Business in Focus: Semco Partners
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
If your employees could vote you in or out as their leader, would you keep your position? That was just one of the many questions that Richardo Semler started to ask when he went to work for his father’s company, SEMCO Partners, in the late 1970’s. At the time, the San Paulo, Brazil-based company built pumps and propellers for ships. Semler immediately noticed that SEMCO employees were clearly boxed in by a hierarchical organizational structure. This was not a structure in which Semler wanted to spend the rest of his career. So, he started asking questions. Lots of questions.
