Good Read
The Seven-Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler
In “The Seven-Day Weekend” Semler explains how he transformed a small family business into a highly profitable manufacturing, services and high-tech powerhouse - 40 times larger - while watching his favourite movies or relaxing with his son in the middle of the business day. Praise for The Seven-Day Weekend' - Are there real-life lessons to be learned? The answer is yes-Pragmatic, inspirational and intriguing advice'.
In this book, Ricardo Semler tells how Semco, Latin America's fastest growing company, uses a revolutionary way of working to run a profit-making company with a work force who love their jobs.' The Sunday Times' - The Seven-Day Weekend challenges conventional approaches to work. It sparks ideas that can be applied to one's own business and will certainly encourage managers to look very carefully at their management practices.
How did Semco become wildly successful despite breaking many of the commonly accepted laws of business? In The Seven-Day Weekend, Ricardo Semler shows that for those willing to take a chance, there is a better way to run a workplace. He explains how the technology that was supposed to make life easier—laptops, cell phones, e-mail, pagers—has in fact stolen free time and destroyed the traditional nine-to-five workday. But this can be a good thing—if you have the freedom to get your job done on your own terms and to blend your work life and personal life with enthusiasm and creative energy. Smart bosses will eventually realize that you might be most productive if you work on Sunday afternoon, play golf on Monday morning, go to a movie on Tuesday afternoon, and watch your child play on Thursday.
“Exchanging the old boss for a new boss is not situational leadership. True situational leadership—flexible, effective, evolutionary—can only arise from self-management. And that means that situational leadership doesn’t change fundamentally with circumstances. It is always about giving up control.”