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

by Ricardo Semler (Author) "Every Wednesday afternoon dozens of men and women file through the front gate on their way to a third-floor meeting room at Semco, the company..." (more)
Key Phrases: service equipment unit, service equipment plant, marine pumps, Santo Amaro, Satellite Program, Henry Ford (more...)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
First published in Brazil in 1988 as Turning the Tables , this book was the all-time best-selling nonfiction book in Brazil's history. Semler, the 34-year-old CEO, or "counselor," of Semco, a Brazilian manufacturing firm, describes how he turned his successful company into a "natural business" in which employees hire and evaluate their bosses, dress however they want, participate in major decisions, and share in 22 percent of the profits. Semler believes that Semco is different from most companies that have participatory management because employees are given the power to make decisions--even ones, with which the CEO wouldn't normally agree. Semler claims, "This is not a business book. It is a book about work, and how it can be changed for the better." Highly recommended.
- Mark McCullough, Heterick Lib. , Ohio Northern Univ. , Ada
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
What makes for a successful company? In a sometimes breathless, often boyish manner, Semler, a counselor of a Brazilian company (Semco), relates the transformation of a traditionally structured business into one quite literally without walls and rules. Semler details his not-so-easy steps in the metamorphosis: abolishing dress codes and regulations; decentralizing plants; getting rid of paperwork and titles (hence, his appellation as counselor, not CEO); and creating a consultative democracy in which employees set their own salaries and work hours and vote on managerial candidates, among other responsibilities. If it sounds too much like utopia, Semler admits that Brazil's economic downturn has impacted Semco and that, yes, being born with a silver spoon certainly colors his vision. Nonetheless, his is a philosophy that merits some serious thought by managers and workers alike. Barbara Jacobs --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 1, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446670553
ISBN-13: 978-0446670555
Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,127 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#3 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Brazil

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First Sentence:
Every Wednesday afternoon dozens of men and women file through the front gate on their way to a third-floor meeting room at Semco, the company I lead in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
service equipment unit, service equipment plant, marine pumps, factory committee

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Santo Amaro, Satellite Program, Henry Ford, General Motors, United States, Paulo Pereira, Hobart Brazil, Price Waterhouse, Laura de Barros, Alipio Camargo, Irene Tubertini, Lahey Clinic, Nacoes Unidas, New York, Oseas da Silva, South America, Texas Air, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Latin American

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 3 books:

My Years with General Motors by Alfred Sloan on page 66
Corporation Man (Pelican) by Ant Jay on page 124
Lost in Space (Thrillogy; 3 Science Fiction Stories) by Paul And Meredith Costain Collins on page 230

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	91% buy the item featured on this page: Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace 4.8 out of 5 stars (48) $10.19
	5% buy The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works 4.6 out of 5 stars (19)
	2% buy Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke--the Simple Change That Can Make Your Job Terrific 3.8 out of 5 stars (34) $9.58
	1% buy Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win 4.6 out of 5 stars (32) $11.66

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Customer Reviews

48 Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars (48 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Dickie's Good Ideas, November 27, 2005

By	Lightman (New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Shortly after Ricardo Semler took over Semco, his family's moribund manufacturing business, employees began referring to him as Dr. Dickie. In the context of a hardened and confrontational union work environment, this nickname signaled the changes that were about to come.

Maverick tells the story of the transformation of Semco into a radical and high performing organization.

Here's a sampling of Dr. Dickie's good ideas...

* Make each business unit small enough so that those involved understand everything that is going on and can influence the outcomes.

* Implement a rounded pyramid organization structure with floating coordinators. Coordinators are the only supervisory level and are all at the same organizational level but different pay rates.

* Demonstrate trust by eliminating symbols of corporate oppression as well as the perks of status.

* Share all information and eliminate secrets. You can't expect involvement to flourish without an abundance of information available to all employees.

* Every six months bosses are evaluated by their subordinates and the results are posted.

* Salaries are public information unless the employee requests that they not be published.

* Allow employees to set their own salary. Consider these criteria: what they think they can make elsewhere; what others with similar skills and responsibilities make in the Company; what friends with similar backgrounds make; how much they need to live on.

* Share 23% of pretax profits. Employees vote how the pool will be split. They must vote to determine the manner of each quarterly distribution. In practice they always vote for equal dollar shares.

* Substitute the survival manual for thick procedure manuals. Eliminate policies and rules wherever possible.

* Job rotation; 20% of managers shift jobs each year.

* Set up workers in their own businesses as suppliers to the company.

* Eliminate the wearing of wristwatches whenever and wherever possible. It is impossible to understand life in all its hugeness and complexity if one is constantly consulting a minute counter.

* Either you can create complex systems so as to manage complexity, or you can simplify everything.

My company used Maverick as assigned reading for a management retreat some years ago. The result was a change of direction that it's hard to imagine would have been arrived at otherwise. Highly recommended for those open to having their organizational paradigms shifted.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable and important, July 21, 2005

By	Dadi Ingolfsson (Reykjavik, Reykjavik Iceland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Semler recounts the evolution of his family's company, Semco, from being a paternalistic, strictly hierarchical one, when he takes over the reins from his father, to a company like no other.

The book reads like an autobiography, and it is, but only with the focus on the transformation of Semco and how Semler and his colleagues evolved through it. The reader is escorted through the many gestation periods of Semler's organizational theories. It's an amazing trip that you can hardly believe took place.

Instead of paraphrasing Semler here I want to use a pretty long quote from one of the last pages of the book. There Semler has such a succinct description of his core theories and the way he put them into practice that I feel his words summarize the plot of this book far better than I ever could:

"To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise, lets tribal customs thrive, and fosters a power that is derived from respect, not rules. In other words, the successful companies will be the ones that put quality of life first. Do this and the rest - quality of product, productivity of workers, profits for all - will follow. At Semco we did away with strictures that dictate the "hows" and created fertile soil for differences. We gave people an opportunity to test, question, and disagree. We let them determine their own futures. We let them come and go as they wanted, work at home if they wished, set their own salaries, choose their own bosses. We let them change their minds and ours, prove us wrong when we are wrong, make us humbler. Such a system relishes change, which is the only antidote to the corporate brainwashing that has consigned giant businesses with brilliant pasts to uncertain futures."

I truly enjoyed every page of this book and I highly recommend it.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Must Reading" on the Democratic Workplace Environment, June 28, 2000

By	James E Murphy (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

Maverick has a good claim to must read status for those interested in modern management in that it is probably the best exposition of a democratic workplace in successful practice. As both the story of a company and the autobiography of a unique business leader, it is of interest in various ways.

Semler's account of how he arrived at Semco's democratic organizational culture is a fascinating case of personal growth. Some readers, however, may be less interested in "how I got there" and some of the Brazilian background than in its account what Semco has actually achieved in workplace governance. In this respect, Maverick is a seminal book, because Semco's management style is so unusual. Just reading about it is a liberating experience!

As to practical application, the book has some very readable sections such as the excerpts from the famous Semco operating manual, its glossary (which has "valuably eccentric" ideas), and a test for employees to rate supervisors. These sections give a very good introduction to empowerment and workplace democracy that can be read usefully anybody.

Put Maverick's operating philosophy together with Tom Peter's reinventing work ideas (most particularly in his The Circle of Innovation). Then, add in some Greenleaf servant leadership and combine with some shared vision (a la Chapter 11 of Senge's Fifth Discipline). You then have an excellent recipe for best practice 21st century management. More books like this showing in detail how advanced ideas actually have been successfully implemented in the workplace are very much needed.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Employee Empowerment
The book "Maverick" is the finest example that I have read of a factual transformation of a corporation, to full employee empowerment. David... PhD Candidate

Published 2 months ago by David S. Bambridge

4.0 out of 5 stars pretty decent read
This was a pretty decent read -- we practice a lot of these at my workplace but I think what this book really shows is the attitude of an entrepreneur.

Published 9 months ago by Ian Eyberg

5.0 out of 5 stars An unorthodox approach to running a business
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 and... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Rolf Dobelli

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Amazing story.
Great book. Amazing story.
Lot's of good lessons to be learned here. I read it all the way through and enjoyed the writing style a great deal. Read more

Published 12 months ago by MFLM

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best business books ever
I think this book gives In Search of Excellence a run for its money as the all time great. This book really promotes a different way of thinking about the workplace in a much more... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Todd A. Hartle

5.0 out of 5 stars Humanistic Management on the spot!
I have been strugling about how to have an organization or a corporation that are at the same time efficient and humanistic/democratic. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Carlos Largacha

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking

Maverick is the story of Semco, an medium size Brazilian company who has set free their employees. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Bas Vodde

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Maverick!
I loved the book! It is so close to my own philosophies of business and was completely refreshing and inspiring. I would love to meet Ricardo Semler. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Jean Cannon

5.0 out of 5 stars Iconoclastic Management Book
Maverick is a valuable management book because of many of the counterintuitive ("You just couldn't do that!") concepts that Semler actually implements. Read more

Published 23 months ago by therosen

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Very fun and interesting, and we can learn a great deal by using this story as examples and lessons.

Published on June 30, 2007 by Bogdan Mirochnik

› See all 48 customer reviews...

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