Ricardo Semler is the CEO of SEMCO, SA. During his tenure the company has grown from $4 million in sales to over $200 million in sales.
How'd he do it? He didn't. The employees did. Workers choose their own salaries, set their own hours, and have no job titles....Let that sink in for a moment. Then let the results sink in: 50-fold growth in revenue over a 20-year period.
Here's a short video interview with him at KarmaTube.
Wow great video. Thanks, Zane, for sharing. I had heard of Semler before, but never had the chance to see him or hear him speak.
Terry
Comment by Nels Pedersen on February 18, 2009 at 10:30pm
I would encourage everyone to spend some time with the 7-Day Weekend. It is a fascinating story of creative thinking and following a path that is different than the conventional wisdom would suggest. While we may not all be able to go as far as Ricardo Semler and SEMCO, there are many great ideas that we can use to get our employee engagement fires burning.
- Nels
Great video. I am working on a current article about employee engagement for engineer firms and this is a prime example. As a business and executive coach sometimes it is not easy to convince management to let the people set the direction and this is a great example of that success. Thanks again.
Debora
Comment by David Zinger on February 18, 2009 at 6:35pm
Zane:
Thanks for the video link. I have read about Semco but I had not seen a video on this. It was insightful and inspiring to see and listen to.
David
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Dear Ray,
Your concern is well founded. Employees look forward to surveys like they do a visit to the dentist! The Horsepower Survey, however, is an employee-focused survey to measure how rewarded employees feel about their work. It consists of sev…
Mike,
I will make mention of this new group in the next newsletter. Thank you for starting this and I wish you well and all European members the best with this focus.
David
Jason:
Good points about trust and aligning the strategic engagement with employee engagement. We need results for all.
I am concerned you will lose readers due to lack of formatting on this post. I encourage you to ensure that you format your pos…
Thanks for sharing this information, Roy.
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This is a great read, a great story. I smiled the whole time as I read this. If this conversation is possible in your organization, then I'd say your leadership is trusted and transparent. Thanks for this story.
I won't be wishing you "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" this December. These secular, generic salutations are popular in corporate America because they are not specific to any one religion or belief system. The business world, like America's…
Hello Paul:
"if you want to improve productivity and reduce costs, you need to
tap into human nature’s pleasure-fueled engine."
I could not agree more but if we wait until after we hire someone we have waited too long.
Bob
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