This is Semler's second book, and it reads a lot like a management strategy guide containing principles with anecdotes from Semco that illustrate those principles compared to Maverick, which read like a story of the highs and lows of the organizational experiments conducted at Semco.

Semler's main points thus far are:
1. Ask "why" several times when making a decision
Asking "why" ensures that you make a decision for the right reasons, and are not doing so because "that's the way it has always been done," or because the highest-ranking official in the room thinks that proceeding with Decision X is the right way to go.

2. Respect and trust your employees as if they are adults
Respecting and trusting your employees is a no-brainer. There are too many companies around that treat their employees as if they were children, not trusting them to make decisions about products, expenses, performance goals, dress, or about a host of other subjects. Setting expectations are a self-fulfilling prophecy--expect someone to act a certain way, and MUCH more often than not, they will. Also, allowing your employees a voice and a hand in the process by which your organization is run and by which your strategy is determing will benefit the company in the long run, for two reasons. First, they will be able to shape their environment to maximize productivity (instead of decrees coming down from on high from someone in HR) and will feel ownership in building your products. And second, there is a dearth of research that shows that any one person has had continuingly brilliant vision and strategy to implement that vision.

3. Be a hard-ass about hitting performance numbers
Hitting performance numbers is important at Semco because nothing else matters--work time, location, dress, etc. They play tight with the numbers because they play loose with everything else. That's not to say that employees are fired for missing numbers, but there had better be good reasons for why those numbers were missed.

So far, it has been as enlightening as Semler's first book, and I look forward to reading much more on the subject of organizational behavior and structure.