tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91156446058333841382024-03-13T21:16:17.380+01:00X de XavierUnos y ceros. A veces, en el orden adecuado.-Xvhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12954073038736466058noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9115644605833384138.post-89592134440660546292008-09-14T21:47:00.003+01:002008-09-14T22:10:51.868+01:00Links are cool. Links are bad.Some days I spend way too much time in my computer...<br /><img style="border: medium solid blue; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T679aggANRU/SM15DpyfjlI/AAAAAAAAAIE/wKOcCsvSlP8/s320/links00.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245982244620701266" border="0" /><br /><img style="border: medium solid blue; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T679aggANRU/SM15Dnl6mrI/AAAAAAAAAIM/AsQsEKcpUO8/s320/links02.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245982244031077042" border="0" /><br /><img style="border: medium solid blue; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T679aggANRU/SM15D8TKOpI/AAAAAAAAAIU/8ZymoY8MMJA/s320/links05.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245982249589553810" border="0" /><br /><img style="border: medium solid blue; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T679aggANRU/SM15D3GAE2I/AAAAAAAAAIc/RUuKBGjf7Do/s320/links08.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245982248192185186" border="0" /><br /><img style="border: medium solid blue; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T679aggANRU/SM15D-siB5I/AAAAAAAAAIk/CoGrTAzHfXE/s320/links11.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245982250232842130" border="0" /><br /><img style="border: medium solid blue; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T679aggANRU/SM15hItf5BI/AAAAAAAAAIs/kCiCD_-IA_E/s320/links14.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245982751137457170" border="0" /><br /><img style="border: medium solid blue; margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T679aggANRU/SM15hH7VyNI/AAAAAAAAAI0/dxBOf1Piq0c/s320/links17.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245982750927079634" border="0" /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Drawn with <a href="http://deku.gbadev.org/program.html">Animatee</a> in my <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/70148893@N00/2735417013/">lovely Nintendo DS</a>.</span>-Xvhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12954073038736466058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9115644605833384138.post-274204052286106252008-05-22T00:35:00.004+01:002008-05-22T00:46:00.725+01:00Why are we able to answer emails on sunday......but unable to go to the movies on Monday afternoons?<br /><br />Why can't we take the kids to wok if we can take work home?<br /><br />Those are very good questions asked by <a href="http://xdexavier.blogspot.com/2008/05/back-in-ussr.html">Ricardo Semler in his <span style="font-style:italic;">The Seven-Day Weekend</span></a>.-Xvhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12954073038736466058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9115644605833384138.post-52998532998684628032008-05-01T19:39:00.003+01:002008-05-01T23:58:31.161+01:00Back in the U.S.S.R.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Soviet_man"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Kolkhoznitsa.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">East Germany may no longer exist, but now we have companies featuring central planning by Troikas, mission statements crafted by apparatchiks, quinquennial planning, no right to choose leaders in companies, no democracy in the workplace, a clear distinction between intelligentsia and peasants (top CEOs make 512 times the median salary and enjoy company 'dachas', jets and limos), and 'state' monitoring (time clocks, dress codes, drug-screening, 'employee assistance' plans, e-mail monitoring, smoking and personal conduct rules, as family-life audits).</span> <span style="font-size:78%;">[1]</span></blockquote>This is not a quote from a labor union leader, an anti-globalization essay or a witty comedian. It's from a proponent of democracy and transparency in the workplace that happens to be <span style="font-style: italic;">a business owner putting his money where his unconventional mouth is</span> <span style="font-size:78%;">[2]</span>: Ricardo Semler, in <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_N4CAAAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:Ricardo+inauthor:Semler&ei=5JaLR9XAJJrUswOrpKHQBQ">The Seven-Day Weekend</a> <span style="font-size:78%;">[3]</span>.<br /><br />I loved this book, even if its writing style is not that great. Its main point is showing how Semco, Semler's company is run. When Semler and Clovis Bojikian started changing the traditional command and control ways,<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote>"We wanted to demonstrate that the workplace could be a place of satisfaction, not of suffering. Work should be a pleasure, not an obligation. But this wasn’t just some humanitarian thesis. We believed that people working with pleasure could be much more productive.”</blockquote></span>To Semler, <span style="font-style: italic;">it's not about values: it's about competitive advantage</span>.<br /><br />Hurry up and read his book, or take a peek into <a href="http://semco.locaweb.com.br/en/content.asp?content=3">The Semco Way</a> by reading a <a href="http://www.cantanchorus.com/doco/semler3.pdf">1989 article by Semler in the Harvard Business Review</a> or a <a href="http://semco.locaweb.com.br/en/artigos/docs/76.pdf">2006 article about him in Strategy+Business</a>. I'm sure that it will give you lots of food for thought.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />[1] Soviet/Corpororate parallels quote: It's a funny coincidence that I read this during <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day">International Workers' Day</a><br />[2] <span style="font-style: italic;">Unconventional mouth</span> quote: by Geoffrey Colvin in a <a href="http://semco.locaweb.com.br/en/artigos/docs/77.pdf">Fortune article</a><br />[3] Even if Semler is a best selling author, I never heard about him until I recently read <a href="http://jaybyjayfresh.com/2008/01/14/governing-the-twitterfolk-shel-israel-disappears-up-own-asshole/">a post by Jon Lister</a>. Thanks so much, Jon!<br /></span>-Xvhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12954073038736466058noreply@blogger.com0