1. Describe Ricardo Semlers leadership style. What do you think might be the advantages and drawbacks of his style?
Ricardo Semler IS one of the greatest business managers of all times in the Brazilian city Sao Paulo. After joining his father in the company it was his father's believe that if his son does not work for him he will do so for someone else. But to maintain him in the company the father had to resign as the CEO and handed over the vast business to his younger son who was only 21 by then and had just graduated from Harvard Business School. Initially his father used the traditional style of management but his son was to use a more centralize leadership method.
To effect this he started by firing all the top managers of the company on the day he started working as the CEO and introducing young innovative minds of whom he knew would adapt easily to his style of management. Having been introduced to run his fathers enterprises immediately after graduating from a business school he moved on to introduce great changes in the working environment and ended up having the best productive workforce. With a turn over of less that $ 4 million at his entry he led the company to an annual turnover of $ 212 million in 2003. When you treat your employees like adults they purely behave like adults and hence they become more productive and dedicate themselves to the work environment. With these changes he allowed and encouraged the employees to evaluate themselves and their managers as well. They were also encouraged to rate themselves as to how much they should be paid and learn each others jobs. He also advised that the company's accounts be published internally so that the employees could have a clear view of the company's performance. He introduced what might be considered as common sense style where the employees have no specific dressing codes and no specific working