries, and how the company performed through Brazilian hyperinflation while doing it. The Seven-Day Weekend extends the argument to scheduling and to how a company without a fixed strategy department decides which businesses to enter.
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