Customer Reviews
An unorthodox approach to running a business - By: Rolf Dobelli, 15 Aug 2008 
Ricardo Semler calls himself a maverick, but he's actually a visionary. Semler, now 49, was way ahead of the curve 25 years ago when he radically altered the structure & philosophy of his father's company, Semco. Long before most businesses acknowledged that employees were thinking, feeling human beings & not timecard-punching robots, Semler rebuilt the infrastructure at Semco, eliminating layers of bureaucracy & allowing employees to decide their own fates. They determined their own schedules, pay scales & dress codes. Semler drastically reduced paperwork; he restricted memos, for example, to a single page. He believed that empowered employees, freed of their corporate shackles, would be motivated, creative & productive. You may find some aspects of that approach unrealistic or totally impractical for your organization. You may even think Semler is crazy. At the very least though, getAbstract believes executives should give careful consideration to his approach. His innovations are still relevant, even a quarter of a century later.
If you are a manager you MUST read this book - By: , 17 Nov 2004 You've just got to take this seriously. It IS possbile to run a successful, results-oriented establishment AND go a long way to improving your employees' work-life balance & qulaity of life. In fact, as more businesses take on board this philosophy, it will become ESSENTIAL if you want to attract the 'best' employees.
Best management practice now made easy! - By: Jack Feeney-Author / Analyst, 09 Oct 2004 As a management consultant I found this book very useful indeed - much of it is directly applicable to shop-floor & pressure-politics situations - the 20-page cartoon "rulebook" at the end is more than worth the price of the book itself - buy it! And if you have the courage, apply what it says, too: It's been known for some time that organizations are designed according to "command & control" principles that very poorly match how humans are really built to behave. More complex self-ordering behavior is always observed when any lack of hierarchy exists, & the hierarchies that do emerge tend to be more effective than those that were designed by managers with experiencein previous eras. Semler just chose to trust it more than, say, Tom Peters. Prof. Nicholson, head of London Business School recently wrote (in the Harvard Business Review) that Semler's model was the only one to really respect "stone age nature" of human behavior (the many insights from evolutionary psychology that tell us that we're far more often feeling our way through decisions than thinking our way through).
Semlers assessment of Human Resource Management (HRM) practice is truly radical but built on a foundation of good management practice & a healthy dose of common sense. HRM managers & departments confuse traditional & successful hierarchies & should be the first thing to be axed if any organisation is serious about survivalin the 21st Century.
Excellent book & guide, highly practical & an enjoyable read.
A Business Too Good To Be True? - By: , 16 Mar 2004 It's almost unbelievable - an experimentin culture change that worked wonders. This inspiring tale of Ricardo Semler's successful 'quest' to run his companyin the interest of all it's stakeholders is tremendous. It may well be easier to influence the direction of a business when you're the owner (as per Semler), but this great read helped me look at & adapt my own management stylein an entirely new way (even within a large organisation). I only put it downin order to start implementing many of the ideas it contains. Well written & thought provoking.
Fantastic - By: Zahid Malik, 17 Dec 2002 I love this book. It doesn't read read like a business book at all but is more like a fascinating biography. I would recommend it to anyone not just people with an interestin business. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I've probably bought around 50 copies of this book (over the years) for friends & colleagues.
Wonderful you must read it.
