MAVERICK!!

Before you begin to second guess me, this post is not about Top Gun! It's about a book called Maverick by 'Ricardo Semler'. A good friend of mine loaned it to me recently. I am yet to complete it.I am somewhere halfway through it and find it to be an engrossing read.

The book is about Ricardo Semler and the complete revamp he gave his company Semco. Not just physical, in terms of furnishing,employee count etc., but in terms of management structure,style, principles..... actually, more or less everything!Started by his father, Semco was a not very profitable company which manufactured pumps for ships. Rick who joined it at the age of 18, not one bit slowly, diversified the company's operations to include dishwashers, mixers,pumps for tankers among many others! The unusual and unique aspect of Semco is not its products but the style in which it is run. Workers decide on their own wages, set their own targes, decide the work hours, decide the profit sharing strategy and are given the right to vote on a large number of things! Things like deciding whether to buy a company or the choice of a plot for a new factory are all made by the employees through voting! Wow! Isn't that really unusual? Just imagine.. you actually get to hire you project manager? You get to decide! That most certainly eliminates all sorts of employee dissatisfacton!! And the best part of it all is that Semco makes enormous profits!!!

I was commenting to the friend who loaned me the book that i found the book extremely fascinating and was quite astounded that the 'Semco Stragey' was actually feasible and succesful. I was telling him that though I found the methods used by Semler quite revolutionary and interesting, I wasn't sure if it was quite down my line. That I was probably too forceful and domineering a person to ever implement it!! And you know what he actually had the gall to reply?? No " Why not? You're not really so forceful! You are a very sweet and lovable person!! " ..but actually a " Yeah, you would never be able to do it!!!" Baah!!!!!