Management report. It should critically evaluate the leadership and Essay

Management report. It should critically evaluate the leadership and management processes within your own organisation or one th - Essay Example 468-469, 1998). This paper is an attempt to look at the leadership dynamics of a well-known leader Ricardo Semler, who is currently the CEO of Brazilian firm Semco SA. Ricardo Semler and his company are widely known for its principles of industrial and corporate democracy, participative management, innovative business management and corporate re-engineering. Born in 1959 at Sao Paula, Semler is one of biggest names of the corporate, business and academic arena of Brazil and all over the world. Semler has repeatedly been nominated as the top 100 global business leaders. In addition, â€Å"he was named as the Latin American Businessmen of the year in 1990 by the TIME magazine† (Antonakis, Cianciolo & Sternberg, pp. 41-49, 2004). Semler has is occasional lecturers to seminars and has received immense media attention. ‘World Economic Forum’ has also nominated Semler as Leaders of Tomorrow. He is the author of many business articles in Harvard Business Review and he ha s also written best sellers such as â€Å"The Seven Day Weekend: Changing the Way it Works† and â€Å"Turning Your Own Table† (Hamel & Breen, pp. 258-259, 2007). This paper would explore his business styles, leadership dynamics; compare the information available on him with the well-known leadership literature to draw certain conclusions and recommendations. Organisational Context Antonio Kurt Semler, an Austrian Born immigrant in Sao Paulo, established his little company with the name of â€Å"Semler & Company† in 1952 to sell his patented vegetable oil centrifuge (Patching, pp. 86-87, 2007). However, as the company grew, it diversified into the business of Mixer & Agitator and other supply materials for shipping and construction. However, Antonio Semler strongly believed in the autocratic and controlled style of leadership (Antonakis et. al, pp. 41-49, 2004). At that time, Semler was a tall and hierarchal organisation with many layers of management. Ricardo wa s the only son of the Semler family and therefore, Antonio wanted, right from the started, his son to take over the company after him (Sashkin & Sashkin, pp. 379-386, 2003). However, Semler was not interested in the family business. Despite the fact that he went to Harvard Business School for business studies, his interest was to join a Rock band, like the ones that were famous in the 1970s (Semler, pp. 3-6, 1989). However, on the insistence of his father, he took the position of Assistant to the Board of Directors. Even though, the job title suggests that young Semler had quite some authority over the business, the same was not true. He had disagreements over most of the issues with the other senior board of directors most of which were the â€Å"golf buddies† of his father (Tjosvold & Tjosvold, pp. 487-489, 1995). This frustration and disappointment grew so much that young Semler finally threatened his father to leave the company. As mentioned earlier that it was the dream of his father to see his son taking over the company. Therefore, after a few weeks, Antonio Semler took a decision, which surprised everyone. He himself went on a vacation to Europe, resigned from his post, and transferred all the power to his son, leaving Ricardo Semler as the incharge of the company (Semler, pp. 3-6, 1989). After taking over the company, he fired over 75 percent of the top and middle managers of the company and took the company into a new strategic direction of acquisitions and