Ricardo Semler Quotes

• 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

  Successful, Quality, Firsts

  33 Copy quote

• People are responsible adults at home. Why do we suddenly transform them into adolescents with no freedom when they reach the workplace?

  Ricardo Semler

  Home, People, Adults

  27 Copy quote

• People have a reservoir of talent worth discovering.
  They just have to be given the opportunity to discover it in themselves

  Ricardo Semler

  Leadership, Opportunity, People

  23 Copy quote

• The key to management is to get rid of the managers.

  Ricardo Semler

  Keys, Management, Managers

  20 Copy quote

• 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

  Morning, Organization, People

  28 Copy quote

• Once employees feel challenged, invigorated and productive, their efforts will naturally translate into profit and growth for the organisation.

  Ricardo Semler

  Effort, Growth, Profit

  "The doughnut dimension" by Charles Handy, www.theguardian.com. January 15, 2005.

  24 Copy quote

• 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

  School, People, Way

  "Democracy in the workplace". Interview with Nick Easen, www.cnn.com. May 20, 2004.

  27 Copy quote

• 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

  Monday, Sunday, Night

  20 Copy quote

• If you are giving back, you took too much.

  Ricardo Semler

  Giving, Too Much, Giving Back

  14 Copy quote

• Human nature demands recognition. Without it, people lose their sense of purpose and become dissatisfied, restless, and unproductive.

  Ricardo Semler

  People, Purpose, Demand

  17 Copy quote

• Growth and profit are a product of how people work together.

  Ricardo Semler

  People, Growth, Working Together

  "Democracy in the workplace". Interview with Nick Easen, www.cnn.com. May 20, 2004.

  7 Copy quote

• Man is by nature restless. When left too long in one place he will inevitably grow bored, unmotivated, and unproductive.

  Ricardo Semler

  Men, Long, Bored

  20 Copy quote

• 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

  Careers, People, Essentials

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Believe, Self, Priorities

  Ricardo Semler (2004). “The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works”, p.39, Penguin

  18 Copy quote

• 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

  Monday, Morning, Military

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Feel Good, Purpose, Making Money

  "Ricardo Semler, Semco SA". edition.cnn.com. October 7, 2004.

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Leadership, Force, Enjoy

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Wisdom, Politics, Way

  15 Copy quote

• Large, centralized organizations foster alienation like stagnant ponds breed algae.

  Ricardo Semler

  Organization, Ponds, Algae

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Organization, Tools

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  Jurassic Park, Way, Parks

  6 Copy quote

• The key to getting work done on time is to stop wearing a watch.

  Ricardo Semler

  Keys, Watches, Done

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Using People, Practice, Democracy

  15 Copy quote

• 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

  People, Making Changes, Should

  16 Copy quote

• The best way to invest corporate profits is to give them to the employees.

  Ricardo Semler

  Giving, Way, Profit

  6 Copy quote

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