1. Maverick: The Success Behind The World’s Most Unusual Workplace
A book by Ricardo Semler

2. Introduction
Ricardo Semler is the son of a wealthy Brazilian industrialist who was not accepted at Harvard University. So his father made him the CEO of Semco
Ricardo Semler tells the story of how he converted a traditionally structured business into one without walls and rules. The way he challenges assumptions and rethinks how a business can be run is inspirational

3. RULES Vs INNOVATION
The desire for rules and the need for innovation are incompatible
Rules and regulations only serve to:
1. Divert attention from the company’s objective
2. Provide a false sense of security for the executives
3. Create work for bean counters
4. Teach men to stone dinosaurs and start fire with sticks
Rules freeze companies inside a glacier; innovation lets them ride sleighs over it

4. WORKING WITH UNIONS
Semler stresses the importance of working with unions to keep the company healthy. Semco introduced the following rules for dealing with strikes:
Treat everyone like adults
Tell the strikers that no one will be punished when they return to work. Then don't punish anyone
Don't keep records of who came to work and who led the walkout
Don't block the workers' access to the factory, or the access or union representatives to the workers. But insist that union leaders respect the decision of those who want to work, just as the company respects the decision of those who don't

5. CONTD.. Don't fire anyone during or after the strike
Make everyone see that a walkout is an act of aggression
Never call the police or try to break up a picket line
Maintain all benefits
Ensure the sense of security to workers
Ensure you a supportive environment to workers

6. Organization structure
Semler expressed his unhappiness about the organization’s structure which includes centralization, decision power vested with top management and typical hierarchical structure
He stressed the importance of redesigning of organization which eliminates dead end jobs and creates sense of accountability in every employee of organization
He focused on encouraging employees by making them to feel responsible for the company on the whole

7. Semler’s Style
Semler believed in conversational style in delivering stories
This conversational style makes his book less ponderous than many books about business
He disliked graphs and charts and it is hard to such a kind of charts in his works
But still he included many cartoons in his works which makes it more attractive

8. Few Points
CEO is no more a position of a single individual. It consists 3 “counselors”, who rotate every 6 months as THE CEO, SEMCO
There are no receptionists, secretaries, or personal assistants. Private dinning rooms for top executives were eliminated (not much relevance for IT industries), reserved parking space, etc.
Simple plans so that there would be less inertia to change it later. Well communicated plans more like posters in canteen where all can see. Used color code/em-icons to publicize individual emotions
Open and straight talking. Every employee had unlimited access to the corporate records, and are taught to read financial reports Every one had to be proud of how much he/she earns, since most of employees/ top executive package was know to all. And executive salary acts as incentive for others to perform more and rise

9. CONTD.
Treat the company’s assets as your own. There is nobody going to question you as to whether you are eligible to fly business class or your eligible for X amount as your expense when your out of station. And also there are no rewards for new ideas
All business communication restricted to just one physical page, with the critical info on the top of the page, with 2-3 paragraphs to explain further
If you have the capacity to lead, nothing stops you at Semco
Workers evaluate, hire and fire their fellow workers as well as bosses
They have an interesting work culture – “we don’t want to be a BIG HAPPY FAMILY, we are here just for business!” They don’t bother about private lives of their employees, with such as “Non-Smoking day”, “Active day”, etc. They treat individuals as grown up, who know how to take care of themselves in terms of their health and finance.

10. Summary… In A Nutshell
This book is about how young CEO (the author) transformed a family-run company called SEMCO, into “democratic organization”. Semco is a Brazilian manufacturing company, with products such as marine pumps to empty oil tankers, high volume dishwashers, cooling units for air conditioners, and mixers Here workers set there salary, productivity targets and schedule Common sense prevails over rules and procedure at this organization. SEMCO has become the Mecca for executives from the best known companies in the world such as IBM, Mercedes-Benz, Bayer, GM, etc to study and learn how to conduct business in the coming years. As it is felt if an organization has to last long in future, then it needs to revolutionize the way it operates its business.

11. CONCLUSION
To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise”
One reason for the continuing existence of Semco has been the willingness of Semler and the Semco's manager to adapt.
The main lesson businesses can learn is to not fear innovation. The main reason companies have failed over the last 20 years is the company's failure to adapt to a changing economy and society
And that is the main lesson of Maverick: don't be blown away by change -- lead it!