About Semco Case
SEMCO
A ‘Maverick’ Organization
I don’t want to know where SEMCO is headed. It doesn’t unnerve me to see nothing on the company’s horizon. I want SEMCO and its employees to ramble through their days, to use instinct, opportunity, and ingenuity to choose projects and ventures. - Ricardo Semler, CEO, SEMCO1.
Admiring though many are, few have tried to copy him. It seems that the way he works, letting his employees choose what they do, where and when they do it, and even how they get paid, is too upside-down for most managers, But, just maybe his is the way for the new world of business.
-Charles Handy, in “The Handy Guide to the Gurus of Management”2.
SEMCO SA (SEMCO), a Brazilian company which manufactures over two thousand different products including industrial pumps, cooling towers etc. and also provide environmental and Internet services, saw its revenues growing from $32 mn in 1990 to $212 mn in 2003 (Refer to Exhibit I). It achieved this growth rate in an economic environment characterized by staggering inflation, and chaotic national economic policy in Brazil.3 Between 1982 and 1998, SEMCO’s productivity increased nearly sevenfold and profits rose fivefold. SEMCO was also one of the most sought after Brazilian companies as far as employment was concerned. Turnover among its 3,000 employees was about 1% during the period 1994 to 2004. Repeat customers accounted for around 80% of SEMCO’s 2003 annual revenues.4
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1. Ricardo Semler, The Seven Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works, Portfolio 2004. 2. www.bbc.co.uk 3. Brazil defaulted on its foreign debt in 1981 and the nation’s inflation rate touched 3000% in the year 1994. The gross industrial product was down by 14%, 11%, and 9% in 1990, 1991, and 1992 respectively, and between 1990 and 1994, 28% of Brazil’s capital goods manufacturers went bankrupt. 4. Ricardo Semler,
A ‘Maverick’ Organization
I don’t want to know where SEMCO is headed. It doesn’t unnerve me to see nothing on the company’s horizon. I want SEMCO and its employees to ramble through their days, to use instinct, opportunity, and ingenuity to choose projects and ventures. - Ricardo Semler, CEO, SEMCO1.
Admiring though many are, few have tried to copy him. It seems that the way he works, letting his employees choose what they do, where and when they do it, and even how they get paid, is too upside-down for most managers, But, just maybe his is the way for the new world of business.
-Charles Handy, in “The Handy Guide to the Gurus of Management”2.
SEMCO SA (SEMCO), a Brazilian company which manufactures over two thousand different products including industrial pumps, cooling towers etc. and also provide environmental and Internet services, saw its revenues growing from $32 mn in 1990 to $212 mn in 2003 (Refer to Exhibit I). It achieved this growth rate in an economic environment characterized by staggering inflation, and chaotic national economic policy in Brazil.3 Between 1982 and 1998, SEMCO’s productivity increased nearly sevenfold and profits rose fivefold. SEMCO was also one of the most sought after Brazilian companies as far as employment was concerned. Turnover among its 3,000 employees was about 1% during the period 1994 to 2004. Repeat customers accounted for around 80% of SEMCO’s 2003 annual revenues.4
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1. Ricardo Semler, The Seven Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works, Portfolio 2004. 2. www.bbc.co.uk 3. Brazil defaulted on its foreign debt in 1981 and the nation’s inflation rate touched 3000% in the year 1994. The gross industrial product was down by 14%, 11%, and 9% in 1990, 1991, and 1992 respectively, and between 1990 and 1994, 28% of Brazil’s capital goods manufacturers went bankrupt. 4. Ricardo Semler,
References: 2. Ricardo Semler, Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace, Warner Books, 1995. 3. Malcolm Gladwell, Tipping Point: How little Things Can Make a Big Difference, BackBay, 2002. 5. Jaclyn Fierman, Winning Ideas from Maverick Managers, Fortune, February 6, 1995. 8. Kelly Killian, Francisco Perez, Dr. Caren Siehl, Ricardo Semler and SEMCO SA, The American Graduate School of International Management, 1998. 10. Semler Buys Time, People Management, 13586297, August 11, 2001. 11. Colvin Geoffrey, The Anti-Control Freak, Fortune, November 26, 2001. 13. Idleness is Good, The Guardian, April 17, 2003. 14. Simon Caulkin, Simon Caulkin on Ricardo Semler, observer, guardian.co.uk, April 27, 2003. 16. Nick Easen, Interview with Ricardo Semler, CNN, May 20, 2004. 18. Ricardo Semler, Set Them Free, www.cioinsight.com, July 13, 2004.