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Before you get too excited, this isn’t another movie review for “Top Gun: Maverick.” But—stick around—because the book we are about to reveal just might change the way you think about your business, your employees, and hopefully, life in general.
No, It’s Not Top Gun, But It’s Taking Shots at “Business As Usual.”
How do you go about creating success in business? Is it working more hours, nose to the grindstone, pulling yourself up from the bootstraps, and an always hustling mentality?
What if it was something simple and life-giving instead?
According to business entrepreneur, Ricarco Semler, “Successful companies will be the ones that put quality of life first.”
When we read that line, we applauded because our company is run on that same principle.
In fact, on the walls of our own Ardent office, you see this:
Semler, a Brazilian businessman and a self-proclaimed champion of the employee-friendly, corporate democracy, has a widely different philosophy on culture, organization and business management than most CEOs. Semler inherited his father’s corporation when he was just 21 years old. His first order of operation in his new role: fire most of the old guard and radically change the way the business was run from when his father was at the helm.
When Semler realized that most of the employees at his company weren’t satisfied with work, he set out to change things. His main philosophy? Give employees complete freedom, as long as their work is finished in time. Although his revolutionary business policies have attracted widespread interest around the world, it’s not the business status quo. Maybe his thought process scares you a little. But maybe if we told you that Semler saw revenue grow a crazy 900% from $4 million to $212 million under his leadership, you might be less skeptical and a little more open to discovering what Semler learned that shifted his business acumen along the way.
This book might be for you if you want to achieve this type of success:
- Scale beyond startup to crazy $ growth
- Attract and retain the top talent.
- Achieve a company that runs itself (Hint: you actually get a break to do what you enjoy best.)
If this sounds interesting to you at all, read on for the 3 steps Ricardo Semler would suggest you adopt right now.
Grow Your Business in 3 Radical Ways
1. Hire adults and then treat them like adults.
That sounds like an obvious step but consider the culture surrounding most business environments.
People in authority telling people below them:
A. what to do
B. how to do it
Think about it: Do you get excited when people tell you exactly how to do your job? Or, would you rather get to creatively think through the process and make your own decisions? Hire people who are capable of owning their own objectives and then trust them to do it. Make sure every one of your employees has a goal to own. By creating an environment where other people get to make decisions, your people—and your business—will flourish.
People begin to make more decisions on their own, decisions they are usually better qualified to make than their supervisors (Maverick; page 93).
2. Get rid of unnecessary rules.
They viewed company tasks much as parents see homework—disagreeable, perhaps, but mandatory. (Maverick; page 52).
Rules for the sake of rules … Semler isn’t a fan. When he took over his father’s company, he realized that the powerful few ruled and the subservient many obeyed. Fixed levels of hierarchy existed and no one was very happy. Too much bureaucracy killed creativity. And Semler found that too many rules actually “diverted attention from the company’s objectives.”
Your takeaway: really question what rules are serving in your company. Are they really necessary for best practices within the company or are they holding people back from exploring ways to innovate?
3. Periodically step away from your business.
This might sound like a scary step for those who tend to lean toward micro-managing. But hear us out. If you take a step back from your company for an experimental length of time, you will be able to see the weaknesses in your company and which employees rise to the occasion of problem-solving. Without you there, others will be forced to make decisions on their own and get creative about propelling your company forward.
This touches back to #1. Hire capable adults, let them do their jobs, and then push them to experiment within the company. This creates an environment where not only your people will flourish but your business will as well.
“People have a reservoir of talent worth discovering. They just have to be given the opportunity to discover it in themselves” ~ Ricardo Semler
Final Thoughts
Throughout this book, we see how Ricardo Semler takes a company where its employees were formerly treated like cogs in a machine to a human-centric organization. It’s a journey to emulate that’s not for the faint of heart, but actually for those who have a lot of heart to give—to their employees, their business, and their customers.
What do you think? Are you a business-as-usual type of person or do you want to become a real maverick? Start thinking about how you can apply these principles to your own company. It might change how your business grows—and quite possibly—wreck your life for good.
Curious how marketing plays a role in all of this? When you’re unsure how to propel your business forward, we have some novel ideas of our own we’d love to share.
Reach out and let’s start talking about the future of your business.
