A company with minimum rules

RICARDO SEMLER created a company named SEMCO back in 1980, and has continued his amazing work since then.

Check out the video below, where you’ll hear about what SEMCO did to redesign its company with an absolute minimum of rules and obstacles.

No stable job roles.

No defined work hours, days, locations.

Freely open information sharing.

It’s stunning, because it breaks every convention we have about what a business is supposed to look like.  So why does it work?

Because, as it turns out, when people are trusted to make intelligent decisions, they usually do.  If they understand the connection between their work, happy customers, and longevity of the company, they’ll work hard to deliver great results.

Make sure you also listen to the short interview at the end of Ricardo’s presentation, as it will give you additional insights.

After redefining the world of business in Brazil, Ricardo is now reinventing education.  It’s an approach which focuses on giving kids the skills necessary to succeed in life, rather than stuffing them full of facts and figures which can be found on Google.

They brought in mentors with passion and expertise, with a wide range of expertise and who will talk about even the meaning of life itself.

They created a students’ circle which was entirely self-governing with no rules, then found over time that the kids “ended up creating the entirely the same rules.  Except now [the rules] were theirs.”

This is the core of ownership.  Give people control and treat them intelligently, and they’ll set up a structure which works well because it has their full passion and support.

And the results will probably astound you.