Although I had previously heard of The Seven Day Weekend, today I was introduced to the story of the man behind this bestseller. At 21, the Harvard grad took the reigns of his father's struggling shipbuilding business in Sao Paulo. His first step as CEO was to fire two-thirds of top management and pursue a radical diversification and re-organization strategy. He turned hierarchal org structure on its head, and the "wrong" approach payed off. In 9 years Semco grew from $35 million to $212 million in revenue...
The key to management is to get rid of the managers.
The key to getting work done on time is to stop wearing a watch.
The best way to invest corporate profits is to give them to the employees.
The purpose if work is not to make money. The purpose of work is to make the workers, whether working stiffs or top executives, feel good about life.
-Ricardo Semler