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Thirty-eight years ago, Ricardo Semler laid down the rules of labor and gave his 3,000 Brazilian employees in Semco, a centrifuge company, the freedom to determine their own wages and decide when to go to the office . It has achieved a 40% return on capital every year for 25 years. Semler is preparing to visit South Africa to speak at the Allan Gray Investment Summit next week. what South Africa needs to do to get back on track
Why do you think, even after the success of Semco, that companies have only partially adopted your example of corporate democracy or created their own adaptations?
From 12 to 18 months, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of companies that claim to run their businesses in the Semco style; this number is probably about 250. This is probably due to the catching up of rules and flexible working hours, and to a set of principles that are too bizarre for the business world 40 years ago.
The 38-year-old Semco Survival manual years ago, the bosses were approved for their jobs by their subordinates; employees are evaluated anonymously by peers in more junior positions every six months to be reinstated in their jobs; staff working at home with 50 kg telex machines; and a program called Semco Woman that recognizes the inequality in the workforce and allows women to participate in the correction.
But this concept requires a leap of faith and a loss of control, and both are nowadays undesirable by many companies: management and shareholders want quarterly results in an effort to feel in control. Unfortunately, it is also the reason why large companies have grown up and finally have more control, often siphoning money out of the poorest of society. It's a broken system that has helped create the imbalance of wealth in the world.
Semco's management style is only a small effort to right these wrongs, with its participatory process and its substantial sharing of profits. , compared to other large companies.
With the presence of Generation Y at work that calls for a change in the way organizations treat and see their employees, do you think your ideas are relevant or out of date for today?
Generations Y and Z force companies to adapt their business models, but companies generally adhere in a nominal and delicate way, as they do for greenwashing and social responsibility.
Businesses think that they are modern because their walls are orange, there are tattooed children playing foosball. and their dogs are at work. All this is silly, and the washing of the millennium. The trick is to bring the older generation, rather than throw them with bath water, and have them mentored and work remotely (no traffic and long meetings for the 67 year olds who have the wisdom to share)
There is also a super-evaluation of millennials, which are largely self-centered, with a low level of commitment on the part of the business – always ready to close their terminal and to do something else according to their desires. And, when we look at the success rate of start-ups, which is less than 1%, it's amazing that middle-aged costumes can emulate them.
What do you think of blockchain technology and its potential to decentralize / disrupt institutions, as in the case of cryptocurrency, but also in the way we share information?
Blockchain talks about disintermediation that has undermined profits and agility and created extremely profitable oligopolistic silos. The thieving barons of the other century were Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie and JP Morgan, because they "owned" the new businesses of the time: the railroads, steel, banks, electricity. What differentiates their dirty monopolies and tactics from Facebook, Googles and Apple today? Blockchain is the antidote of humanity to greedy bankers, software providers and suppliers, lawyers and doctors.
Please explain your personal philosophy on wealth creation. You have already said in a TedTalk that "if you need to give back, it means that you have taken too much." In your opinion, what should be the investor / investor perspective on wealth creation?
go "and take what you really need, and no more.We have been doing this for 40 years.May I have eight times more money in the bank? Maybe, but for what? I have spent 50% of my net income in 40 years on profit sharing and investing in a new education concept. Could I have a yacht in Monte Carlo? D & # 39; where comes the idea that helicopters and yachts are to be and all?
Not everyone can be a maverick What do you think investors can learn from you and your success with Semco to create their own wealth?
From the beginning, divide ideas, work, profits, and do not let your ego take over on you, especially when the really important issues of life are At stake, such as love (spouses, your children), the pbadage of time and commitment. Create wealth in the g roupes is a much smarter way. And remember that a 60% success rate is enough and involves 40% of failures. Pelé scored 1,000 goals but had to miss the net 48,000 times.
Tell us about your experience in establishing Lumiar School? How does your school, which focuses on student autonomy, differ from the changes made to the curricula of the Scandinavian countries, namely Finland?
We discussed with Finland the adoption of the concept of Lumiar at least in some schools, as we did in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Lumiar strives to be the new benchmark for the school that takes over from the outdated system that we have in place, and that does not deserve marginal improvements. Lumiar is based solely on skills, and topics are merged into consistent questions about the world, about the future, about things we do not know about (are we alone in the universe, do we want to be cloned , what is love, let us deal with death.)
The children of a Lumiar school spend the first hour to see the news of the moment and to draw from it. lessons every day. They do as well as the conventional schools in the tests, without ever having seen the subject, done their homework or pbaded tests.
The reason for playing in this area is that we saw at the company We will tell them what they would be in five or ten years, and ask them where they should sit and what that they should wear. About fifteen years ago, we decided to help solve this problem at a basic level, namely two year olds.
People described you as a non-conformist, is there something you regret or could have done better?
There is no end to everything that I could have done better, but the main retroactive remedy that I would have liked is to give more power to the lows. In the end, there was always too much hierarchy. That said, it has been 18 years since we had a shareholder meeting in Semco, and it is growing at 41% per year, regardless of what the economy is doing.
Your views on the situation in South Africa – the good, the bad and the ugly?
The good thing is the drive, the grain, the ability to reinvent. The harm is the same as that of Brazil: too much space for corruption, too many bumps on the road, and a strong abandon of clbades that have no voice. Ugliness is also similar to that of Brazil: the greed of ruling gangs, the lack of real democracy behind the scenes. But, like Brazil, South Africa is a leader of the future. We're going!
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