Semler Quotes & Sayings
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Top Semler Quotes
Many of the Abbott disciplines trace back to 1968, when it hired a remarkable financial officer named Bernard H. Semler. Semler did not see his job as a traditional financial controller or accountant. Rather, he set out to invent mechanisms that would drive cultural change. He created a whole new framework of accounting that he called Responsibility Accounting, wherein every item of cost, income, and investment would be clearly identified with a single individual responsible for that item.4 The idea, radical for the 1960s, was to create a system wherein every Abbott manager in every type of job was responsible for his or her return on investment, with the same rigor that an investor holds an entrepreneur responsible. There would be no hiding behind traditional accounting allocations, no slopping funds about to cover up ineffective management, no opportunities for finger-pointing. — James C. Collins
Man is by nature restless. When left too long in one place he will inevitably grow bored, unmotivated, and unproductive. — Ricardo Semler
People are responsible adults at home. Why do we suddenly transform them into adolescents with no freedom when they reach the workplace? — Ricardo Semler
Forget socialism, capitalism, just-in-time deliveries, salary surveys, and the rest ... concentrate on building organizations that accomplish that most difficult of all challenges: to make people look forward to coming to work in the morning. — Ricardo Semler
There is no contest between the company that buys the grudging compliance of its work force and the company that enjoys the enterprising participation of its employees — Ricardo Semler
It is not socialist, as some of our critics contend. It isn't purely capitalist, either. It is a new way. A third way. A more humane, trusting, productive, exhilarating, and, in every sense, rewarding way. — Ricardo Semler
people spend less time in the office and have more time to themselves. Their need to belong to a tribe can be satisfied with hobbies or in community activities and doesn't have to be met in the office. — Ricardo Semler
If we do not let people do things the way they do, we will never know what they are really capable of and they will just follow our boarding school rules. — Ricardo Semler
Ricardo Semler wrote a most interesting book about an including business culture (1995). He describes a Brazilian company that manufactured customized pumps. — Charles J. Pellerin
There are companies which are prepared to change the way they work. They realize that nothing can be based on what used to be, that there is a better way. But, 99 percent of companies are not ready, [they are] caught in an industrial Jurassic Park. — Ricardo Semler
If you look at any kind of modern organization and you think, 'What are the foremost tools of power?' You will find that it is information. — Ricardo Semler
The purpose of work is to make the worker - whether a working stiff or a CEO - feel good about life. — Ricardo Semler
No-one works for money alone and tapping into what people want from their careers and what they have to offer is essential. — Ricardo Semler
I think some of my favorite Australian films were shot by people that are not Australian. And I think when Dean Semler did 'Dances with Wolves,' for instance, that's a very different-looking Western than what you've seen much of before. It's very rich, color-wise. But we've got our own very proud thing going on. — Ben Mendelsohn
A high percentage of organisations develop a military rationale, whereby only a very small number of people make all of the decisions. There is little wonder, then, that people aren't keen to get out of bed and come to work on a Monday morning. — Ricardo Semler
Human nature demands recognition. Without it, people lose their sense of purpose and become dissatisfied, restless, and unproductive. — Ricardo Semler
I once worked it out - after $12 million, all millionaires are the same. That's because we're all humans, confined to human scale. How many homes can you live in? How many meals can you eat? You can have a living room the size of a cathedral, but you won't live in it. It's too big. — Ricardo Semler
Bill Gore from Goretex was a very strong influence because he was one of the first larger companies to experiment with freedom in the workplace. — Ricardo Semler
To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise, lets tribal customs thrive, and fosters a power that is derived from respect, not rules. In other words, the successful companies will be the ones that put quality of life first. Do this and the rest - quality of product, productivity of workers, profits for all - will follow. — Ricardo Semler
Large, centralized organizations foster alienation like stagnant ponds breed algae. — Ricardo Semler
Growth and profit are a product of how people work together. — Ricardo Semler
Dissent and democracy go hand in hand. It's also good management technique. What traditional executives don't consider is that decisions arising from debate are implemented much more quickly because explanations, alternatives, objections, and uncertainties have already been aired. As a result of democracy, employees have had their say, and projects or ideas have been analyzed from every point of view. — Ricardo Semler
People have a reservoir of talent worth discovering.
They just have to be given the opportunity to discover it in themselves — Ricardo Semler
The purpose of 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
Profits must be judged as moral or immoral by how they are earned and how they are disposed. Without a new barometer, we are left with the old barometer - profit for its own sake, regardless of whether it is sustainable or ultimately ruinous. But over the course of a seven-day weekend when a reservoir of talent is tapped, a calling is found, a true, well-rounded definition of success is established, people may realize they're working not for the money but literally working for and on themselves. And what a liberating realization that is. — Ricardo Semler
I believe no one can afford, endure or can stomach leaving half a life in the parking lot when she or he goes to work. It's a lousy way to live and a lousy way to work. — Ricardo Semler
People are too keen to follow standard preconceptions of how organisations should work. All too often, we feel that we are unable to make changes and so hope that someone, somewhere in your organisation knows what we are doing and what the overall aim is. — Ricardo Semler
The era of using people as production tools is coming to an end. Participation is infinitely more complex to practice than conventional corporate unilateralism, just as democracy is much more cumbersome than dictatorship. But there will be few companies that can afford to ignore either of them. — Ricardo Semler
One of the things that is very silly - and I hear from educators all the time - is that schools essentially teach kids to learn. They don't need school for that. Learning is what they do best. — Ricardo Semler
In life, we do not give employees enough leeway. If you look around Semco's office, there are plenty of empty desks. The question is - where are these people? I do not have the slightest idea, but I am not interested. — Ricardo Semler
Every one of us has learned how to send emails on Sunday night. But how many of us know how to go a movie on Monday afternoon. You've unbalanced your life without balancing it with someone else. — Ricardo Semler
The key to management is to get rid of the managers. — Ricardo Semler
For a company to excel, employees must be reassured that self-interest, not the company's, is their foremost priority. We believe an employee who puts himself first will be motivated to perform. — Ricardo Semler
The best way to invest corporate profits is to give them to the employees. — Ricardo Semler
Only two things grow for the sake of growth: businesses and tumors. — Ricardo Semler
Once employees feel challenged, invigorated and productive, their efforts will naturally translate into profit and growth for the organisation. — Ricardo Semler