栖息谷-管理人的网上家园

标题: [分享]没有老板的公司 [打印本页]

作者: 烟波钓叟 时间: 2007-12-19 17:59
标题: [分享]没有老板的公司

世界上有两家著名的没有老板的公司，一家是巴西的Semco，另外一家是美国的Gore。

所谓 “没有老板”是指这两家公司以如下的方式来管理运营：

“员工的工资由自己确定；员工想什么时候上班就什么时候去；即使你是普通员工，也可以参加董事会会议；如果你有好主意，你自己就可以在公司内成立一个小组付诸于实施；你无需整天面对板着脸训人的上司和老板，因为这里几乎没有等级差别……”

这两家公司奉行完全的民主模式，这样的管理方法带给公司什么呢：

在过去14年中，Semco公司实现了年均27.5%的增长。在近23年中，巴西的经济从快速增长陷入了深重的经济衰退。银行纷纷倒闭，无数公司破产，但是Semco公司却活了下来。如果你在20年前投资Semco公司10万美元，今天就会获得540万美元的丰厚回报。

《Fortune》在2005年评出的100家最佳雇主中，W. L. Gore & Associates名列第五。截至2006年，它已经连续36年实现盈利，连续9年荣登美国《Fortune》杂志“最受欢迎的雇主”榜。

《Fortune》给出的评价是：“To encourage innovation at the maker of Gore-Tex fabrics, Elixir guitar strings, and Glide dental floss, there are no bosses, job titles, or organization charts, just sponsors, team members, and leaders."

是否这种“无为而治”最大程度地激发了创造的潜力？

下面的这两篇文章很详细地介绍了这两家公司的管理模式，对于创新型企业来说是再好不过的借鉴。

“民主”公司的乌托邦实践

如果有这样一家公司，你是否会向往：你的工资由你自己确定；你想什么时候上班就什么时候去；即使你是普通员工，也可以参加董事会会议；如果你有好主意，你自己就可以在公司内成立一个小组付诸于实施；你无需整天面对板着脸训人的上司和老板，因为这里几乎没有等级差别……这些看来是乌托邦的理想，但却正被一些人实践。巴西Semco公司和美国戈尔公司就是这样的典范。对于信奉“X理论”和“胡萝卜加大棒”模式的管理者来说，你可以找出1000条理由来质疑这种模式不会成功，除非是福利院，否则也不会盈利，但摆在大家面前的现实是：在过去14年中，Semco公司实现了年均27.5%的增长。在近23年中，巴西的经济从快速增长陷入了深重的经济衰退。银行纷纷倒闭，无数公司破产，但是Semco公司却活了下来。如果你在20年前投资Semco公司10万美元，今天就会获得540万美元的丰厚回报。而在北美的戈尔公司更胜一筹，截至2006年，它已经连续36年实现盈利，连续9年荣登美国《财富》杂志“最受欢迎的雇主”榜。2005年，它在全球销售超过1000种产品，包括从心脏移植手术的透析膜到战斗机的微波导弹感应器，从常人用的牙线到流行歌手的吉他琴弦等，营业额达到18.4亿美元?004年，在否定诸如IBM、Google、3M、GE等公司后，美国《Fastcompany》杂志将其树立为美国商业的创新标杆。从数十年的成功经历来看，我们显然不能草率地认为这只是个例，或者昙花一现。当我们深入研究这两个案例时，我们还会发现他们虽分属南北美洲，但却如同一物质的化学成分一般，有着共同的元素。如果再聚焦其中一个案例，我们也能找出即使是乌托邦实践，也有其诞生的必然逻辑。民主同位素理解一种物质，首先要化验它的化学成分，看是由什么样的元素组成的。理解一个组织，首先也得解剖它是由哪几部分构成，并如何管理、运行的。Semco公司和戈尔公司在各自的国度都被视为异类，但两种异类放在一起，却有着惊人的相似。我们暂且叫它“民主同位素”。摆脱对管理权威的迷恋里卡多"塞姆勒是Semco的CEO，但他不愿意承认，他只说自己是公司的主要股东。他憎恶头衔，无论是对自己还是对公司其他管理人员，他认为管理的关键是摆脱管理者。与其他公司CEO们乐于发号施令、担当舵手不同的是，他给自己的定位是把水搅浑，甚至在船上戳几个洞，让他的船员们来想办法解决。他几乎不在公司总部，他没有固定的工作时间，也没有固定的办公室。他的这种管理使公司奇迹般度过了一次危机。在2005年2月的一个晚上，当他以每小时85英里的速度行驶在巴西的一条高速公路上时遭遇车祸。他在车窗粉碎、车身塌陷20英寸的情况下死里逃生。但更另令人称奇的是，在他躺在重病监护室并接受多次脖子和脸部手术的几个月里，他位于巴西圣保罗市的Semco公司的运营却没有受到丝毫影响。他的公司完成了经营目标，履行了合同，公司的经营就像平常一样平稳运行。与塞姆勒一样，戈尔公司创始者Wilbert的目标是建立没有权威和等级的组织。在这里人们都以“合作者”相待，没有老板，没有上、下级概念，没有多余的头衔。Kelly是戈尔公司的第四任CEO，但她并没有觉得自己是公司的核心人物。她认为：“我依然是一位合作者，只不过碰巧兼任CEO，和其他人一样，我也坐经济舱。一定要说有什么不同的话，那大概是我会飞得更经常一些。”上海公司的员工Barbara很能理解Kelly的意思，他说：“在中国，我们没有CEO，只有不同业务小组领导人。”扁平的格子在摆脱管理者的情况下，企业是如何组织的呢？
    Semco公司于20世纪80年代中期，就建立了一种格子式的组织结构。员工被分成6～10个人一组，由各个工作组自己制定生产目标，员工自然分工，负责生产的方方面面。
确定这样的人数规模并放权，是因为塞姆勒认为规模正在影响组织的运作途径，让员工在小范围内的团队中工作是非常重要的。任何一个组织，甚至是一个非常大的组织都可以细分到10～12个人组成的小部门，并移交权力到那一层次。超过12个人，就很难有效沟通，并且保持每周见面交流。比如：运动队、教堂、家庭，都是如此。
而在戈尔公司，他们同样基于这样一种“扁平格子”的设计，破除了阶梯式的架构，并对小组规模进行严格控制。他们在组织项目小组时，遵循“两份比萨”的原则——如果两份比萨的工作餐还填不够小组成员的胃的话，这个项目小组就可能太大了。
    他们认为这种规模和结构是员工动力的来源和项目成功的组织保障。在戈尔，每位同事之间相互熟悉，密切沟通。如果是因为你的原因，一个项目“沉入海底”，即使与你合作的人都表示理解，你依然摆脱不了沮丧，你会觉得是你拖累了大伙儿。所以，虽然你无需向“老板”负责，但你的工作动力却来自“不想让同事失望”。
另外，戈尔公司还刻意将每个工作地点的人数控制在150人左右。这是从欧洲古老的一个部落历史中学习到的，150人的集体可以保证每位同事都能认识其他的人，能够有当面沟通的机会。
投票选举与自然领导力
    按传统的组织架构，决策往往是公司领导层的职责，员工只需执行。但当这两家公司摆脱了管理者的指挥，那些“扁平的格子”是如何决策与管理的呢？
    在Semco公司中，有着一些独特的原则和规划：
    ●下级聘用并评估他们的上级，员工投票选举他们的领导。CEO的位子不断更换，4个人定期调换角色。员工还投票决定是否进入新的业务领域或是从旧的业务领域中退出。这时，塞姆勒的投票只是公司3000张投票中的一张。
    ●员工可以自愿参加公司所有的会议。公司董事会8个董事席位中的2个，本着“谁先到会谁先得”的原则，向所有员工虚位以待，对公司决策提出建议并有重大效益者，还能得到重奖。
    ●工厂的3000名员工自行制定自己的工时和薪水等级。午饭后，工人们可以在地上挂起吊床午睡。如果员工在星期六的下午在工厂上班，那么公司会鼓励他们在星期一的上午到海边放松。
    ●工厂里不会有工头大吼着向员工发布命令。每一天，车工可以完全根据工作需要决定自己去运行磨床还是去驾驶叉车。工人们都清楚组织的目标，他们会利用常识来决定自己应该做什么工作以实现这一目标，没有人会看着他们工作。
    ●没有员工着装规范，没有工作职责描述，甚至没有人审批费用账目。
    ●没有接待员、秘书或者私人助理。全部雇员，包括塞姆勒本人都自己接待客人、草拟文件、发送信件。公司没有私人办公室，员工自己确定工作时间，并且办公室的布置也由员工自己决定。
    ●员工可以按照自己的意愿选择培训，而不是只能被迫接受老板或HR的指定。
    ●Semco公司的“空间迷惑”计划，允许年轻的员工用一年的时间熟悉公司各部门的工作，以便找到自己喜欢的工作。
    ●公司采取集体工作面试的方式，即，同职位的竞争候选人可以相互见面，并且面试是由员工的交叉部门主持进行。
在戈尔公司，他们强调的是“自然领导力”，即每位领头人是在组织、酝酿、执行创新产品过程中自然产生的。在这个“微型的民主国度”，没有世袭或任命，需要的是领头人必须能够用自己的专长、经验、工作声望去吸引追随者。
    而某个员工从来不固定地属于哪个组织。每一个人都可以根据自己对产品与市场的看法，召集项目小组。即使从生产的角度将整个企业划分为四个产品领域：电子和导线产品、医疗产品、工业产品和布料产品，但所有的员工仍可以在各个产品领域自由流动。整个组织犹如由活动的积木搭建而成，可以不断变化。
一旦你成功地推销了你的想法，并获得“直达问题本质”的评价，你就会拥有追随者。Elixir吉他弦的开发过程就是如此，如今它占有美国35%的吉他琴弦市场份额：
    Myers喜欢骑车登山，他试图找到更好的方法控制车子的闸线。在寻找替换材料过程中，他曾经用一根旧吉他弦做试验。这启发了他，也许吉他弦也可以用得上类似的材料处理工艺。
    他想起了Chuck Hebestreit，这哥们是吉他爱好者。在另一个工作作坊的John Spencer听说了这个想法，他刚刚完成Glide牙线的项目，凭直觉认定这是一个能够革命化吉他弦市场的好项目，于是他说服了其他6位同事参加攻关。他们从自己主攻的项目活动中挤出时间，反复试验不同的处理方法。待到这个非正式小组请求公司正式批准吉他弦项目小组时，产品已经到了可以推向市场的时候了。

作者: 烟波钓叟 时间: 2007-12-19 17:59

世界上有两家著名的没有老板的公司，一家是巴西的Semco，另外一家是美国的Gore。

所谓 “没有老板”是指这两家公司以如下的方式来管理运营：

这两家公司奉行完全的民主模式，这样的管理方法带给公司什么呢：

是否这种“无为而治”最大程度地激发了创造的潜力？

下面的这两篇文章很详细地介绍了这两家公司的管理模式，对于创新型企业来说是再好不过的借鉴。

“民主”公司的乌托邦实践

作者: 帕克猪 时间: 2007-12-20 10:48

主要还在于人的素质。

作者: jxctm 时间: 2007-12-20 13:46
管理方式而已，
只要创始人OK，选到了几个适合的人，很容易形成团队。

中间过程还是存在管理和领导的，不过和我们常见的企业管理不一样，反倒是像游戏里面的团队。

成功的基础是存在的，延续的基础还不太明白。有更详细的资料就好了。
另外，楼主不要重复发相同的内容……

作者: daiguoguan 时间: 2007-12-21 10:02
和上学的时候，每个人轮流当班长一样

作者: jxctm 时间: 2007-12-21 13:03
SEMCO SA PROFILE

ounded: 1953
Headquarters: Sao Paulo, Brazil

Originally a shipbuilding supplier, Semco now produces more than 2,000 products including dishwashers and digital scanners, as well as diversifying into banking and environmental services and managing non-core business of multinationals such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour.

Annual turnover of $160 million, up from $4 million when Semler took charge, often growing at 30-40 percent a year.

Employs more than 3,000 people with an annual employee turnover of just one percent. Workers set their own salaries, share company profits and hire and fire their own managers.

They say: "Our philosophy is built on participation and involvement. Don't settle down. Give opinions, seek opportunities and advancement, always say what you think. Don't be just one more person in the company."

Ricardo Semler, Semco SA

Thursday, October 7, 2004 Posted: 1645 GMT (0045 HKT)
What are you reading?

"I just received a reader on Michel Foucault. I've been reading more of Foucault lately. There's much in common in management with his idea of looking at the essence of things and re-configuring them so that's been an interesting one.

I'm reading a lot of literature. I've been reading Sebald again -- Vertigo. He really defies gravity in literature. It's amazing how you can get caught in his books without really understanding what's going on."

Who's been your biggest influence?

Bill Gore from Goretex was a very strong influence because he was one of the first larger companies to experiment with freedom in the workplace.

What's your biggest mistake?

So many of them. I think probably the mistake of youth in the sense of speed -- "this has to be done right now." In a lot of what we did we put speed was of the essence, but we didn't really understand the concept of time

Is management an art or a science?

More an art. The scientific, technical aspect is basically secondary. The graduate schools have difficulties keeping up with the times because they consider it too much of a science.

What do you reach for on your desk when the fire alarm goes off?

I'd probably take my notebook computer because I think my whole life is there and I wouldn't have a single file left. Ten days ago my hard disk went out completely and it's brought me back to September which was the last time I made a copy of anything. It's interesting that not very much happened. I recommend that people lose their hard disks every couple of months.
Curriculum Vitae

# Graduated from Harvard Business School aged 20 -- one of the school's youngest ever MBA recipients -- before replacing his father, Antonio, as CEO of Semler and Company in 1984 aged 24.

# On first day, renamed company Semco, fired two-thirds of management and eliminated all secretarial positions. Dismantled managerial structure to eliminate "corporate oppression" and encourage core business values of employee participation, profit sharing and a free flow of information.

# Named as a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum , twice as Brazil's 'Business Leader of the Year' and Latin American Businessman of the Year by the Wall Street Journal's America Economia magazine.

# Author of "The Seven-Day Weekend" (2003) and "Maverick" (1993).

# Founded the Lumiar School in Sao Paulo in 2003, where children aged 2-6, including Semler's own son, are taught in an unstructured environment without classrooms, homework or playtime, and learn only about what interests them.

He says: "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."

Who's in charge here? No one

But it's not a recipe for failure - just the opposite. Simon Caulkin on Ricardo Semler

Sunday April 27, 2003
The Observer

The almost automatic response to Ricardo Semler's wonderfully subversive new book, The Seven Day Weekend (Century, £16.99), is: 'Well, that's all very well in Sao Paulo, but we couldn't do it here.' Semler is, or was - more of this later - president of Semco, Brazil's most famous company, which has made its name by standing the conventional corporate rulebook on its head.

Semco doesn't have a mission statement, its own rulebook or any written policies. It doesn't have an organisation chart, a human resources department or even, these days, a headquarters.

Management
Who's in charge here? No one

But it's not a recipe for failure - just the opposite. Simon Caulkin on Ricardo Semler

Sunday April 27, 2003
The Observer

The almost automatic response to Ricardo Semler's wonderfully subversive new book, The Seven Day Weekend (Century, £16.99), is: 'Well, that's all very well in Sao Paulo, but we couldn't do it here.' Semler is, or was - more of this later - president of Semco, Brazil's most famous company, which has made its name by standing the conventional corporate rulebook on its head.

Semco doesn't have a mission statement, its own rulebook or any written policies. It doesn't have an organisation chart, a human resources department or even, these days, a headquarters.

Article continues
Subordinates choose their managers, decide how much they are paid and when they work. Meetings are voluntary, and two seats at board meetings are open to the first employees who turn up. Salaries are made public, and so is all the company's financial information.

Six months is the farthest ahead the group ever looks. Its units each half-year decide how many people they require for the next period. Naturally it doesn't plan which businesses to enter. Instead it 'rambles' into new areas by trial, error and argument. Its current portfolio is an odd mixture of machinery, property, professional services and fledgling hi-tech spin-offs. That's right, Semco is the epitome of managerial incorrectness, a conglomerate.

Sounds like a recipe for chaos, eh? Yet Semco has surfed Brazil's rough economic and political currents with panache, often growing at between 30 and 40 per cent a year. It turns over $160 million, up from $4m when Semler joined the family business two decades ago, and it employs 3,000. $100,000 invested in this barmy firm 20 years ago would now be worth $5m.

Semler argues, with figures to support him, that the model has nothing more to prove. He'd rather have his savings in Semco, he says flatly, than in conventional blue chip giants with all their apparatus of planning and control.

Paradoxically, the reason for Semco's sustainability is the same one that makes conventional managers reject it: no one is in control, including Semler. The original catalyst and still the major shareholder, he doesn't have a current title. The company recently held a party to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the last time he made any decision at all.

The company at present does have a permanent chief executive, and Semler hasn't always approved of what he does. Yet this is a cause for satisfaction, since the greater the independence and the less attention paid to any one individual, the more vigorous the system. It's Catch-22 in reverse: the decision is wrong but that proves the company's independence and sustainability, so it's right.

Semler is more worried that the company's uniqueness will be diluted if it grows too fast or makes too much money. Preserving the culture is paramount, so the company puts much effort into putting off the New Agers who want to join Semco because they imagine it's a workers' paradise. Even though there are hammocks in the garden for an afternoon nap and employees can be as flexible as they like (hence the book's title), Semler insists: 'It's absolutely not about letting it all hang out.'

In fact, the underlying message of this infectious and brave book is the system's rigour. Semco is the test case of what happens when a company actually puts the annual report-speak of 'trust' and 'delegation' into practice. The corollary of democracy and treating people as adults - the only real rules at Semco - is huge peer pressure and self-discipline.

'It's as free market as we can make it. People bring their talents and we rely on their self-interest to use the company to develop themselves in any way they see fit,' declares Semler. 'In return, they must have the self-discipline to perform.'

There's no hiding place for those that don't, even if performance is judged in non-standard ways. 'To survive here you have to get on someone's list of people they need for the next six months, and you can't do that by playing political games.' In some respects - perhaps this is Semler's history as a Sixties rock 'n' roller showing through? - he frets that the emphasis on self-discipline has gone too far: 'I have an added 30 per cent faith in human nature,' he says ruefully. (The other way of putting it, of course, is that the workers are harder-headed than he is.) The model only works, he argues with passion, if dissent, argument and diversity remain real, rather than just being paid lip-service.

It's by letting the process play itself out that the result becomes robust, even if, as in many cases, the result is to do nothing, or is mistaken. That, too, is an essential part of the process.

But conventional control attitudes are deeply programmed, and resistance to pursuing democratic logic, particularly at the bottom, is vicious. Even now, laments Semler, 'we're only 50 or 60 per cent where we'd like to be'. Hence the constant attempts to unsettle even Semco's unusual order - the latest of which is the disbandment of the firm's headquarters in favour of satellite 'airport lounge' offices dotted around Sao Paulo. Not only do people not have fixed desks, they don't even have fixed offices.

'They thought it was about location. In fact, it's about eliminating control,' says Semler happily. 'If you don't even know where people are, you can't possibly keep an eye on them. All that's left to judge on is performance.'

This illustrates just how hard it is to abandon the technological tools of control and why Semler accepts with resignation that the Semco model is unlikely to catch on: 'It does nothing for the 90-day fix.' Besides, it's Semco's competitive advantage.

But concern with undoing the brainwashing that makes workplace democracy such hard work has pushed him to turn his attention to education. He has set up a school for children aged four and five, which starts from the same democratic principles as the company's. Early exposure to the school's methods caused uproar among parents - but now results are beginning to show through and they are, in their way, as remarkable as Semco's.

Semler offered Semco the chance to be associated with the school. But people declined, a decision he regrets but accepts with good grace. Trust the process, he says. Every decision reinforces it. There's no turning back now.

作者: dqsvictor 时间: 2007-12-24 21:25

比较理想的状态呀。

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