The author shares six lessons they learned to be a creative and adaptive organization:
- Forget about the top line: The measure for business sucess is not it’s size but how long it survives
- Never stop being a startup: Every six months, each of Semco’s departments has to justify it’s continued existence and all employees are asked to be rehired.
- Don’t be a nanny: Don’t treat your employees like children. People at Semco decide when and how much they work, when they get on vacation and even how they are paid. But since they know that they have to be rehired every six months, they know that their jobs are always at risk.
- Let talent find it’s place: Let people chose in which department they want to work.
- Make decisions quickly and openly: Every employee can attend board meetings and present their business ideas. Ideas are checked against only two well-defined criteria and if they meet them, the business gets launched inside Semco.
- Partner promiscuously: When you start a new business, you need help. Semco’s foundation over the years were partnerships with other firms.