Module: Topic: Time

Activity 1 Semco
Objective: to develop students guessing intelligently strategies.
Time: 10 minutes
Materials: Handout 1
Procedure: Handout 1
a. read the introduction to the article. Who is Ricardo Semler? What problem did he have?
b. work in groups. What changes do you think Semler made? Write a list. Then read the rest of the article to check your ideas.
Semco
At twenty-one, Ricardo Semler became the boss of his father’s business in Brazil, Semco, which sold parts for ships. Knowing his son was still young, Semler senior told him, ‘Better make your mistakes while I’m still alive’.
Semler junior worked like a madman, from 7:30 a.m. until midnight every day. One afternoon, while touring a factory in New York, he collapsed. The doctor who treated him said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with you. Yet. But if you continue like this, you’ll find a new home in our hospital’. Semler got the message. He changed the way he worked. In fact, he changed the way his employees worked too.
He let his workers take more responsibility so that they would be the ones worrying when things went wrong. He allowed them to set their own salaries, and he cut all the jobs he thought were unnecessary, like receptionists and secretaries. This saved money and brought more equality to the company. ‘Everyone at Semco, even top managers, meets guests in reception, does the photocopying , sends faxes, types letters and dials the phone’.
He completely reorganized the office: instead of walls, they have plants at Semco, so bosses can’t shut themselves away from everyone else. And the workers are free to decorate their workspace as they want. As for uniforms, some people wear suits and others wear T-shirts.
Semler says, ‘We have an employee named Rubin Agater who sits there reading the newspaper hour after hour. He doesn’t even pretend to the busy. But when a Semco pump on the other side of the world fails and millions of gallons of oil are about to spill into the sea, Rubin springs into action. He knows everything there is to know about our pumps and how to fix them. That’s when he earns his salary. No one cares if he doesn’t look busy the rest of the time.’
Semco has flexible working hours: the employees decide when they need to arrive at work. The employees also evaluate their bosses twice a year. Also, Semco lets its workers use the company’s machines for their own projects and makes them take holidays for at least thirty days a year.
It sounds perfect, but does it work? The answer is in the numbers: in the last six years, Semco’s revenues have gone from $35 million to $212 million. The company has grown from eight hundred employees to 3000. Why?
Semler says it’s because of “peer pressure”. Peer pressure makes everyone work hard for everyone. If someone isn’t doing his job well, the other workers will not allow the situation to continue. In other words, Ricardo Semler treats his workers like adults and expects them to act like adults. And they do.

 Ask students to read the introduction part of the article and answer the questions:

Who is Ricardo Semler?
What problem did he have?
 Ask students to work in pairs and predict what changes Semler made.
 Ask students to read the rest of the text to check their ideas.