MABINI COLLEGES, INC.

CBME2 – STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY, 2nd Semester SY 2021-2022
CESAR P. ABASOLO, MBA – Asst. Professor I

Ricardo Semler Case

The business strategy and philosophy of Ricardo Semler.

SEMCO is a Multinational Company owned by Mr. Antonio Curt Semler who

desired to accomplish more. He desired to establish a family business and leave a
lasting legacy. He decided to handover the business company to his son Ricardo
Semler. His young son Ricardo, on the other hand, was not a natural heir. He
struggled in school and preferred strumming his guitar to reading his books. Ricardo
Semler first showed signs of entrepreneurial prowess in high school, when he was
assigned to run the school's snack shop. He increased sales and invested them in the
stock market by changing the existing price structure, extending operating hours, and
renegotiating supplier contracts. Ricardo has the ability of what we call leadership at
a young age in the sense that he can manage entrepreneurial things and make a
decisions.

A few years have passed Ricardo Semler decided to give the family business a
shot, his father let the entire operation of SEMCO to him. Ricardo's overall
management philosophy are, leadership is important. When the boss is hunched
over his guitar or feeding the ducks with his kids during an important client's visit, or
hiking in the African mountains during a shareholders' meeting, or off somewhere
else that is nowhere near the office, nowhere near his employees, not thinking about
contracts, investments, strategic planning, or the future of global business, he is often
most effective. In a nutshell, it's gone. Ricardo immediately fired 60% of the top
management hired by his father. He then appointed some young managers to
modernize the company's business practices to increase its efficiency and
productivity. They were generating a wide variety of products and then had managed
to win some significant contracts and new business/acquisitions. They had nearly
tripled the number of plants and nearly doubled the workforce when they began
implementing the new structures and financing decisions. He altered numerous
internal policies and rules. He also altered the operating procedures and made
extensive use of statistical data in order to carry out more effective planning and
operations. As Ricardo Semler run the operation of SEMCO he is the one who makes
all of the important decisions. He don't take team members' suggestions into account.
All of the working methods and processes are dictated by him. He work in a highly
structured environment.

Until this happen during a lunch break, at the annual corporate retreat
someone crept into the conference room and drew a cartoonish Grim Reaper holding
a scythe and surrounded by bleeding stick figures on one of the flip charts. Ricardo's
autocratic (authoritarian) leadership style was having a negative impact on his
employees and the company, the message was clear. He immediately convened a
group meeting to clear the air, but it also revealed two very different philosophical
camps, those who believed the controlling culture was necessary to get people to do
their jobs, and those who found Semco's environment oppressive.

The business strategies that Mr. Ricardo wants and implement to transform the
company is not effective to the employees and it will also impact the production and
employees’ response accordance to how they well treated specially, they are the
ones who make sales and promote the business through positive customer
interactions. Although everything was going well in a very organized manner, it was
becoming clear that overall effectiveness was far lower than it really was. There were
strict controls and long working hours, which caused employees to suffer and become
dissatisfied with their jobs. This both decreased their level of performance and
increased their output. Employees are an organization's most valuable asset. Their
skills, knowledge, and experience can't be replaced. But the way of authoritarian
leadership style is not in favour for the workers and staff. This leadership style is
demonstrated when a leader dictates policies and procedures, determines what goals
must be met, and directs and controls all activities without any effective participation.
The managers have the ultimate authority to impose their decisions on employees,
and no employee has the authority to challenge senior management's decisions.
When employees require strict supervision and are not creative, this leadership style
is useful. This style is also advantageous when management must make decisions
without the need for employee input. This type of leadership, on the other hand, may
demotivate employees and result in high staff turnover. The transformation of
management practices, corporate and organizational culture gives a lot of challenges
to him (Ricardo Semler), the beliefs and behaviors of an employees and management
interact and handle outside business transactions. His decision - making changed the
company's performance. At the start, he took a very strict approach to leadership, but
he soon realized that this approach caused severe stress among the employees, as
well as causing him to suffer from long working hours and serious life-threatening
diseases.

In 1984 the Semco Makeover, Ricardo Semler together with the new human
resource director Mr. Clovis Bojikian, took a very democratic and flexible approach
in leading his company, and managed to stop working on weekends and left the
office at 7:00. Ricardo and Clovis changed a number of things in the company,
including dress codes, allowing employees to come to work in both casual and formal
attire. They also used the signboards to replace security guards. Internal controls, in
Ricardo's opinion, were a sign of distrust. Moving an organization or business forward
entails relinquishing control and empowering employees to manage themselves. It
entails implicitly trusting workers, sharing knowledge and information, encouraging
dissent, and celebrating real democracy. However, few things are more crucial for
middle managers, executives, shareholders, and owners to accept the severely
challenged in this implementations. Changes in democratic management are more
effective, Ricardo had to change the organization's initial name and also, to fit the
new profile, he start replacing the organisational workforce, which required
administrators with typically management styles perspectives.
 The New Semco Model Has Arrived, Ricardo was the first one to admit that his
success at Semco was a bit of a fluke. Finding the right fit between job and person is
an important part of the philosophy. According to him "We rarely fire anyone,"
explaining why Semco wants people to move around a lot within the company. This is
not motivated by altruism. It's entirely self-serving. Our productivity will be low unless
we connect with a worker and he finds something he is passionate about." Ricardo
attempted to rebuild Semco so that it could govern itself based on three values:
employee participation, profit sharing, and open information systems.

(Number of words: 1007)

Do you think this model or business strategy can work to any organization

An authoritarian or autocratic leadership is one in which there is a clear line

between the leader and his followers, and all decisions are made solely by the leader,
with no input or creativity from their employees or team members. Policies and
processes are completely under the control of leaders. The leader is always
immediately monitoring the members of the group. While Democratic leadership
pertains to a leadership style in which the leader shares decision-making authority
and other responsibilities with the group's members. It enables the leader to
capitalize on their employees' individual strengths, abilities, skills, and talent while
also reaping the benefits of the group's collective power. The broad difference is
strategy for business focuses on what we should do to compete, whereas corporate
strategy focuses on which firms we should compete in. Business strategy, in
particular, it involves to how a company intends to accomplish its goals within a
specific industry. To put it another way, perhaps one Splash Corporation's corporate
strategy would identify its objectives in the nutraceuticals industry. The strategy
include considerations such as how it competes with multinational corporations.

The business strategy use by Mr. Ricardo Semler in transforming the

Multinational Company named SEMCO are autocratic leadership and democratic
leadership. The question is, is it applicable to any organization? Does it can work?
Well Yes, but it depends upon the situation of a business or a company specifically to
a leader and subordinates, Management is a broad field with various challenges and
altercations based on the different factors. Regardless of the fact that democratic
leadership is indeed the most expected and preferred kind of administration,
authoritarian and laissez-faire administrations are becoming more popular (where it
makes few decisions and delegate authority to their employees to choose appropriate
workplace solutions) can also be used depending on the circumstances and certain
internal and external forces. All types of leadership or management practices and
styles differ depending on the type of leader and an individual's natural personality.
There are many managers, owners and leaders of service businesses know and has
awareness that strategic management differs from that of manufacturing businesses,
meaning the entire process of selecting and implementing a corporate strategy.
Theory may emphasize certain leadership approach while ignoring other critical
organizational management strategies, although almost all types of leadership
approaches suit different personalities, environments, and conditions. Even so, a
combination of leadership styles may be required to achieve the desired corporate
growth or to meet specific organizational demands such as efficiency and
productivity, employee discipline and attitude, or even rigid market forces. Several
reasons impact adjustments and alterations of particular leadership styles, resulting
in a diversity of administrative techniques. Large corporations require business
strategies to assist their different components and depts in achieving their specific
goals. As a result of the fact that each department may have different objectives and,
in result, require a different strategy for its products or services. As an effective role
model being a leader who demonstrate the desired behavior from the entire team.
Business owners who display angry outbursts, make snap decisions without
considering potential outcome for the staff, demonstrate uncaring attitudes, show
favouritism for some employees, hide information from the employees, procrastinate
on major decisions, tolerate lack of responsibility, exemplify inconsistencies in client
service, or fail to listen to their employees will be less respected by the team and are
less likely to achieve their goals.
 Strategic leadership pertains to a manager's ability to express a strategic
vision for the organization or a subset of the organization, as well as to inspire and
persuade others to share that vision. It is also known as the application of strategy in
employee management. It is the way to influence organizational members and
implement organizational change. Strategic leaders define organizational structure,
resource allocation, and strategic vision. Business strategy leadership's main
objective is strategic productivity. Another goal of strategic leadership is to create an
environment in which employees predicted the needs of the organization in the
context of their own job. Strategic leaders inspire and motivate employees to pursue
their own ideas within an organization. Strategic leaders make substantial use of the
reward and incentive system to encourage productive and quality employees to
perform significantly better for their organization. In this case, as a leader, owner and
as a big part of an organization, they are responsible for establishing the
management structure, job duties, decision-making power, and processes that enable
team members to create high-quality work. So the most consider in decision making
for a business strategy are the one who is in higher position because more of them
knows and aware of their subordinates practices, beliefs and behaviour that is why it
is important to have a communication to your employees not just being leader and
employees but also as a family. Good Leaders who surround themselves with the
right people in the right jobs are more likely to succeed. This makes it easier to lead
rather than manage. With their management level team, a small business owner can
start a process of assigning responsibilities and empowerment. As a leader, you can
concentrate on your company's strategic vision. When you can delegate tasks for
those that are best suited for that particular skill set, you create an effective learning
environment and growth. (Number of words: 878)

If you'll have a business, what is your business strategy and philosophy?

A business is a company or organization that engages in advertising,

manufacturing, or professional activities. It is any activity that involves the sale of goods
and services in order to generate a profit from customers. Businesses can be either for-
profit or non-profit organizations. Limited companies, sole proprietorships, corporations,
and acquisition are all examples of business structures. Nowadays, business world can
sum up in just a one word, Change. It is a change and not just any change, but dramatic
changes. Businesses today are discovering that in order to maintain profitability and
able to compete, they must be more responsive to customer needs than ever before. It
is the business environment why business is a change. Innovation, competitors,
marketing, regulatory requirements, consumer needs, and money are all part of it.
Companies must be able to predict, react, and adapt to changes in these components
of the business environment, just as seasons and weather do.

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do," Steve Jobs famously said
about being passionate about one's work. In connection, for me it depends on your love
and dedication to your passion in responsible way. It is how you love your work, your
people, and how you discipline yourself. When you follow your dream, you sometimes
open the door for others to follow theirs. You motivate and encourage them to do more
and to be better as the same time to have a successful business growth.

A business strategy focuses on key principles that outline how a company will
achieve the objectives and goals. Not every business gets it right the first time. All
organizations have natural weaknesses for a variety of reasons. A business strategy
attempts to address these weaknesses so that companies do not trip and suffer undue
consequences. Strategies consider these potential risks and aid in the development of
solutions to overcome them. If I will have a business, I will conduct a strategic
management process as business strategy following the sequence of POLSC, first
Planning where it includes deciding on your strategic position, take priority your goals,
create a strategic plan, Implement and monitor and last is Examine and revise the plan.
Next is the Organizing which is the way to coordinate and allocating a firm's assets to
the execution of its plans Organizing requires developing a framework for the firm's
people, roles, departments, and activities. Third is leading where the process of
developing and implementing a strategy, effective leaders perform the same tasks.
They create a strategic vision and mission, establish aims and outcomes, implement
them, and then assess performance. Additionally the Staffing strategy where it is a
human resource strategy intended to ensure that a company or organization has the
workforce it requires to meet both current and future business objectives. Basically,
strategic staffing ensures that you have the appropriate number of permanent and
temporary staff, workers or employees to ensure your company's smooth operation.
Lastly, Consulting kind of management consulting in which company or organization
leaders hire outside consultants to provide guidance and advice on specific strategic
business challenges or problems. All this strategy or what we called strategic
management process are very important in the business, but also always remember
that innovation is a daydream without active implementation, and implementation
without a strategic view of innovation is a nightmare. Honestly there are a lot of strategy
and process that can we use to help us in achieve the goals of our business and some
are effective to others company and organization but some are not. Many business and
organization tried their best to conduct an effective strategy that will perfectly fit to their
business and even though they failed they are flexible and adaptable to conduct another
strategy that will surely fit the business. The more we fail the more we learn.

There are many things that we must consider in applying business strategy and
when implementing it, because we are not just focusing on the efficiency and
productivity of our company but also we think of our employees and customers or
consumers’ needs, expectations and wants to satisfy. This help us to identify what will
be the best for our business and company and trends and opportunities in the future.
Because it is a guide to a well-defined business strategy, it will provide insight into how
your company is performing internally. Also, how you compare to your competitors and
what you'll do to stay relevant in the future. As we learn how to manage our business
we make our business get close to the people, make them to love our product or
services.

Experiences always teach us to be strong and to have patience in fulfilling the

business goals because there’s a lot of opportunities that are waiting and chances that
we may encounter. This will serve as our life satisfaction, according to Harriet Tubman
“always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to
reach for the stars to change the world.” (Number of words: 834 )