Semco - a ‘maverick’ organization is transferred from father to son.
The command-oriented management under his father’s reign changes to a highly democratic, participative management structure under his son.

(Maverick: adj. Being independent in thought and action or exhibiting such independence)

Imagine a workplace where YOU hire and fire. And, hold your horses - decide your pay. A place where you decide the time to work, where the lines of hierarchy are almost blurred. Seems unbelievable?

Well the subject matter of Maverick deals with all the above and more. Richard Semler author of Maverick and CEO Semco, talks how he changed the working model of his companies from an authoritarian to a participative structure. Semco is a Brazilian manufacturing business whose products include pumps, empty oil tankers, high volume dishwasher and mixers among other products. Some of the world’s top-notch executives from companies like, IBM, General Motors, Ford, Kodak, Bayer, Nestle, Goodyear, visit regularly to learn the nuances of its functioning.

After the taking over the business from his father, Semco underwent a sweeping change. Richard was physically and emotionally exhausted with the autocratic functioning of his company; he decided that it was time that all his employee start “shouldering” the burden of running the place. This resulted in a model that defied recession, constant strikes and overwhelming inflation. This model enabled Semler to eliminate nine layers of management and simultaneously allowed employees unprecedented democracy in the workplace. By doing so the company transformed from a stagnating, old-fashioned entity into one of the most dynamic and innovative companies in the world.

The book gives a detailed outline of all the changes undergone by Semco and in the process how the company grew. The workers in this system not only evaluate, hire and fire their fellow workers but also apprise their bosses on the basis of their work with a freedom of firing a boss who is performing poorly. Workers also have access to all company financial records. One revolutionary aspect of the model is the freedom allowed in deciding his choice of work, and the salary he wishes to take home. Workers share the bonus and can pass a judgment on any major decision in case of acquisition matters. Job boundaries are blurred. Everyone is encouraged to work on their own, cutting the requirement of its corporate staff by 75 percent and the management by twelve to thirteen percent.

Maverick thus shows how Semler totally revolutionized an organization and created a drive that came from below. A sense of responsibility developed within the employees. The new profit-sharing scheme encouraged employees to save and be efficient whenever possible. This questions the role and utility of various levels of management and helped them to eliminate redundant managers and procedures that didn’t add value, thus creating a much leaner yet efficient organization.

Semler also demonstrates a different perspective of how a top management should function. He demonstrates this by refraining from calling himself a CEO and takes up a the role of a “Catalyst” - a person who poses questions and encourages people to bring simplification in key decision making to shape their work performance. This resulted in creating a situation where people became independent in decision making and enabled the author to avail time for his personal interests.

Opinion wise, one needs to verify whether the implementation process can apply to a totally different situation/place where the rules of hierarchy are more rigid. Although an ideal system, one needs to verify how long an effort and time it takes for an organization to implement such a system. As for the matter of book, complete credit must go to it for providing a path that many fear to tread.

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