Changing Traditional Styles through Creativity - Essay Example

April 19th, 2007 Lilibeth Northern Paper for Bradford College Business & Creative Sector Order # 163108 Managing Creativity Managing Creativity In this sunny but cold morning, I decided to take a look at a business article related with management. I picked up one related with a Brazilian businessman that some years ago and by reforming the traditional employee management philosophy, had helped to unleash the human potential of his employees by giving them the freedom of being resourceful and creative. As a consequence of this freedom of thinking his companies have been increasing their profits at a rate of about 40 % a year and his annual revenue moved up from $35 million to $212 million from 1994-2003 (Semler, 2003). This business article brought to my mind some memories related with my childhood and art, and I am pleased to mention that when interviewed by CNN (2004) Semler himself pointed out that Management is an art. Changing Traditional Styles Through Creativity I have been always a lover of art and thanks to my older sister I grew up by going as often as we both could go to the High Art Museum of Santiago, Chile. She loved to take me to this rather small museum if we compare it with some of the European ones, but loaded with some extraordinary paintings that till today are some of the best to me. We were then delighted with the works of such talented Masters as Pedro Lira (1845-1912), Camilo Mori (1896-1973) and Alberto Valenzuela Llanos (1869-1925), among so many other ones. Lately, in 1994, the Museum showed for the first time an exhibition that made us to be breathless with the perfection of paintings from Claudio Bravo (born in 1936). I was living in Spain at that date, but she told to me about this great exhibition and I immediately took interest by knowing more about him through the newspapers and related literature I was able to get. I must admit that I have always consider myself with a much more classic and conservative tendency than modern on art feelings. It is still somehow difficult to me to understand the so called beauty of avant-garde or ultramodern paintings with abstract figures that symbolize whatever the viewer wants to see. However, my husband had reason when telling me about the great artist I could found on the non-classic but surrealist Master Salvador Dali (1904-1989). Even though I lived for 3 years in Spain, I never really took the trip to Figueras, to his Museum and natal city in the province of Gerona. But today I live in USA and knowing how famous Dali has always been and loving the idea of a small trip from our home in Greenville (SC) to the Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg (Fla), we prepared ourselves for this adventure on art. It was then and there, three years ago when my eyes were opened to his work. I was tremendously impressed with his paintings. I truly never expected I was going to fall in love with them. They are not the classic style I am always looking for. The subject of his paintings is not obvious to my eyes and senses as the ones I know what I am seeing at the first sight of them for the first time. In contrast, they are very liberal figures and shapes, colors, symbols, several paintings and ideas in one canvas, but mixed in a way that captivated my full attention till today. Since then I cannot ignore how splendid this eccentric artist was. He was eager for the new, not only for the subjects that he picked up to paint, but for the new ways of presenting them to the world. Always using different tools, from brushes to everything else that could allow him to accomplish what he had on mind at the time he was painting (Descharnes and Neret, 1998). Creativity and Business At this point you might be wondering what this brief talk about my personal feelings on art has to do with business. But believe me, it is related. According to Wikipedia, the free web encyclopedia, creativity by definition is a mental process that involves the generation of new beliefs, ideas, observations, or new associations between existing ones. And Dali is just one good example that immediately comes to my mind when thinking of a man which his unleashed creativity was so powerful that he innovated the school of art by adding a new style that was unknown till then. Creativity is the idea of having the freedom to elaborate new thoughts, and to be able to make them work for our own balance on life. And this concept is applicable to every aspect of our lives, not only for artists but to businessmen as well. Today, when at breakfast time I got this reading about Ricardo Semler I couldn't help it; Dali was one of the first names that came to my mind when making parallels between successful businessmen and well known masters of art. Dali is considered today a mastermind of art; Semler is considered a creative thinker, a futurist and visionary of business management philosophy. Both had excelled on their lives by being ingenious and creative on their respective works and personal beliefs. Semler has changed the way business management worked and he continues giving us an example of how the equilibrium on life is the best way to set free all the potential human beings have. Business and Management Art is a way of expressing our soul and feelings to the world. Art is how the Master frees his spirit to the canvas, music, poetry or dance by abandoning himself to the experience of being one with his elements, the brushes, the instruments. On the other hand, business is the approach to manage and organize people towards a goal, usually to generate profits (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). If we make the effort of joining both definitions, art and business, we get people motivated in an effective way by generating revenue without losing equilibrium in their lives. In this case, we are talking about art, even though business is considered a social discipline. Through this new concept, Semler has transformed managing from an act of directing and controlling a group of people in a way of letting the same group of people generate new ideas or concepts towards a personal goal that will return benefits to the individuals as well as to the company where they work. Then we are thinking of 'Managing Creativity' as the purpose of the leadership in our business. This is the concept that this young manager applies as a leadership on his hugely profitable companies, where each employee background and experiences are important for the growing of their own personal lives as well as for the prosperity of the company. A place where the workers use their common sense and wisdom to face the daily challenges of the production, a place where the workers make more decisions on their own by using their discretion and good judgment. Managing Creativity: Antagonizing the traditional managing rules Ricardo Semler is a Brazilian leadership who has revolutionized the way of managing, by introducing rules that completely antagonize with the traditional managing ones where the hierarchy of the company is strict, almost impenetrable and highly focused on the company profits. The new ideas that he brought up to his company in 1982 when he took over his father marine company engine were so powerful and simple, that their combination made him few years later be one of the top businessmen in the world. His ideas about having lack of restrictions for working out the thoughts and inventiveness at work place as well as in our personal lives are as simple as extraordinarily good for everybody, at any time and place in the business world. He absolutely encourages freedom of thinking and creativity. Philosophy of Managing Creativity After few years of working very hard and in the traditional business way, Ricardo Semler realized that his life was going nowhere. He realized that the better he felt with himself, his own inner self, his family and the things he enjoyed from life, the more he did for his company. He was wise enough to change not only his way of facing the daily work by balancing his work and personal life, but the one of each employee he had. Semler introduced then a new concept to his company, Semco. He renewed and improved his business by emphasizing the freedom of thinking and creativity as a way of being more connected with the place of work, and some of the new principles he put into practice are the following (Moss, 2003; Semler, 1993) : Production quotas The employers set their own production quotas by freely deciding when and where to work. There is no need to clock from 8-5 pm and to have the 40 hours per week for being paid or recognized as efficient. The important concept is to be as productive as possible, and if for this the employee needs a day off at the beach and on the middle of the week, he can take it. Nobody will tell him not to do it. At the end of the week, or the month, the individual productivity will speak by itself. Job description Each member of the staff knows the sort of job that he is doing and how much he is collaborating with the company. There is no need for a label with his name at the desk. In this way the employee feels motivated for taking decisions and he feels free for carrying them out for the benefit of the company. The salary As the employee hints at what and how much he works, he also suggests its salary. The more he contributes to the company, the more he gets from it. The production quotas that he sets are related to his efficiency, not to the extra hours that he can be paid. As a result, he is rewarded for his work, not for the amount of hours he works per week or month. And if by chance he sets up his salary too high, and the co-workers don't see him as a keeper for the next 6 months, that means he is in trouble. On the other hand, there are several reasons for which on temporary basis somebody needs more time out from work and cannot get everything done as it is necessary. In that case, the employee decides to work less hours and this % of time left is offer to other member of the staff to cover the work that needs to be done. There are always ways for fixing the temporary situation of somebody in the need of more or less hours, and there is always a way to compensate with more or less salary this perfect adjustment on productivity and balance on life of the employee. A decentralized office system The idea is to have more time for thinking, for avoiding to be worried about the traffic congestion at rush hours, or the increasing number of e-mails that might be waiting to be read meantime they drive from or to the restaurant or to some meeting or errand. Moreover, it allows more time for quality time with their families and friends. However, not everybody can work at home. Sometimes not even few hours is possible to concentrate at home, because of the noise caused by children playing too loud or the vacuuming that needs to be done. But for those managers there are always satellite offices that allow them to get closer to the meeting points or to be more efficient with their time. This freedom of working at home is other way to show the flexibility that Semco has, allowing and encouraging people to do some work at home when it enhances their competence, productivity, and concentration by doing so. This freedom of working at home is the essence of letting the managers to truly show their talents, skills, and commitment to the company instead of the rigid number of hours most of the companies request as the hours/day/month remuneration rate. Transparency Each employee knows how much is reasonable to be paid according to his work, as each one sets the salary they are willing to work for. To a greater extent, the finance books are open to everybody, including those who work by doing the cleaning are trained for their labor reunions on learning how the system works. Taking away unnecessary privileges There are no extra expenses on hiring secretaries or receptionists. Everybody does their own photocopies, printings, faxes and phone calls. There is no need for fancy meeting rooms, or executive dinning rooms and parking lot privileges. Everybody is considered important and everyone is treated in the same way. No managers monitoring the work There is no repressive authority and keep under control management practices. As everybody knows what and how much they are doing, and each one has their own yield expectations, there is no need for supervisors monitoring the work done. Semler's philosophy states that the more freedom the employee gets the more versatile, innovative, devoted and trustworthy to the company he turns out to be. No strict dress code From formal white button shirts to turtlenecks, from suits to denim is accepted. No dress code is a must as it is in most of the working places around the world. The employees have the opportunity to dress comfortable and being able to easily reach for any mechanical problem if necessary, without being concerned of spoiling their expensive suits. They can work with their legs up in the desk if by any chance they get involved in a long phone call and they just get comfortable meantime they get into business ideas or closing a future contact. New ideas and projects Each employee is encouraged to talk about their own ideas and projects. If the ideas look fine the company will provide with everything necessary to make them come true. Flexibility No rules but open mind always. The existing rules at Semco are few, and the flexibility of dress codes or the freedom on choosing which hotel to stay, rental cars or restaurant choices are just examples of this lack of regulations. It means to be able to give up control in order to cope with changes. It means to allow people to make decisions on their own, by using their good judgment and criteria. The basic message of The Survival Manual that Semler has at Semco is: use your common sense. Profit sharing plan There is a negotiation between Semco and the employees about the basic percentage distributed from the profit sharing plan. Mandatory vacation time Everybody is greatly encouraged to take their vacation time with enough time to rest, and with no leaving a phone number where to be reach. The goal is to have everybody as self-sufficient and independent on their jobs. Clean up unnecessary files Instead of having large archives filled with cards and information about people or companies nobody could remember, Semco switched to support workforce. The main idea is to eliminate unnecessary piles of paperwork, and one afternoon per semester it shuts down for a couple of hours and everybody cleans up his place of work Trading places The lack of diplomas or formal education is not a limitation, and the same policy applies to the degrees or resumes the employees have. The goal is to give the opportunity to everyone for working their talents, knowledge and ideas. If somebody needs help for pursuing some studies, he gets it. If somebody as a mechanical engineer desires to be sales manager at Semco he has the opportunity to try it. Job rotation Semco policy considers that the job rotation bring numerous benefits to the company, and some of them are: it gives confidence to people to learn new skills, it provides people a much broader picture of the company, it generates additional opportunities for those who might at that time be trapped in the middle of the pyramid, it makes available more than one specialist in many fields. This is supported by Coffman and Gonzalez-Molina (2002) who give an outline about how erroneously many businesses in the world assume that anyone can stand out at any job, provided they receive enough training while attempting to fix their Achilles' heel weaknesses. Unfortunately, this training is usually concentrated to a selection of standardized information. The truth is that knowledge plus the natural talents and skills is what really counts for making a better employee at any particular job. In other words, the combination of finding the role on which the natural aptitudes can be put to their best use to work together with the knowledge, skills and experience is what brings the best performance of an employee. This job rotation is also considered at the time the young employees do not really know which is the best job that fits for them. Semco has a program called "Lost in Space", and it gives the opportunity to move from one activity to other one inside the company for a period of a year. This program helps them to decide which their interests are and to seek for the opening in the area that better suits their talents and passion for work. It is also a way to break the routine of working and to open the mind of existing employees to new techniques or ideas, by the simple contact of being working close to other generation of thoughts. Rush hour MBA This is an innovative program that through lectures, seminars and talks allows the opportunity to have a very productive time in the rush hour of 6 pm every Monday of the month. In addition, it avoids the traffic congestion and all the stress that to drive at rush hour implies. Even though the way back home needs to be done anyway, it is done later, when the road is more expeditious and with new ideas for thinking about during the driving time. Success, Business and Creativity Through these pages I hope I made a point about how important is the way management at work affects the way employees reveal their full potential at the workplace and at their personal lives. Under the right supervision and through time, the best of each employee will be manifested on a very successful business, if given the conditions of creativity and freedom of thinking they need for it. This clever way of management is what Semco has done through the "Managing Creativity" concept they have implemented in the last two decades, creating one of the most unusual, remarkable and lucrative workplaces on earth. REFERENCES CNN International. 2004. World Business, Global Office: Ricardo Semler, Semco SA. In: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/business/06/29/Semler.profile Coffman, C. & Gonzalez-Molina, G. 2002. Follow This Path. Copyright 2002 by The Gallup Organization. Warner Books, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. 284 pages. Descharnes, R & Neret, G. 1998. Dali. Copyright 1998 Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1989 Salvador Dali / DEMART PRO ARTE B. V., Ivonne Halsman for the illustration on p.136. TASHEN. Printed in South Korea. 224 pages. Moss, Stephen. 2003. "Idleness is good". The Guardian. In: http://www.guardian.co.uk./g2/story/0,3604,938216,00.html Semler, Ricardo. 1993. Maverick: The success story behind the world's most unusual workplace. Copyright 1993 by Tableturn. Inc. Published by Warner Books, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. 335 pages. Semler Ricardo. 2004. The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the way work works. Copyright Ricardo Semler, 2003, 2004. First American Edition Published in 2004 by Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Printed in the United States of America. 246 pages. Wikipedia. Business definition. Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. In: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business Read More